What does lack of sleep lead to?

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

Some dream that they will soon invent pills that will replace our sleep and we will be able to create without interruption. But while there are no such pills, many continue to sacrifice hours of sleep for the sake of work, because they do not quite understand what the final bill will be, which our health will expose to us. In this article, we will find out what sleepless nights threaten us!

How many hours of sleep does a person need on average to really get some rest? The number of hours varies from 6 to 8 per day - this time should be quite enough for a person to be able to work further, without harm to their health. But if you constantly lack sleep, this is fraught with serious consequences, ranging from mild neurosis and the risk of extra centimeters at the waist, and ending with more serious problems - heart disease and an increased risk of diabetes.

Unpleasant symptoms may appear after the first night of lack of sleep. What else is bad sleep threatening? The Huffington Post decided to look into this in more detail.

Some genius people practically did not need sleep, and they did not suffer without its absence. For example, Leonardo da Vinci needed only 1, 5-2 hours of sleep a day, Nikola Tesla - 2-3 hours, Napoleon Bonaparte slept at intervals of about 4 hours. You can count yourself as a genius as much as you like and consider that if you sleep 4 hours a day, you will have time to do much more, but your body may not agree with you, and after several days of torment it will begin to sabotage your work, if you want it, or not.

Infographics

What happens to the body after one day of lack of sleep

You start to overeat. So, if you slept little or poorly at least one night, you feel more hungry than after a standard sleep. Research has shown that sleep deprivation triggers appetite, as well as eating more nutritious, high-carb, and not-so-healthy foods.

Attention is getting worse. Drowsiness makes you less alert and less responsive, and this, in turn, can lead to accidents on the road or at work (if you work with your hands or are a doctor or driver, which is even worse). If you sleep 6 hours or less, your risk of road accidents triples.

The appearance is deteriorating. Bruising under the eyes after a bad sleep is not the best decoration. Sleep is good not only for your brain, but also for your appearance. A small study in the journal SLEEP published last year found that those who sleep less appear less attractive to people. And studies in Sweden have also shown a link between rapidly aging skin and lack of normal sleep.

The risk of catching colds increases. Adequate sleep is one of the building blocks of the immune system. A study from Carnegie Mellon University found that sleeping less than 7 hours a day increases your risk of getting sick threefold. Moreover, experts at the Mayo Clinic explain that during sleep, the body produces special proteins called cytokines. Some of them help to maintain sound sleep, and some need to be increased to protect the body when you have an infection or inflammation, or when you are stressed. As a result of not getting enough sleep, the production of these protective cytokines decreases and you get sick for longer.

You run the risk of micro-brain damage. A recent small study conducted with fifteen men and published in the same SLEEP journal showed that even after one night of sleep deprivation, the brain loses some of its tissue. This can be detected by measuring the level of two molecules in the blood, an increase in which usually signals that the brain has been damaged.

Of course, this is just a small study done with fifteen men - not such a large sample. But how can you be sure that this will not affect you?

You become more emotional. And not for the better. According to a 2007 study from Harvard and Berkeley medical schools, if you don't get enough sleep, the emotional areas of the brain become more than 60% reactive, meaning you become more emotional, irritable, and explosive. The fact is that without enough sleep, our brain switches to more primitive forms of activity and is not able to normally control emotions.

You may have problems with memory and concentration. Added to the problems with mindfulness are problems with memory and concentration. It becomes difficult for you to concentrate on completing the assigned tasks, and memory deteriorates, since sleep is involved in the process of memory consolidation. So, if you don't sleep much, memorizing new material will become more and more difficult for you (depending on the neglect of your situation).

What Happens to Your Body if You Get Little Sleep in the Long Term

Suppose you have an exam or an urgent project, and you just need to reduce the amount of your sleep to a minimum in order to be on time. This is acceptable in short intervals, just try not to get behind the wheel and warn everyone in advance that you are very tired and may react a little inappropriately, emotionally. After passing an exam or finishing a project, you will rest, sleep and get back in shape again.

But if your work makes it so that the standard time of your sleep from 7-8 hours decreased to 4-5, you need to seriously think about changing either the approach to work or the work itself, since the consequences of a constant lack of sleep are much more sad. than simple nervousness or bruising under the eyes. The longer you maintain such an unhealthy regimen, the higher the price your body will pay for it.

The risk of getting a stroke is increased. Research published in the journal SLEEP in 2012 showed that sleep deprivation (less than 6 hours of sleep) for older people increases their risk of stroke by a factor of 4.

The risk of becoming obese is increased. Merely overeating due to a lack of sleep for one or two days is just a little bloom compared to what could happen to you if constant sleep deprivation becomes your standard routine. As discussed in the previous section, lack of sleep triggers an increase in appetite and, of course, leads to constant nighttime snacks. All this together is transformed into extra pounds.

The likelihood of developing certain types of cancer increases. Of course, it will not appear simply because you are not getting enough sleep. But poor sleep can trigger the appearance of precancerous lesions. So, as a result of a study conducted among 1240 participants (a colonoscopy was performed), those who slept less than 6 hours a day increased the risk of colorectal adenoma by 50%, which over time can turn into a malignant tumor.

The likelihood of developing diabetes increases. A 2013 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that too little (and too much!) Sleep is associated with an increased risk of many chronic diseases, including diabetes. This is due to the fact that lack of sleep, on the one hand, leads to the risk of obesity, and on the other hand, decreases insulin sensitivity.

The risk of heart disease increases. Harvard Health Publications reports that chronic sleep deprivation is associated with high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, heart failure, and heart attack. Research conducted in 2011 at Warwick Medical School found that if you sleep less than 6 hours a night and sleep is disturbed, you get a 48% increased chance of dying from heart disease and 15% higher chance of dying from heart disease. stroke. Sitting up late or late into the morning for a long period is a ticking time bomb!

The sperm count decreases. This point applies to those who still want to know the happiness of fatherhood, but are postponing for now, as they are busy accumulating inheritance. In 2013, a study was conducted in Denmark among 953 young men, during which it was found that the concentration of sperm in the semen of guys with sleep disorders is 29% lower than those who sleep well the standard 7-8 hours a day.

The risk of premature death increases. Studies that evaluated 1,741 men and women over a period of 10-14 years showed that men who slept less than 6 hours a night increased their chances of dying prematurely.

These were all data obtained during the research. But, as we know, in our conflicting world, research data can be completely opposite. Today we can read that new magic pills will save us from all diseases, and tomorrow an article may come out that other studies have shown completely opposite results.

You may or may not believe in the long-term prospects of permanent sleep deprivation, but you cannot deny the fact that if you don't get enough sleep, you become irritable and inattentive, remember information poorly and even look in the mirror scared. Therefore, let's spare ourselves and sleep at least 6 hours a day for ourselves, our beloved, at least in the short term.