If you have spent your night tossing and turning, then you will feel cranky, tired, and wasted the next day. However, when you miss the suggested 7 to 9 hours of sleep every night, it can also make you feel grumpy and groggy the following day.
Is this caused by the lack of tools Or is this because of too much activity of your brain? Well, there are a lot of causes of lack of sleep. But, what is important here is to determine the unexpected effects of sleep deprivation in our bodies.
Moreover, there are long-term effects of sleep deprivation, and they are life-threatening. Other than it runs out your mental capacity, it also allows your physical health to be at risk. In fact, research studies have connected poor sleep with all types of health problems, starting with weight gain to the decreased immune system. So, read on to find out how a lack of sleep disrupts the proper functioning of your body.
How Much Sleep Do You Need?
A lot of people need almost 8 hours of high-quality sleep every night to function the next day accurately. However, some may require more or fewer hours than recommended. What matters here is that you determine how much sleep your body needs and you must try to accomplish it. As a rule of thumb, if you wake up sluggish and spend your day wanting to take a nap, then you are not having enough sleep.
There are a lot of factors to consider that can cause insufficient sleep. One of the most common is health conditions, including sleep apnea. However, in most cases, it may be due to bad habits of sleeping.
What Happens When You Do Not Sleep?
Everyone may have experienced fatigue, lack of focus, and short temper when you have poor sleep. When you have an occasional lack of sleep at night, you may feel irritable and tired the following day. However, it may not cause harm to your health. When you encounter insufficient sleep almost every night, it may cause mental effects and may become more dangerous over time.
In fact, it may cause brain fog, making it so hard for you to concentrate and make sound decisions. You will begin feeling down and may fall asleep during important occasions. Plus, it will put you at significant risk of accidents and injuries. If it continues, it may also affect your general health and may make you more prone to serious health problems.
10 Effects of Lack of Sleep
Here is a list of shocking results to your body when you deprive yourself of sleep:
It May Cause Death
According to recent studies, people who have disturbed sleep patterns do not have enough rest regularly. So, it allows them to have a higher mortality rate than those individuals who complete their hours of sleep. Moreover, people who undergo insufficient sleep may seem to be more at risk of developing cardiovascular problems.
Fatigue That May Lead to Accidents
Poor sleep and fatigue may cause serious injuries and accidents. In fact, research studies have proven that driving while lacking sleep is as harmful as driving drunk. Individuals below 25 years old are often affected by these situations.
It Can Cause Serious Health Issues
The risk of developing a few chronic health problems may increase when you do not get enough sleep. Almost 90% of individuals who suffer insomnia may also acquire chronic diseases, which can be life-threatening. The most common chronic health conditions include stroke, diabetes, heart problems, cardiac arrest, hypertension, and irregular heartbeat.
Lack of Sleep May Lead to Depression
Deprived sleep can increase your symptoms of depression. In a 2005 survey, experts have gathered the sleeping habits of individuals who suffered anxiety or depression. They have found out that most of them lack sleep, which can only range six to five hours each night. Also, depression links to insomnia. In turn, depression can also impact a person’s capacity to fall asleep.
Decreased Sleep Can Affect the Learning Process
Sleep is beneficial to your cognition, which links to your learning process. Deficient sleep may reduce your attention span and alertness. So, it makes you less efficient when you take in information from other people. Decreased attention can also slow down an individual’s ability to solve problems and to reason out efficiently. So, this means that those who suffer from fatigue may not learn at an optimum level.
When you learn knowledge and skills during the day, you can convert those things into memories each night. If you consider learning a lot of stuff during the day, you won’t remember them if you lack sleep. Your body, especially your brain will not allow you to store these skills and knowledge on a long-term basis.
It Can Impair Your Judgment
When you do not achieve enough sleep, it may limit your capacity to interpret situations correctly. So, it will make it hard to react to individual events accurately. With that, you cannot proceed with smart decision making. Also, those who do not get sufficient sleep may tend to have poor decisions and judgments. Then, it can even lead to a more severe phenomenon called the problem snowball.
Decreased Sleep May Cause Damage to Skin
A night of insufficient sleep may cause sallow skin and puffy eyes. If you continue to miss sleep regularly, it can cause further and permanent damages. In fact, it may lead to dark under-eye circles, fine lines, and sallow skin all over your face, which can become permanent.
The flexibility of your scan can become disrupted over time when you do not complete your required hours of sleep. Constant fatigue can lead to increased stress, which may cause your body to elevate the production of the hormone cortisol. The hormone will break down protein in your skin, which keeps its smoothness and elasticity.
Gaining Weight When You Lack Sleep
When you maintain regular sleeping time, your body can maintain its hunger and appetite schedule. That happens because when you shorten your sleeping hours, it may cause the increased production of the hormone ghrelin. It can feel hunger and alleviate the production of leptin to suppress your appetite.
When you increase your appetite, you will most likely overeat. So, you are prone to becoming obese over time. Also, research studies have revealed that individuals who sleep less than seven to eight hours a day are more likely to become obese.
Deficient Sleep Affects Your Libido
Male and females who lack high-quality sleep were more prone to develop lower impulses. Also, they lack the interest to chase after the opposite gender. When you acquire less sleep, you may have less energy, and you build up more tension in your body. That way, you limit the desire for intercourse. In fact, men who suffer from sleep apnea most likely have low testosterone levels, which can lower down libido.
Sleeplessness May Cause Forgetfulness
Brain processes called the sharp-wave ripples can help fuse your memory. So, it makes things easy for you to learn and recall. These brain functions can also shift short-term information into your hippocampus and neocortex, where they will transform into long-term memory. The transference happens when you are in your deepest sleep cycle. So, when you lack sleep, it can affect your long-term memory, which can cause severe forgetfulness.
Conclusion
Now, we have validated that sleep is essential in every person’s life. As discussed above, there are so many surprising effects of lack of sleep. It may range from something as simple as feeling tired and grumpy to developing serious health problems. In fact, it can lead to various chronic diseases, and it can affect your overall health. So, what we should do is to practice the suggested number of sleep. It is the least you can do to take care of your mind and body.
