Sleepless in Arkansas, California, Massachusetts….

As the presidential candidates scramble for delegates on Super Tuesday, they will have to battle more than attack ads and finger pointing from opponents. Sleep deprivation may prove their No. 1 foe as they hop from New York to California and the 21 states in between.

Running on empty has induced more than a few gaffes along the campaign trail.  The New York Times points out several:

"I won't remember Iowans," Mitt Romney told an audience in Altoona, Iowa, before the January 3 primary. His wife, Ann, corrected him - Romney meant to say he would "never forget" Iowans. But the clarification wasn't enough to upset Mike Huckabee's victory.

Huckabee, who reports getting four hours of shuteye each night, offered his "apologies" in December for the killing of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. His campaign later corrected the blunder - he meant to offer his "sympathies."

Senator Barack Obama attributed fatigue for overstating the death toll from tornadoes in Kansas last May. The Illinois senator said 10,000 people died. In fact, 12 died.

And was it fatigue in the wake of her Iowa loss that broke down Senator Hillary Clinton's emotional barriers and caused her to become teary-eyed in a New Hampshire coffee shop?

An undecided voter had asked Clinton how the race had impacted her personally. Eyes welling up, Clinton responded: "I couldn't do it if I just didn't passionately believe it was the right thing to do."  (Showing her soft may have helped. Political commentators widely attributed Clinton's win in the Granite State for her humanizing display of tears.)

Whether sleeplessness helps or hurts the presidential hopefuls next week, voters no doubt will have to check the candidates' facts before casting their ballots.

Sleep deprivation also takes a toll on the candidates' spouses. Bill Clinton recently dozed at a Martin Luther King Jr. ceremony. Click the video below.