$\text{Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to}$
$\text{indicate the correct answer to each of the Questions from 1 to 10.}$
We live in a world of tired, sleep deprived people. In his book Counting Sheep, Paul
Martin - a behavioural biologist - describes a society which is just too busy to sleep and which
does not give sleeping the importance it deserves. Modern society has invented reasons not
to sleep. We are now a 24/7 society where shops and services must be available all hours. We
spend longer hours at work than we used to, and more time getting to work.
Mobile phones and email allow us to stay in touch round the clock and late-night TV
and the Internet tempt us away from our beds. When we need more time for work or pleasure,
the easy solution is to sleep less. The average adult sleeps only 6.2 hours a night during the
week, whereas research shows that most people need eight or even eight and a half to feel at
their best. Nowadays, many people have got used to sleeping less than they need and they
live in an almost permanent state of'sleep debt'.
Until the invention of the electric light in 1879 our daily cycle of sleep used to depend
on the hours of daylight. People would get up with the sun and go to bed at nightfall. But
nowadays our hours of sleep are mainly determined by our working hours (or our social life)
and most people are woken up artificially by an alarm clock. During the day caffeine, the
world's most popular drug, helps to keep us awake. 75% of the world's population habitually
consume caffeine, which up to a point masks the symptoms of sleep deprivation.
What does a chronic lack of sleep do to us? As well as making us irritable and unhappy
as humans, it also reduces our motivation and ability to work. This has serious Implications
for society in general. Doctors, for example, are often chronically sleep deprived, especially
when they are on'night call', and may got less than three hours'sleep. Lack of sleep can
seriously impair their mood, judgment, and ability to take decisions. Tired engineers, in the
early hours of the morning, made a series of mistakes with catastrophic results. On our roads
and motorways lack of sleep kills thousands of people every year. Tests show that a tired
driver can be just as dangerous as a drunken driver. However, driving when drunk is against
the law but driving when exhausted isn't As Paul Martin says, it is very ironic that we admire
people who function on very little sleep instead of criticizing them for being irresponsible,
Our world would be a much safer, happier place if everyone, whatever their job, slept eight
hours a night