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"  Another one of life&amp;#039;s great mysteries solved! Why you can&amp;#039;t remember what day of the week it is when you wake up, or hit the alarm clock within five inches of the snooze button on the first three tries. A recent study found that, even after eight hours of sound sleep, people have more impaired thinking and memory skills than they do after being deprived of sleep for 24 hours.  The study, published this month in the Journal of the American Medical Association, represents the first time anyone has quantified the effects of sleep inertia\u2014that groggy period experienced directly after awakening. The researchers required test subjects to get eight hours of sleep per night for a full month (ouch!), and then for six consecutive mornings tested their short-term memory, counting skills and cognitive ability. &amp;quot;For a short period, at least,&amp;quot; says lead author Kenneth Wright, an assistant professor at the University of Colorado - Boulder, &amp;quot;the effects of sleep inertia may be as bad as or worse than being legally drunk.&amp;quot;  The most severe effects generally disappeared within ten minutes, but some were detectable for up to two hours. This could have serious implications for medical professionals, such as resident doctors, who are hastily awakened to respond to a crisis, says Wright. The performance of emergency medical technicians, firefighters and commercial truck drivers could also be compromised, at least temporarily. As to the rest of us? Let&amp;#039;s just say the coffee pot should be the heaviest piece of machinery used after rolling out of bed. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/a371/2160087/>