Previewing Sleepless in America

A couple weeks ago, National Geographic Channel highlighted a task we all do and many of us take for granted when their aired their mini-series for eat. When it comes to eating, it seems like most of us do too much or too little of it. Tonight, the channel takes another deep dive in another task many of us think as mundane but everyone does it. But unlike eating, there are not two extremes, it seems like Americans only getting not enough sleep each night.

Sleepless in America takes a look at why forty percent of adults (and seventy percent of teenagers) are considered sleep deprived, some times with fatal consequences. It is theorized that not enough sleep led to the Exxon Valdez tanker cash, the Three Mile Island Meltdown, and most recently the Walmart driver who rammed Tracy Morgan's limo leaving one passenger dead and the comic in the hospital in a month and who is still undergoing treatment for traumatic brain injury.

Morgan is not the only one, the two hour special starts out with the story of a family torn apart by a doctor coming home from a lengthy rotation and veered across four lanes hitting a family of six head on with half not surviving and the other half spending months and years worth of rehabilitation. Drowsiness is not the only result of not getting enough sleep and it is also believe to cause mental health problems, as well as diabetes, heart disease, and an increase risk of cancer and Alzheimer's.

If you are in the forty percent, or have a school aged kid, Sleepless in America may be the most important special you watch on television this year. Over the course of two hours, it will give you warning signs that you are not getting enough sleep and more importantly how to get a good night's sleep if you are one of the millions of Americans dealing with insomnia.

Sleepless in America premieres tonight at 8:00 on the National Geographic Channel.