Microsleep can happen anytime, including while engaging in demanding activities such as driving. No single medical condition causes all episodes of microsleep but any medical condition that affects sleep can cause microsleep. Microsleep is a short burst of sleep lasting just a few seconds.
A person cannot control microsleep episodes and some people may even appear to be awake. During this dangerous sleep episodes are a major factor for vehicle accidents and other errors. They occur as the body’s response to sleep deprivation.
when a person is tired, the body reduces alertness and this can lead to, microsleep as shared by Dr. Vikas Doshi, Consultant Physician, Bhailal Amin General Hospital. Microsleep can happen anytime, including while engaging in demanding activities such as driving.
No single medical condition causes all episodes of microsleep but any medical condition that affects sleep can cause microsleep. Some of the risk factors for microsleep include working night shifts, having shiftwork sleep disorder, having sleep apnoea, having severe insomnia, and using drugs that affect sleep, people with narcolepsy, which is a medical condition that disturbs the brain sleep-wake cycle may also experience microsleep episodes. People experiencing microsleep episodes may not notice any obvious symptoms or notice a sudden lapse in attention, suddenly, not remembering what they were doing, confusion during complex tasks such as driving, feeling zoned out, or forgetting the last fe.
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