Sleep deprivation
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Sleep deprivation is an overall lack of the necessary amount of sleep. A person can be deprived of sleep by their own body and mind, insomnia, or actively deprived by another individual. Sleep deprivation is sometimes used as an instrument of torture.
Lack of sleep may also result in irritability, blurred vision, slurred speech, memory lapses, overall confusion, hallucinations, nausea, psychosis, and eventually death.
Total sleep deprivation in rats leads to death in 14-16 days. Death occurs later if only REM or only NREM sleep are eliminated. (In humans, it's virtually impossible to die from sleep deprivation since fractions of a second long microsleep sessions develop. Several months of no sleep at all, as in fatal familial insomnia, causes death but other symptoms such as dementia and permanent personality changes develop within the first few weeks.)
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See also
- Sleep debt
- Randy Gardner - World record holder for the longest time a human being has ever stayed awake.
- Polyphasic sleepde:Schlafentzug