Human beings need to sleep - sleep is clearly not a matter of choice. The loss of even one night's sleep can lead to extreme short-term sleepiness, while continued sleep disruption can lead to chronic sleepiness. Yet, today's "24 hour society" pressures us into sacrificing sleep without account for the negative effects on our health and abilities. In addition, as much as 20% of the general population suffers to some degree from sleep disorders which may cause extreme tiredness, loss of concentration and a pronounced inability to function normally, putting it in the high-risk group for causing traffic and work accidents.

Sleepiness reduces reaction time, vigilance, alertness and concentration. When we don't sleep enough or well enough, attention, information processing speed and decision-making quality are impaired. Sleep deprivation and the related phenomena of excessive fatigue, prolonged inattention, hypovigilance and stress are among the key causes of serious industrial accidents, including most nuclear accidents (Chernobyl, Three-mile Island) and other large scale accidents (such as the Bhopal chemical disaster).

In addition, about 40% of fatal accidents on US highways are fatigue-related, whereas sleep-related accidents account annually for as many as 240,000 motor-vehicle accidents. UK statistics show that 25% of motor accidents are associated with driver fatigue. According to NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System, approximately 21% of the aviation incidents are fatigue-related.

These alarming numbers provide the motivation for SENSATION. But sleep time also represents an unused window of opportunity to monitor our health. During sleep we are in a predictable and controllable environment - an opportunity SENSATION seeks to exploit.