Researchers create a blood-based marker to identify severe sleep deprivation

A group of researchers has created a blood test that may identify sleep deprivation, which is defined as not getting enough sleep for a whole day.

Experts from Monash University in Australia and the University of Birmingham in the UK claim that in safety-critical circumstances, a person suffering from this degree of sleep deprivation is more likely to suffer a major injury or pass away.

The research, which was published in the journal Science Advances, found that the biomarker had a 99.2 percent accuracy rate in determining whether or not people had been awake for 24 hours.

According to Clare Anderson, a professor of sleep and circadian science at the University of Birmingham in the UK, “this is a really exciting discovery for sleep scientists, and could be transformative to the future management of health and safety relating to insufficient sleep.”

Approximately 20% of traffic accidents globally are attributed to sleep deprivation, therefore researchers are hopeful that this finding might guide the development of future tests that can easily and rapidly detect sleep deprived drivers.

According to Anderson, “there is strong evidence that driving after being awake for 24 hours is associated with unsafe driving; however, driving after getting less than five hours of sleep is at least comparable to exceeding the Australian legal limit of alcohol consumption in terms of performance.”

Additional validation is needed, however, the test could be perfect for forensic applications in the future.

This biomarker for sleep deprivation is predicated on being up for at least 24 hours, however it can identify as little as 18 hours.