The Awakening Futures Sound Positive! Commentary On The Efficacy For Audio To Counteract Sleep Inertia

The feeling of grogginess and lack of alertness one may experience upon, and post-awakening is a physiological phenomenon termed 'sleep inertia' [1-3]. Compared to wholly awake participants, individuals experiencing sleep inertia show decrements in performance which can be reflected in significantly poorer accuracy, memory, complex decision making, and slower reaction time (RT). The duration and severity of sleep inertia is variable and can be influenced by factors such as sleep stage at awakening, sleep deprivation, time of day, as well as a variety of reactive countermeasures [4] like caffeine [5-7] or lighting treatments [8-10]. Research suggests that a typical bout of sleep inertia may last for approximately 30 minutes, however, durations of up to 4 hours have also been reported [1,11-15]. Indeed, in many scenarios sleep inertia represents a multidimensional performance decrement that has the proven potential to negatively impact real-world situations and is frequently highlighted as a research field requiring improved understanding to allay such occurrences [16-23]. For example, in the 2010 Air India Express air crash disaster that resulted in 158 fatalities, it has been shown that the captain of the aircraft had recently woken from an in-flight nap prior to the accident. The poor decisions made by the pilot in the time-frame from awakening to crashing were attributed to the disaster and have been linked to the effects of sleep inertia [23]. Tragedies such as this highlight the importance of maintaining situational awareness in demanding and critical settings. In everyday scenarios, the impacts of sleep inertia cannot be underestimated. It is estimated that on a global economic scale the financial losses as a result of sleep deprivation (a known factor to enhance sleep inertia) amount to hundreds of billions of dollars annually [24,25]. Thus, countermeasure treatments for the reduction of sleep inertia are warranted to ensure safety among citizens in public space, domestic, and employment settings.