So you didn't get enough sleep last night? No big deal, you say. Well, actually, it is a big deal. Sleep deprivation can have severe short-term and long-term consequences. Recent scientific studies show the problem with sleep deprivation.
According to one study, sleep-deprived people can act as dumb as someone that's drunk. In one study, researchers split volunteers into three groups. For 14 days one group slept for eight hours a night, the second group slept for six hours a night, and the third group slept just four hours a night. Cognitive tests after the two-week period showed that the people who'd gotten six hours of sleep a night showed similar reaction time as people whose blood alcohol content was at 0.1 percent—in other words, legally drunk people.
But there's another problem: Sleep-deprived people don't know they're sleep-deprived. Experts suggest that one to three percent of the population can survive on just a few hours of sleep each night. The trouble is that it's easy to think we're among these lucky few. After a long period of sleep deprivation, you stop realizing how tired you are. Studies show that such short-term sleep deprivation leads to a foggy brain, worsened vision, impaired driving, and trouble remembering. Long-term effects include obesity, insulin resistance, and heart disease. But most Americans who suffer from chronic sleep deprivation don't know it and therefore won't admit it.
Possible Preaching Angles: (1) Rest; Busyness; Sabbath. (2) Denial; Sinful nature—the sleep-deprived who are in denial about their deprivation act like us when we're deep in sin—we don't know it and we won't admit it.
