If Im only awake for a few seconds how can that mess up my sleep?
Because we need not only a certain amount of sleep during any 24-hour period (an amount that varies from person to person), but also continuity of sleep. This fact has become clear over the past 30 years or so of sleep research. For example, 200 10-second awakenings might leave you just as tired as one 2000-second awakening, although, as pointed out above, you would remember the latter but none of the former.
