Sleep is essential to our well-being. According to a sleep medicine specialist, up to 70 million people in America alone are sleep-deprived, and those hours of lost sleep adds up to a bigger deficit. With that said, let’s take a look at what will happen to your body when you are sleep deprived.
- Fatigue
A lack of sleep can lead to
fatigue and low-energy, and ultimately, it can severely impact your
productivity throughout the day. If you feel completely drained by the early
afternoon, that is normally a sign of sleep deprivation or another sleep
disorder.
- Mood change
It’s commonly known that a bad
night of sleep tends to make you moody in the morning. Research shows that
chronic insomnia is linked to mental health concerns such as depression and
anxiety, and people with insomnia are actually twice as likely to experience
depression than those without.
- Memory loss
Sleep deprivation can and will
affect your memory and your reaction time which can cause forgetfulness of even
the most routine task. Studies have shown that students who pulled an
all-nighter don’t do any better on their test than those who didn’t. According
to a sleep medicine specialist, your brain lacks the sleep it needs to really
ingrain these memories. Additionally, researches show that sleeping allows the
brain to get rid of the toxins that build up throughout the day, and this
process usually takes 7-8 hours.
- Weaken immune
system
A lack of sleep also weakens the
immune system, making you more prone to illness and harder to recover from even
minor diseases like a cold or flu. During sleep, your body produce Cytokines, a
type of protein that alert your cells to keep the immune system running. If
you’re sleep deprived, your body would instead create more white blood cell
which can cause imbalance in the immune system.
- Gain weight
Excessive weight gain can also be
linked to a lack of sleep. It disrupts the levels of key hormones inside your
body which lead to hunger, stress and inability to maintain normal weight long
term. It is also harder to lose weight when you don’t get enough sleep, as
studies have shown that those who are sleep deprived tends to not be successful
in their weight loss journey.
- Stress
A lack of sleep generally causes
your cortisol to rise. A higher level of Cortisol, the stress hormone, can lead
to many health complications like anxiety, weight gain, heart disease, aging
and many more. But a good night sleep generally lowers your cortisol which
alleviates these issues.
- Increase the
risk of heart disease
Lastly, sleep deprivation can also
lead to high blood pressure which can put you in a very dangerous position to
develop type-2 diabetes, obesity and abnormal heartbeat, all of which are major
contributions towards heart disease.
Source: https://health.clevelandclinic.org/happens-body-dont-get-enough-sleep
