Microsleep is a brief and involuntary episode of sleep that lasts from as little as a fraction of a second to around 30 seconds.
During a microsleep, your brain shuts down momentarily, and causes you to lose awareness, often without you even realizing it.
Microsleep is also a dangerous phenomenon, especially if you're performing tasks, such as operating machinery or driving, as you can also appear awake, with your head nodding and eyes open, but during a microsleep you are not processing information, which leads to accidents.
Causes of microsleep include sleep disorders, shift work, monotonous activities and even severe sleep deprivation.
The key characteristics of microsleeps are that the duration of the microsleeps are usually between 1 to 15 seconds or even a fraction of a second, although microsleeps can last as long as 30 seconds.
Microsleeps can occur with your eyes open and you looking awake, or with heavy eyelids, blank stares and even head nodding.
During the microsleeps, your brain waves slow down, also known as theta waves and your brain then stops processing external information.
Common causes of microsleeps occurring re a result of not getting enough sleep overtime, conditions like narcolepsy or sleep apnea, irregular work hours such as shift work that disrupt your natural sleep patterns and doing monotonous tasks like repetitive work or long drives.
Operating machinery or vehicles is dangerous when you experience microsleeps as it can cause severe accidents or even fatal accidents.
To prevent microsleeps, prioritize getting 7 to 9 hours of sleep and take breaks, when you're drowsy and if you have persistent sleepiness you should see a doctor.