Most weekdays, it’s tough to see sleep specialist Dr. Adam Moscovitch between 2 and 2:30 p.m.

That’s when he takes his nap.

He literally hangs a Do Not Disturb sign on the door, turns off the telephone and kicks back in his La-Z-Boy recliner. With an airline-style mask covering his eyes and a soothing relaxation tape on his Walkman, he drifts off for a restful snooze.

“The power nap makes it possible for me to function with a schedule that can sometimes be quite crazy,” says Moscovitch, medical director of the Canadian Sleep Institute in Calgary and an internationally recognized expert on sleep and fatigue disorders.

Dr. Adam Moscovitch practises what he preaches.

It’s something more of us would benefit from as we continue to stretch our work lives in a 24/7 global economy.

In a recent interview with Business Edge, a refreshed Moscovitch (he’d just awakened) was armed with stacks of data that suggest we all should be paying attention to our sleep – or lack of it.

Two particular pieces of research were eye-openers.

The first, a 1999 study from Australia, compared fatigue and alcohol consumption. The report measured the performance skills of individuals in such areas as reaction time, the ability to learn and the ability to remember.

For example, research showed that a group of individuals who had been awake for 17 hours displayed the same performance skills as someone with a blood alcohol reading of .05 per cent. After 20 hours, individuals behaved at a .08 level (80 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood, the legal limit in Canada) and at 24 hours they reached a whopping .10, says Moscovitch.

“Companies would not allow an individual who they know is intoxicated to get behind the wheel of their truck or get on the production line,” he says.

“But we have no hesitation . . . of putting people who might not have slept for 24 or 36 hours to work. In fact it’s encouraged. But we ignore the impact it can have on their performance.”

A second area of research shows that our ability to function is not the same on a 24-hour basis. Most of us have down times during the 24-hour cycle when we are most vulnerable to drowsiness and sleep. Those times occur in the middle of the night (our most vulnerable time) and again in the early afternoon.

Several studies show that in various industries most mistakes and accidents occur in the middle of the night, says Moscovitch. He also cites U.S. traffic accident statistics that detail a sharp rise in accidents in the wee hours of the night – even though there are significantly fewer drivers – and the level of accidents rising again in the early afternoon.

“It’s only quite recently that the issues of sleepiness and fatigue are being recognized as a significant illness,” says Moscovitch. “We are only now starting to appreciate the toll it can have on individuals and on corporate safety, productivity, performance, and recently (legal issues related to) liability.”

The evidence is clear, says Moscovitch. We are a sleep-deprived society. According to a 2001 U.S. Gallup poll, 40 per cent of workers admitted to being sleepy on the job, and believed their work suffered as well.

Even more frightening, 50 per cent of adults surveyed admitted to being drowsy while driving and 20 per cent said they had actually fallen asleep at the wheel.

Research, if not our own intuition, tells us that we typically need between six and eight hours of sleep a night to function properly, but Moscovitch cites a Statistics Canada report showing more than 50 per cent of Canadians have cut back on sleep. Additionally, one in four Canadians said they had significant problems, lasting at least several weeks, with their sleep patterns.

“Sleep still seems to be one of the things people try to cut corners on,” says Moscovitch. “Even the language we use in North America supports it: If you snooze you lose.”

The poll also noted that 10 per cent of North Americans are believed to be in a chronic state of sleep debt. Individually, sleep debt manifests itself in several ways: From fatigue and sleepiness to memory and concentration problems, inattention, increased irritability and depression; to impaired decision-making, slowed reaction time, and increased likelihood of accidents and errors.

Sleep debt – think of a person who needs seven hours of sleep a night and only gets five hours on a continuing basis – also has health consequences, including problems with headaches, high blood pressure and a depleted immune system.

Most people don’t realize how sleepy they are, especially if they are active and stimulated, says Moscovitch. But when you remove the stimulation, exhaustion can hit suddenly.

The consequences might be as common as falling asleep on the couch watching TV, even though the person is interested in the show; to more dangerous scenarios such as falling asleep at the wheel on the way home from working late.

“You are much more prone to what we call micro-sleep episodes. This is literally when your brain, from three to five seconds, goes from the awake state into the twilight state of Stage 1 of sleep.

“We hear it continuously from drivers. It means you can drive the length of a football field not being in control.”

At his clinic, Moscovitch constantly works with patients who can’t sleep because of stress or depression caused by their jobs and their day-to-day lifestyle. While insomnia is a major problem that can be caused by physical reasons, stress is often the common denominator.

“Individuals are practically exhausted, but when they put their head on the pillow, their mind begins racing at 200 miles per hour,” says Moscovitch. “We’ve all been there, on a short-term basis. But there are chronic people who take hours to get to sleep, and never get into deep stages.”

The problem isn’t going to disappear, he adds. Statistics show workplace stress and depression is rising. Technology has increased our ability to work anywhere and across international time zones. And more industries are working around the clock in shift-work situations, or certainly in non-traditional 9-to-5 scenarios.

However, there is some good news. Fatigue management is making its way into the corporate culture, Moscovitch says. Whether for liability issues or as an enlightened good human resources practice, companies are implementing programs promoting awareness, training and education. Some have officially scheduled power naps for night-shift workers.

Moscovitch, who typically works a 12-hour day, says that the power nap is an essential part of his day.

But he chuckles when asked how business leaders react to his suggestion that they should consider doing the same, or making naps available for staff.

“You have to see the reaction of corporate executives,” he says, noting anyone with an office has put their head on their desk at some time.

“We’ve all been there. But every day executives attend meetings, struggle to stay awake and can barely remember what they heard,” he says. “And there are the doctors who continually see patients without stopping.

“It makes sense to book a 20- to 30-minute nap that rejuvenates you and gives you a boost instead of dragging it (work) out over an extended period of time with an impact on your functioning.”

The research shows the need to pay better attention to our sleep.

Consider it a wake-up call.

Web watch:
www.csisleep.com