What a difference a night makes! Sleep deprivation

I have been getting exhausted, and no amount of sleep seemed to help. I changed some medicines last week, and finally caught up on my "sleep debt." Whew! When I don't get enough good sleep, it's hard to focus, think clearly, and maintain some emotional balance. I looked on the Web this morning for information about sleep disorders. ... If you're interested, here are some sites.


Sleep Deprivation
http://www.sleep-deprivation.com/html/effects.php3 link
This is a for-profit organization, but they are careful about labeling links to their pharmaceutical corporate partners. It's a very clear, informational site that appears to be carefully vetted and up-to-date. It turns out there are a lot of things that can cause sleep deprivation, from disorders to medicine to simple things like taking caffeine or alcohol too late in the day.

The Sleep Well
http://www.stanford.edu/~dement/ Link
This is a central link to an award-winning suite of web pages from Stanford. Some of the pages are old, but the information appears to be very good. They also link out to a for-profit partner site that appears to be a spin-off of Dr. Dement (wonderful name!), a Stanford professor who has a regular class for undergraduates on sleep.

Stanford Sleep Disorders Center
http://med.stanford.edu/school/psychiatry/coe/ link
This actually connects to the Sleep Well, above, but is much more current. I still think going to the Sleep Well is worthwhile because it has a lot of explanatory material. This site is more keyed to marketing the various departments in the Sleep Center at Stanford.

Franklin Institute Sleep & the Human Brain
http://www.fi.edu/brain/sleep.htm link
A nice, accessible and more current website discussing sleep and its effects on the brain. Plus, it has the adorable sleeping kitty with which I illustrated this essay.