Sleep debt or sleep deficit is the cumulative effect of not getting enough sleep. A large sleep debt may lead to mental and/or physical fatigue.
There are two kinds of sleep debt; partial sleep deprivation and total sleep deprivation. Partial sleep deprivation occurs when a person or a lab animal sleeps too little for many days or weeks. Total sleep deprivation means being kept awake for days or weeks. There is debate in the scientific community over the specifics of sleep debt, and it is not considered to be a disorder.
Read more about Sleep Debt: Scientific Debate, Evaluation, Across Society
Famous quotes containing the words sleep and/or debt:
“And such the trust that still were mine,
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Or though the tempest’s fiery breath
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The germ of immortality!
And calm and peaceful shall I sleep,
Rocked in the cradle of the deep.”
—Emma Hart Willard (1787–1870)
“I have been told, that in some public discourses of mine my reverence for the intellect has made me unjustly cold to the personal relations. But now I almost shrink at the remembrance of such disparaging words. For persons are love’s world, and the coldest philosopher cannot recount the debt of the young soul wandering here in nature to the power of love, without being tempted to unsay, as treasonable to nature, aught derogatory to the social instincts.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)