What will happen to your body if you do not sleep for a day or more

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Fatigue, disorientation, blackouts, and other unpleasant things that you don't want to experience.

Only a third of Russians take a third of Russians suffer from insomnia / Health Mail.ru to sleep 8 hours a day. This is how much, according to most doctors, an adult should sleep. If you rest less, this inevitably affects your well-being, the ability to concentrate and remember information. And the longer a person remains awake, the more changes occur in his body.

How the body reacts to lack of sleep

People experience deprivation (sleep deprivation) differently depending on age, health, living conditions and diet. For example, children and adolescents need more sleep than adults. How Long Can You Go Without Sleep? Function, Hallucination, and More / Healthline cause poor academic performance, communication and socialization problems, bad habits and dangerous connections, and stunted physical growth and development.

The effect of prolonged wakefulness is generally similar to that of constant sleep deprivation, the only difference is how quickly it manifests itself.

After one day

Most people begin to feel the effects of going more than 24 hours without sleep / MedicalNewsToday to feel the effects of sleep deprivation after a day of continuous wakefulness.

After 24 hours without sleep

• Body temperature drops.
• The level of stress hormones increases: cortisol and adrenaline.
• Blood sugar rises (insulin levels go down).
• There is tension in the muscles.
• The natural cycle of sleep and rest is disrupted, which disrupts the production of hormones that regulate growth, appetite, metabolism and immunity.
• Vision and hearing deteriorate.
• Is starting to change How Long Can You Go Without Sleep? Function, Hallucination, and More / Healthline perception of the world.

The brain is under stress, so it tries to save energy and enters a state of "local sleep" - temporarily turns off some of the neurons. Because of this, drowsiness, irritability appears, worsens How Long Can You Go Without Sleep? Function, Hallucination, and More / Healthline Concentration, coordination, reasoning and decision-making ability, memory starts to work worse. Appetite and cravings for high-calorie foods increase.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, lack of sleep during the day is comparable to drinking 30-60 ml of pure alcohol. This is 0.8 (according to some sources - exactly 1) ppm of alcohol in the blood, which is significantly higher than the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, article 12.8. "Driving a vehicle by a driver in a state of intoxication, transferring control of a vehicle to a person in a state of intoxication" is an admissible norm in Russia. That is, driving after a day without sleep is as dangerous as driving drunk.

After two days

After 36 hours without sleep

• The above effects are retained and enhanced.
• Fatigue builds up.
• Speech disorders appear.
• Decreased motivation.
• The likelihood of making risky decisions increases.
• Thinking Becomes How Long Can You Go Without Sleep? Function, Hallucination, and More / Healthline are less flexible.

As Californian psychiatrists have found, after 30 hours of wakefulness, people begin to recognize emotions much worse. Due to brain fatigue, the seemingly simple operation becomes difficult.

After 48 hours without sleep

• The negative effects continue to accumulate.
• Periods of unconsciousness (microsleep) appear.
• The person begins to feel confused and disoriented.
• Immunity decreases and increases How Long Can You Go Without Sleep? Function, Hallucination, and More / Healthline the threat of the development of viral and inflammatory diseases: influenza, ARVI and other infections. This was confirmed by a study by Brazilian immunologists.

The longer a person is awake, the stronger the negative effects of going more than 24 hours without sleep / MedicalNewsToday become. After two days, severe fatigue sets in. Because of this, the brain begins to involuntarily enter microsleep - short periods of completely unconsciousness that can last for several seconds.

After three days without sleep or more

After 72 hours without sleep

• The negative effects become so strong that the person can no longer stay awake on their own.
• Mental disorders may appear: paranoia, psychosis, depression.
• Mental capacity declines How Long Can You Go Without Sleep? Function, Hallucination, and More / Healthline so that even simple tasks are difficult to complete.
• The person is experiencing memory problems. For example, he can forget what he is doing, right in the course of the action.
• The perception of the world is changing: the effects of going more than 24 hours without sleep / MedicalNewsToday appear hallucinations and illusions.

Even healthy people are hard for three days of wakefulness. This is the conclusion reached by Chinese psychologists from the University of Beijing during an experiment. The participants were socially isolated and did not sleep for 72 hours. As a result, their pulse became more frequent, undesirable effects appeared in the amplitude of heart contractions, and their mood worsened.

An ordinary person who has not slept for three days will feel extreme fatigue, problems with concentration and memory, paranoia, depression. How Long Can You Go Without Sleep? Function, Hallucination, and More / Healthline, it is difficult to do several things at the same time and communicate with other people.

Most of these effects go away with a good night's sleep. Some of them can be ironed out with proper nutrition and plenty of drinking, but this still does not replace How Long Can You Go Without Sleep? Sleep Function, Hallucination, and More / Healthline.

How many people can live without sleep

Nobody knows for sure The effects of going more than 24 hours without sleep / MedicalNewsToday. The most famous record holder for wakefulness is Randy Gardner. In the winter of 1963-1964, as part of a school science project, he stayed awake for 264 hours - more than 11 days - and broke previous records (Albert Schilbert and George Patrick - 90 hours, Peter Tripp - 201 hours, Tom Rounds - 260 hours). Two classmates helped him not to fall asleep, and recorded by A. Boese. Elephants on Acid: And Other Bizarre Experiments record and tracked the student's health by Stanford University professor William Dement and Colonel John Ross.

Randy was not taking any chemical stimulants to keep him awake. Although the student was in good physical condition and could beat Dement in pinball in the last days of the experiment, the lack of sleep greatly affected his mental abilities.

On the fourth day, Gardner began to see hallucinations: he imagined himself a player in the American football league and took a road sign for a person.

On the last day of the experiment, Randy was unable to consistently subtract seven from the previous figure, starting at 100. He stopped A. Boese. Elephants on Acid: And Other Bizarre Experiments at 65 because he forgot what he was doing.

The results of this experience have been studied by psychiatrists in Arizona. They concluded that Randy Gardner's brain had adapted to being constantly awake, alternately turning off and turning on some of the neurons. After this experiment, the Guinness Book of Records stopped registering such achievements.

Nevertheless, attempts to break Gardner's record continued. So, in 2007, 42-year-old Briton Tony Wright stayed awake for 274 hours. In order not to pass out, he drank tea, played billiards and kept an online diary, and cameras monitored the purity of the experiment. Wright admitted to Man claims new sleepless record / BBC News that he was very tired. During the experiment, his speech sometimes became incomprehensible, and the colors were perceived very bright. There were other daredevils, but none of the subsequent cases were verified by Sleepless in Ukraine / Guardian.

Experiments on animals might help to answer the question of how long a person can live without sleep. However, the last such experience was conducted by a doctor from Russia Marina Manaseina already at the end of the 19th century. She did not let the puppies sleep, and after five days they died. This allowed Manaseina to argue that sleep is more important for the body than food. At the same time, she herself admitted to The boy who stayed awake for 11 days / BBC Future that the experiment was hard for her.

Why not getting enough sleep is also harmful

Not only a long lack of sleep leads to negative consequences for the body, but also a constant lack of sleep. For example, when you rest 5-6 hours instead of 7-8 hours every day. The effect can accumulate and manifest itself in symptoms similar to those that occur with extreme wakefulness:

• Fatigue and sleepiness.
• Deterioration in concentration, problems with alertness, memory and coordination.
• Irritability, mood swings.
• Increased appetite The effects of going more than 24 hours without sleep / MedicalNewsToday.
• Development of anxiety.
• Deterioration of immunity.
• Raising How Long Can You Go Without Sleep? Accident Risk Function, Hallucination, and More / Healthline.
• Increased risk of diseases of the cardiovascular system (hypertension, stroke).
• Increased likelihood of respiratory arrest during sleep.
• Reducing what to know about sleep deprivation / MedicalNewsToday fertility (the likelihood of conceiving a child).

Experiments on rats have shown that lack of sleep negatively affects the body's ability to heal wounds and the formation of No sleep means no new brain cells / BBC News.

When sleep deprivation is used therapeutically

Usually, deprivation is perceived as torture, but in some cases it can be useful. For example, Swiss psychiatrists have investigated the effects of total and partial sleep deprivation on depression in patients. Using this measure in combination with others, in particular, taking antidepressants, doctors achieved a quick cure in 60% of cases.

Also, oddly enough, sleep deprivation can treat insomnia. A controlled sleep-restraint regimen helps the body return to its normal cycle of activity and rest. When combined with cognitive behavioral therapy, this treatment has proven to be effective.

We all sometimes sacrifice leisure for a job, an exam, or an interesting TV show. But it is important to remember that good sleep is one of the conditions for our health. You shouldn't experiment on yourself.