10 Effects of a Lack of Sleep
“Studies have shown that over time, people who are getting six hours of sleep, instead of seven or eight, begin to feel that they’ve adapted to that sleep deprivation…they’ve gotten used to it,” Gehrman, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry at Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania says. “But if you look at how they actually do on tests of mental alertness and performance, they continue to go downhill. So there’s a point in sleep deprivation when we lose touch with how impaired we are.”
In our high-speed world, we pride ourselves for functioning on less sleep. Experts on sleeping patterns say that whenever you feel you’re able to cope with fewer hours of sleep, you’re most often mistaken. And if you’re judged by your level of functioning in your line of work, you can be in trouble.
If you go through one night without sleep, you’ll most likely feel bushed and cranky the following day, but it may not affect your health. If you continue having sleepless nights, your mental state will be affected. In fact, chronic sleep loss can also have acute effects on your physical health. Let’s have a look at the effects of sleep deprivation.
1. Makes You More Accident-prone
Sleep deprivation increases your risk of mishaps at home, your workplace and even on the road. Sleep loss makes you drowsy during the day. You will be less alert with a slower reaction time in emergencies. Hence lack of sleep can be just as hazardous at work as being in the driver’s seat of your car. To drive when you’re drowsy is just as dangerous as drinking and driving.
2. Affects Your Thought Process
Sleep loss affects the cognitive process of the brain. Sleep is vital for your thinking and learning process. Insufficient sleep makes it more difficult to remember all you’ve learned and been through, during the day. It also shortens your attention span, affects your reasoning, concentration, logic, memory and you will find it difficult to focus.
4. Impairs Judgment
Sleep loss will possibly result in errors in judgment. We may not gauge situations truthfully and act on them sensibly. When we are deprived of sleep our judgment is often flawed.
3. Can Lead To Mood Disorders
Just one night of insufficient sleep can make you grumpy and moody the next day. But habitual poor sleep can lead to behavior disorders like depression and anxiety.
5. Makes Your Skin Age
Sleep loss leads to the release of an excess amount of the stress hormone cortisol into your body. This, in turn, could reduce skin collagen, the protein needed to keep skin smooth and elastic.
6. Disrupts Your Immune System
If you catch a cold and flu easily, insufficient sleep could be the likely reason. Sleep deprivation weakens the immune system and reduces levels of cytokinesis which is needed to fight infection in the body. Moreover, recovery time from illness takes longer as well as increases chronic health issues.
7. Can Affect Your Body Weight
According to studies carried out, those who slept for fewer than 7 hours a day were shown to have increased in their weight. They were more inclined to be obese than those who slept for 7 hours. This may be due to the production of lower amounts of the hormone leptin that gives you a satiated feeling, and an increased amount of the hormone, ghrelin that stimulates hunger. The levels of these hormones are affected by sleep.
8. Decreases Fertility
Sleep deprivation is claimed to lead to difficulty in conceiving a baby, for men and women. Irregular sleep has been said to reduce the secretion of reproductive hormones. Lack of sleep can affect the production of hormones, including hormones for growth and testosterone for men.
9. Can Lead to Serious Health Issues
Sleep deprivation can affect your health condition and often lead to serious medical problems including heart disease, obesity, and diabetes. Habitual sleep loss can result in an increase in heart rate and blood pressure, as well as inflammation that adds strain to your heart. Most people, who suffer from insomnia or other sleep disorders, would most likely be also suffering from some other health condition.
10. Shortens Your Life Expectancy
British researchers examined how hours of sleep had an effect on the mortality of over 10,000 civil servants over 20 years. The results of the study showed that those that had reduced their hours of sleep from 7 to 5 or fewer at night had doubled their risk of death from all causes. In fact, sleep loss showed a higher risk of death from heart diseases.
Just Seifu and Body Weight
Indeed a lack of sleep can affect body weight. If you are trying to manage your weight for a while, book Tricia for a Fat Burning Seifu Therapy session. The techniques help your body burn fat more effectively.
You can also learn Seifu Therapy techniques in a Workshop to take care of your health and wellness.
