But the national sleep debt is another story, according to Cornell University psychologist and sleep expert James Maas. We've become a nation of walking zombies. At any given time, the American sleep debt totals nearly half a billion hours or close to two hours every night for the average American. Any one of those 'sleep-debt zombies' can kill you or hurt in other ways.
Adequate sleep is just as important as nutrition and exercise.
REM sleep occurs about every 90 minutes, and the periods of REM sleep get longer as the night progresses. If you're a six-hour sleeper, you're missing that last, important opportunity to repair and to prepare for the coming day. For his part, a well-rested Maas steers alertly through a world of zombies. In return for the knowledge, Cornell students act as survey subjects for Maas. He found only 1 percent of students were in an alert state all day long.