It should come as no surprise, but sleep researchers have determined that not getting enough sleep can have a serious impact on the ability to perform tasks.
"Our team decided to look at how sleep might affect complex visual search tasks, because they are common in safety-sensitive activities, such as air-traffic control, baggage screening and monitoring power plant operations," the study's senior author, Jeanne Duffy, an associate neuroscientist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.