Now imagine that you’ve been driving for 10 hours non-stop, and that you didn’t really have a good night’s sleep before that either. What do you think may happen while you’re at the wheel? That’s right: microsleep can be dangerous.

Now, microsleep sounds as if it’s just an extra short nap that you take when your body says, “I’m done with this.” But what really happens is that you’re both asleep and awake at the same time. You can sit in front of your computer or at a meeting and stare at some random point on the wall opposite you without even being aware of it. That is, until you wake yourself up or someone does this favor for you.

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