The 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska, the Challenger space shuttle disaster and the Chernobyl nuclear accident have all been attributed to human errors in which sleep-deprivation played a role.
Before Thomas Edison's invention of the light bulb, people slept an average of 10 hours a night; today Americans average 6.9 hours of sleep on weeknights and 7.5 hours per night on weekends (2002 Sleep in America poll).
Narcolepsy is a chronic neurological disorder that involves your body's nervous system. People with narcolepsy experience sudden "sleep attacks" that can occur at any time. Narcolepsy is believed to affect approximately 293,000 people in the US (Narcolepsy Network).
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration conservatively estimates that 100,000 police-reported crashes are caused by drowsy drivers each year. (That is about 1.5% of all crashes.) These crashes result in more than 1,500 fatalities and 71,000 injuries and result in an estimated $12.5 billion in diminished productivity and property loss (Knipling and Wang, 1996).
Some studies suggest women need up to an hour's extra sleep a night compared to men, and not getting it may be one reason women are much more susceptible to depression than men.