How Does Sleep Deprivation Affect Productivity?

Sleep deprivation is an issue even for career professionals, and besides students they are the second largest demographic suffering from it. It affects everyone from athletes on the field to those who sit in office chairs for hours a day. 
On the athletic side, athletes often suffer from sleep deprivation due to demanding practice schedules, and frequent traveling. It can be difficult for professional athletes to find time to get adequate sleep, and the consequences on the field are myriad. Sleep deprivation can cause impaired motor skills, slowed reaction speed, and increased stress levels. Sleep deprivation also amplifies the effects of any physical exhaustion they’re already feeling, causing them to tire out far quicker.
Office workers suffer from similar symptoms too, and tend to fall asleep more often at work or, at the very least, lose focus easier. Due to this reduced productivity, sleep deprivation in the workplace results in a loss of roughly 11.3 days of work a year on average. This is a huge loss in productivity, and has consequences not only for the worker but also for the company which employs them. A main cause of this sleep deprivation in the office environment is the increasing connectedness of workers, who are often disturbed late at night or early in the morning by calls. This leads to reduced in-office productivity, which in turn leads to more out-of-office calls, thus perpetuating the cycle of sleep deprivation in the workplace.

Sleep Deprivation negatively impacts your health.

           It's near impossible to go through a day of school without hearing someone say "I'm tired" or "I didn't get enough sleep last night." Unfortunately, this is becoming a trend, with less and less high schoolers managing to get a good night's sleep every night. If sleep deprivation was only a bit of drowsiness in the morning, it wouldn't be an issue, but it can cause a whole slew of negatively health problems that nobody wants to deal with. All of this information have come from the online Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine.

          If you're in high school, chances are you suffer from at least minor sleep deprivation. Only 20% of teenagers actually get a full night sleep, which is considered by health professionals to be 9 hours for teens and young adults. If you're someone who barely manages any more than 7 hours a night, you likely suffer from some of the symptoms of sleep deprivation, symptoms like daytime drowsiness, poor judgement, impaired reaction speeds, and issues concentrating and retaining information. Chronic sleep deprivation can also lead to slowed cognitive development, which is especially problematic to younger people, who's brains are still growing. All of these problems combined pose a threat to your health, and also negatively affect schoolwork.

        Sleep deprivation is especially common among teenagers because one of its main causes is stress. Constantly burdened by hours of homework a night, the necessity to study for tests, and projects across multiple difficult classes, high schoolers  are often suffering from a lot of stress, which in turn leads to sleep deprivation. Lack of sleep itself can result is elevated stress levels, creating a sort of vicious cycle which can be tough to escape from. One of the ways to get rid of sleep deprivation is obviously to try and sleep more, but that can be difficult for high schoolers who have to do homework until late at night and then wake up early in the morning to go to school. Those who suffer from sleep deprivation may also have an underlying condition that can interfere with their healthy sleep, like insomnia or sleep apnea.

Sleep Deprivation and its Economic and Physical Impacts

http://valleysleepcenter.com

• KEY ECONOMIC PRINCIPLES I’M ADDRESSING: Because of scarcity, people choose. All choices have an opportunity cost.
• OVERALL RESEARCH QUESTION: Is sleep deprivation becoming more common, and how does it affect people's ability to work?
• SUB QUESTIONS
• What is causing it to become more common?
• Is it related to increased levels of stress in work/school?
• What are the health impacts of sleep deprivation, both in the long term and the short-term?
• How does it affect productivity?
• Should school schedules be changed to reduce sleep deprivation among students?
• RESOURCES FOR RESEARCH:
• DATABASES: Gale National Geographic Virtual Library, Gale Rosen's Teen Health and Wellness.