Page 2 - Micro Sleep News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

With the national institutes of health, 40% of american adults of sleep deprived. and the consequences that result from too little sleep can be catastrophic as the natgeo doc points out. experts believe sleep deprivation may have played a role in the exxon valdez oil spill, the staten island ferry crash and the nuclear meltdown and the derailing of a chicago train. according to the national traffic safety board, the conductor admitted to falling asleep. >> it's far from ideal for someone to be operating heavy machinery or driving a car or bus when they are sleep deprived. >> reporter: it's dri...

Tape, seemingly fast asleep. many victims of something called micro-sleep. episodes of sleep as brief as a few seconds. your eyes could be open but your brain is asleep. >> micro-sleep is a brief transition from wakefulness to sleep. it can last up to maybe 20 to 30 seconds. >> reporter: tuesday night i found out firsthand when investigating the effect of sleep deprivation on driving. staying awake 30 hours and wired up behind the wheel on a test track. i thought i had done okay but my brain scan i had dozed off 22 times without realizing it. those jagged lines signaling sleep. >> you had doze...

About fatigue, zoning out and micro sleep. what's it mean for the rest of us behind the wheel? here's abc's ron claiborne. >> reporter: the investigation into this week's deadly train derailment is focusing on the train's engineer. sources telling abc news, rockefeller admitted to dozing off right before the crash at 82 miles an hour. his lawyer says rockefeller felt well rested earlier that morning and he had suck come succumb to highway hypnosis, a trans-like state associated with the boredom of distance driving. >> people tell you that they have been hypnotized by the highway are in fact sl...

Dangers of sleep deprivation. >> as we are hearing more about the crash we're learning more about fatigue, zoning out and micro sleep. what's it mean for the rest of us behind the wheel? here's abc's ron claiborne. >> reporter: the investigation into this week's deadly train derailment is focusing on the train's engineer. sources telling abc news, rockefeller admitted to dozing off right before the crash at 82 miles an hour. his lawyer says rockefeller felt well rested earlier that morning and he had suck come succumb to highway hypnosis, a trans-like state associated with the boredom of dista...

Steven herrad, a transportation expert, joins us now. good morning. >> carol, thanks for inviting me. >> so let's talk about this highway hypnosis. it's been described as a condition where a person can operate a vehicle for great distances despite not remembering having done so. i can see people kind of rolling their eyes at that one. is it real? is that a real condition? >> this is real. this is real. and it's a real problem in railroad transportation. we have a different name for it in the railroad industry. it's called autumn behavior sin drone 37 you get so accustomed to certain automated ...