Chronic Sleep Deprivation Risk Calculator

1. Enter your usual sleep. Actual sleep on work or school nights and on days off, and how many work days you have.
2. Say how long it has been like this. A few nights is different from months.
3. Answer the four daytime questions, whether you have ever felt drowsy while driving and, if you like, how many hours you have been awake right now.

To add up sleep debt night by night instead, use the sleep debt calculator.

Sleep deprivation means not getting enough sleep. When it goes on for weeks or months, it becomes chronic. Sleep deficiency is the broader idea: not enough sleep, sleep at the wrong time of day, poor-quality sleep, or a sleep disorder that disrupts sleep.

Lost sleep adds up into a sleep debt. Losing 2 hours a night gives a 14-hour debt after a week. Naps can give a short-term boost, but they do not supply everything night-time sleep does, so you cannot really make up for lost sleep that way.

Sleep deficiency can affect work, school, driving and social life, and can make you feel frustrated, cranky or worried; see how sleep affects your emotions.

It is a self-check, not a medical test. Like a short sleep deprivation quiz, it asks about your usual sleep, how long the pattern has lasted and a few daytime signs, then turns your answers into a plain result.

What It Can Tell You

• Your weekly average sleep and sleep debt against the lower end of the recommended range
• Whether a shortfall looks short-term or long-term
• How many common daytime signs of sleep loss you have, and whether your hours awake make driving risky now

What It Cannot Tell You

• How well you sleep: it cannot measure sleep stages, breathing or awakenings
• Whether you have a sleep disorder such as sleep apnea or insomnia
• A clinical sleepiness score: it is not a validated questionnaire and uses no items from any licensed sleepiness scale

If the result worries you, take it to a doctor as a starting point for the conversation.

It finds your weekly average sleep, compares it with your need, and combines that with how long the pattern has lasted and your daytime signs.

Need is 7 hours for adults and 8 for teens, the lower end of the recommended ranges. The time thresholds are our own plain rules.

The optional hours-awake field adds a driving check. The Sleep Foundation cites research in which 18 hours awake affected reaction time and hand-eye coordination about as much as a blood alcohol content of 0.05%, and 24 hours awake roughly equalled 0.10%. The NHLBI says sleep deficiency harms driving ability as much as, or more than, being drunk. At 18 hours or more the result flags drowsy-driving risk.

The long weekend lie-ins are themselves a sign: sleeping more on days off can mean you are not getting enough during the week, and it can upset your body clock.

Limited Time For Sleep

Caregivers and people working long hours or more than one job.

Schedules That Fight The Body Clock

Shift workers, first responders, teens with early school starts and people who travel for work.

Lifestyle

Not leaving enough time for sleep, medicines to stay awake, and alcohol or drug misuse.

Health Problems

Stress, anxiety, sleep disorders and medicines that interfere with sleep.

An earlier bedtime by 20 to 30 minutes on work nights, kept every night, is usually the simplest way out of a chronic pattern. The sleep calculator by age shows how much sleep you need.

• People who rely on weekends to catch up.
• Parents, carers and people with long or multiple jobs.
• Teens and parents of teens with early school starts.
• Anyone tired despite long nights, who may need a check for a sleep disorder.

Counting Time In Bed As Sleep

Enter the hours you actually sleep.

Thinking You Have Adapted

Feeling used to short sleep does not mean the effects have gone.

Relying On Caffeine

It masks sleepiness without paying back the debt.

Ignoring Tiredness Despite Long Nights

If you sleep 8 hours or more and still wake unrefreshed, talk to a doctor; the sleep apnea risk calculator checks one common cause.

The calculator uses published sleep needs and simple rules. It cannot measure your sleep or diagnose a sleep disorder.

If you average less than 7 hours a night as an adult, or 8 as a teen, for months and feel sleepy or rely on caffeine in the day.

Any regular shortfall adds up. Losing 2 hours a night is a 14-hour debt after one week.

Extra weekend sleep may help you feel better, but it does not fully make up for lost sleep and can upset your body clock.

Naps give a short-term boost in alertness, but they do not provide all the benefits of night-time sleep.

It depends on how long it has lasted. A steady, earlier bedtime kept every night is the most reliable way to recover.

You may have a sleep disorder such as sleep apnea, or another health problem. Talk to a doctor.

Caregivers, people working long hours or shifts, teens with early school starts, and people with stress or sleep disorders.

This calculator works as a short self-check using your sleep hours, how long the pattern has lasted and four daytime signs. It cannot diagnose a sleep disorder; a doctor can look into that.

Yes, and it is dangerous. If you feel sleepy while driving, pull over to rest and talk to a doctor.

• NHLBI: What are sleep deprivation and deficiency? (definitions, effects on daily life)
• NHLBI: How much sleep is enough (sleep need, sleep debt, catch-up sleep, who is at risk)
• NHLBI: Sleep deprivation health effects (emotions, behaviour, health)
• National Sleep Foundation: How many hours of sleep do you really need? (adults 7 to 9 hours)
• Sleep Foundation: Drowsy driving (18 and 24 hours awake compared with blood alcohol; warning signs)