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Dr. Kim Mulvihill ReportingIf you're up pretty late watching the news, tomorrow morning you too could be a victim of sleep inertia.
Erika: "It's just a glaziness, you feel like you're half asleep and you're trying to get ready for work. It's horrible"
The tired, the bleary-eyed,the disoriented, these are the victims of sleep inertia.
Michelle Gallagher: "Sleep inertia? The falling off the bed when you're asleep?"
No. Sleep inertia is another term for morning grogginess:
Erika: "I suffer from that every day."
Michelle: "Oh, I have that! I hit my alarm 37 times this morning!"
A new study on grogginess is a real wakeup call. New research says it can be dangerous to your health. In fact, morning grogginess impairs your brain as much as if you were legally drunk.
Clete Kushida, MD: "The interesting thing about this particular study was that it showed that after a fairly decent amount of sleep, the subjects were fairly severely impaired."
Researchers in Colorado monitored the sleep of nine healthy volunteers. Each got eight hours of sleep a night for a week. On the last day, upon waking, they got a test, a simple math problem you'd think they could do in their sleep.
Researcher: "What is nine plus three?"
Josh, Volunteer: "Obviously not. It's difficult, surprisingly difficult."
Clete Kushida, MD: "That's sort of like a danger zone "
Dr. Clete Kushida is with the Stanford Sleep Disorders Clinic. He says morning grogginess needs to be taken seriously, especially for those who have to wake up quickly, such as firefighters or soldiers.
Dr. Kushida: "There is that window of vulnerability where they may not be able to perform even simple routine tasks."
We still don't know why we get groggy. The brain could be like an old car that just needs warming up.
Dr. Kushida: "In the case of a person that's suddenly being awakened, it takes a while for that process to warm up."
The most severe effects of morning grogginess may go away within ten minutes, but could last for up to two hours. In fact, researchers found groggy people were far worse off than the sleep deprived.
Erika: "When you're groggy, you still have to function. When you're sleep deprived, you might be able to get to sleep."
And if you have other sleep problems, such as insomnia or sleep apnea, your grogginess can turn into a real nightmare.
