Table of contents:
- What is microsleep?
- What happens when someone experiences microsleep, aka short sleeps?
- Microsleep
- What needs to be done to avoid microsleeps
One of the effects of lack of sleep is feeling tired or drowsy outside of rest periods. When this happens, the brain is still feeling tired but it persists to keep us awake. As a result we can experience microsleep or falling asleep suddenly but only for a very short time.
What is microsleep?
Microsleep not like a regular sleeper, because microsleep is an event that someone loses consciousness or attention due to feeling tired or sleepy. Incident microsleep generally only lasts about one second to two minutes, but this duration can increase if a person actually enters a sleep state. Microsleep often occurs when a person is doing monotonous work such as driving or staring at screens for long periods of time.
Someone who experiences microsleep not realizing if he is asleep or about to enter a state of sleep, this condition can also occur with the eyes open with a blank look. Microsleep also characterized by head movements such as nodding and blinking too often and not being able to remember things that happened one minute earlier. After falling asleep, someone who experiences microsleep often wake up feeling refreshed for a short time.
What happens when someone experiences microsleep, aka short sleeps?
Simply,microsleep occurs because the brain enters a state of rest or sleep while the body is still active in a waking state. This is because the brain cannot survive fatigue and wakefulness. However, not all parts of the brain are asleep.
One study found that symptoms microsleep caused by reduced brain activity in the thalamus which plays a role in continuing the response to the limbs. The thalamus also plays a role in regulating the sleep mechanism so that a decrease in activity can easily make a person fall asleep. On the other hand, the part of the brain that processes stimuli from nerves continues to work and experiences increased activity, causing the parietal lobe of the brain to become the main part to restore consciousness.
Microsleep
Not all drowsiness causes a person to experience it microsleep, however, there are several things that increase your risk of experiencing microsleep:
- Sleep disturbance - Decreased brain performance during the day can be caused by sleep disorders that reduce the quantity and quality of sleep time such as insomnia and sleep apnea.
- Have a sleep debt - In general, less than 6 hours of sleep a night causes you to have sleep debt and this can accumulate before you fall asleep due to the hours of sleep you lacked. A lot of sleep debt will increase the risk of experiencing microsleep anytime.
- Night shift work - Not only does it reduce sleep time, the shift work pattern also triggers a shift in sleep time. Microsleep very likely occurs during the transition time to sleep.
- Treatment - drowsiness is a common side effect of some medications and can worsen drowsiness when you also lack sleep.
What needs to be done to avoid microsleeps
A few things to avoid microsleeps especially when you are or will be driving:
- Microsleeps can be avoided by meeting the need for 7-9 hours of sleep, be careful if you only get less than 6 hours of sleep at night.
- When you feel tired or sleepy, stop immediately and take a nap. If you are driving long distances, take a break every 1-2 hours.
- Consumption of coffee but allow time before driving, coffee generally has an effect 30 minutes after consumption.
- Engage in activities that keep you awake such as chatting while driving or using a form of public transportation that allows you to walk and stand.
