If the warning is not heeded while driving or in any other hazardous situation, the sleep seizure is more often than not fatal. Managing one's individual sleep debt in the high-pressure Stanford University undergraduate environment is a real challenge and often seemingly impossible. It is particularly difficult until a student has experienced the miracle of sustained daytime alertness and peak performance that accompanies a major reduction of sleep indebtedness. At this point, a commitment to healthy sleep will be made, and the risk of a sleep-related accident will decrease. Until that time, the mantra of Sleep and Dreams is intended to keep our promising students alive.
Drowsiness is the signal that sleep onset is seconds away.
Drowsiness is the signal to get off the road. Drowsiness is the signal to save your life. My class, Sleep and Dreams, is filled with a large group of promising young students soon to enter the real world, to engage it and perhaps to make it better. I hope I have increased the likelihood that all my students will live long enough to fulfill their promise. My biggest regret in all this is that Sleep and Dreams at Stanford is an island of awareness in the vast sea of ignorance about sleep that is our American society.