When you wake up in the morning, you feel dazed and confused, and when you are sleeping, you are suddenly woken up and become unresponsive. Sleep inertia can sometimes make people act out of control and even get into trouble As a working family, do you get up early and leave the house, leaving your phone and wallet at home? As an emergency room doctor, do you have a moment of confusion when you are suddenly woken up in the middle of the night to face an emergency patient? This happens because sleep inertia is actually at work. Sleep inertia, also known as sleep inertia, is a temporary state of drowsiness and insufficient wakefulness that occurs after waking up from sleep. In this seemingly awake state, people’s alertness is reduced, the clarity of consciousness is not high, attention has not been fully focused, the human senses, memory, thinking are not fully mobilized state. Nowadays, many office workers are busy with their work during the day and like to watch TV or surf the Internet to relax after work, so they often stay up late and are mostly woken up by the alarm clock in the morning. This makes it easy to have obvious sleep inertia. Some people who have serious sleep inertia will have problems during this period, such as stepping off the floor and spraining their ankles, or missing something in their hands. These small things may seem insignificant, but for some special professionals, there is a great danger hidden. For example, an emergency doctor or nurse on duty may make a mistake if he or she wakes up in the night and immediately works to prescribe medication, perform surgery or execute medical orders for a patient. Another example is that the shift drivers of long-distance vehicles, firefighters on standby, front-line soldiers, they are special people who need to wake up from sleep immediately to switch to work, if this conversion is not fast and sleep inertia occurs, it will also pose a great safety hazard, the slightest mistake may result in an accident. An air accident in 2010 is a hard lesson. According to reports, in 2010, an air express company flew a plane from Dubai to a city in southern India with more than a hundred passengers on board. When the plane was about to reach the end of the line, the captain, who was napping in the cockpit, woke up and took over the operation of the plane. At this point, the co-pilot repeatedly reminded him that the angle of landing was not right and asked him to pull the plane up and try again. But the last recorded sound in the cockpit was the co-pilot’s scream that there was no more runway ahead of them. The plane eventually ran off the runway and exploded into flames. An investigation revealed that the cause of the accident was that this captain was suffering from sleep inertia at the time. Sleep inertia is related to the depth and duration of sleep Sleep inertia can last anywhere from a few minutes to two hours, or even longer in some people. Sleep inertia also varies for each person. Generally speaking, sleep inertia is related to the following factors. First is the depth of sleep in the pre-wake period. If the sleep before waking is light, then sleep inertia is generally lighter after waking. Conversely, if a person is awakened from a deep sleep, then his sleep inertia is going to be more severe. Sleep inertia is also related to the duration of previous sleep. If sleep duration is adequate, then sleep inertia is generally briefer upon awakening. If a person is sleep deprived, then he is more likely to experience sleep inertia after being awakened. Also, it is related to circadian rhythms. Sleep inertia after being awakened at night is heavier than the state of awakening after daytime sleep. Some studies claim that sleep inertia affects cognitive function, and the more complex the cognitive function, the greater the effect. Therefore, for people who need complex operations, make sure you let yourself be awake enough before you go on duty, or perform some simple tasks to warm up before you are fully awake. There are tricks to relieve sleep inertia If there is sleep inertia, you can try the following methods to relieve it. First of all, before you get up, taking a nap with your eyes closed for a few minutes, or sitting for a while after waking up before getting up, is very beneficial to relieve sleep inertia. There are also measures that can be taken to reduce sleep inertia after getting up. For example, enhancing external environmental stimulation, including increasing the amount of light in the environment. Some studies have shown that bright light has a positive effect on reducing sleep inertia. Some trials that have studied sleep inertia in pilots have used interventions that use bright light of varying brightness and darkness. Sound in the environment also has a role in reducing sleep inertia. Turning on the TV and radio can also be invigorating if you don’t feel mentally alert after getting up. By moving your body more, you can also increase the information stimulation to your brain and reduce sleep inertia. Although washing your face and brushing your teeth after getting up is for hygiene reasons, it also has a role in reducing sleep inertia. Some people like to take a shower early in the morning, which can also reduce sleep inertia. In addition, you can also drink some excitatory drinks, such as coffee and tea. It has been confirmed by research that all these have a role in reducing sleep inertia. Sleep inertia is not only seen in the morning, if the nap time is too long, there will also be although awake but the reaction is still a little sluggish feeling. Therefore, it is recommended that the lunch break time in about a quarter of an hour is appropriate, preferably not more than half an hour. Sleep inertia is most obvious just after waking up, and will gradually reduce with time. Therefore, within a few minutes after waking up, do not make major decisions or perform complex tasks.