Regular readers of this blog know that I'm a big advocate of getting enough sleep. That goes for me and everyone else, especially people who must be fully alert to perform their jobs safely.

Recently I was booked to fly from Baltimore to Los Angeles to lecture at a continuing medical education meeting. I arrived at the airport before 6 a.m., in plenty of time for my 7 a.m. flight.

I waited in all the usual lines and made my way to the gate. Only there was I told that my flight had been delayed three hours! This worried me because now my arrival in LA would be at 12:30 p.m. local time and I was scheduled to speak to a large group of doctors at 1:00 p.m.

Naturally, I wondered what could have caused this inconvenient delay on such a fine, clear day. It wasn't a weather delay. It wasn't a maintenance delay. Rather, it was a sleep delay! The incoming flight the night before had come in late due to stormy weather elsewhere in the country. 

Federal Aviation Administration rules require pilots to have a certain minimum time available for sleep before their next flight. I was booked on that next flight, and my pilots' need for healthy sleep would keep my plane on the ground for most of the morning.

I was on the verge of becoming annoyed about this disruption of my travel plans. But how could I mind a schedule change designed to ensure that our pilot and the rest of the crew would get enough sleep to fly safely? After all, I was on my way to give a talk about the importance of getting enough sleep.

Fortunately, the flight arrived a bit ahead of schedule in L.A. and my taxi driver knew how to avoid the freeway traffic jams.

I'm glad there are regulations requiring sufficient time for flight crews to sleep. However, in many other industries sleep deprivation remains a serious and dangerous problem. Guidelines for long-distance truckers are difficult to enforce. People doing shift work usually are on their own to ensure that they allocate enough time for adequate sleep.

As a culture we tend to undervalue sleep and make choices that minimize our time in bed. I agree with the 2006 Institute of Medicine report on sleep loss and sleep disorders, which calls for a widespread public education effort to highlight the dangers of insufficient sleep.