You are aware that a healthy lifestyle includes sleep, a balanced diet, and regular exercise. Lack of the necessary seven to nine hours of sleep every night can lead to a variety of health issues, including greater blood pressure and a higher chance of obesity.
But what if your sleep issues just infrequently occur? Can a single, horrible night of sleepless tossing and turning be harmful to your health?
The Impact of Lack of Sleep on Your Body
If you’ve ever tossed and turned during the night, you already know how you’ll feel the next day: exhausted, irritable, and disorganised. But getting less sleep than the 7 to 9 hours each night that are advised has consequences beyond just making you tired and cranky.
Lack of sleep does have long-term impacts.
It depletes your mental resources and seriously jeopardises your physical health. Poor sleep has been scientifically linked to a variety of health issues, including immune system deterioration and weight increase.
Causes of lack of sleep
In a nutshell, sleep deprivation is brought on by persistent sleepiness or poor sleep quality. Regularly getting less than 7 hours of sleep can eventually have a negative impact on your overall health. In addition, a sleep issue may be the underlying reason of this.
To perform at its optimum, your body requires sleep just as it does air and food. Your body repairs itself and rebalances its chemicals as you sleep. Your brain creates new connections between ideas and aids in memory retention.
Your brain and body’s processes won’t operate normally if you don’t get enough sleep. Additionally, it may significantly reduce your quality of life.
Noticeable signs of sleep deprivation include:
– excessive sleepiness
– frequent yawning
– irritability
– daytime fatigue
Caffeine and other stimulants can’t make up for your body’s intense desire for sleep. In fact, by making it more difficult to get to sleep at night, these can exacerbate sleep deprivation.
This could then result in a cycle of caffeine use during the day to make up for the fatigue brought on by the lack of sleep at night.
Chronic sleep deprivation can interfere with your body’s internal systems, which can result in symptoms that go beyond the ones mentioned above.
Nervous system
Your body’s primary information highway is your central nervous system. It needs sleep to stay healthy, but chronic insomnia can impair how your body normally transmits and processes information.
Your brain creates pathways between nerve cells (neurons) when you sleep that aid in the retention of newly learned knowledge. Your brain becomes weary from lack of sleep, making it less capable of carrying out its tasks.
Additionally, it might be more challenging for you to focus or pick up new information. Your body’s signals may also be delayed, which will make it harder for you to maintain coordination and raise your risk of accidents.
Your emotional and mental health are both badly impacted by lack of sleep. You can have increased impatience or mood fluctuations. Additionally, it may impair judgement and originality.
When you don’t get enough sleep, you may begin to have hallucinations, which are false perceptions of sight or sound. Bipolar mood disorder sufferers may also experience mania when they are sleep deprived. A few more psychological dangers are:
– impulsive behavior
– anxiety
– depression
– paranoia
– suicidal thoughts
Additionally, you might wind yourself sleeping for brief periods during the day. You may doze off unconsciously for a few to several seconds during these episodes.
Microsleep is uncontrollable and exceedingly risky if you’re operating a motor vehicle. Having a microsleep episode while working with heavy equipment might potentially increase your risk of harm.
Immune system
Your immune system creates antibodies and cytokines, which are protective, infection-fighting molecules, while you’re sleeping. These compounds help it fight against outside invaders like viruses and bacteria.
Certain cytokines can also promote sleep, which increases the effective
ness of your immune system in protecting your body from disease.
Lack of sleep stops your immune system from strengthening. Lack of sleep can affect your body’s ability to fight off intruders as well as how quickly you recover from illnesses.
Your chance of developing chronic illnesses including diabetes mellitus and heart disease rises as a result of long-term sleep loss.
Respiratory apparatus
The respiratory system and sleep have a reciprocal link. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a respiratory condition that occurs during night, can cause sleep interruptions and poorer sleep quality.
This can result in sleep loss, which makes you more susceptible to respiratory infections like the common cold and flu as you wake up throughout the night. Lack of sleep can exacerbate respiratory conditions already present, such as chronic lung disease.
Digestive system
Lack of sleep is another risk factor for gaining weight, along with overeating and not exercising. Leptin and ghrelin, two hormones that regulate feelings of appetite and fullness, are affected by sleep.
Leptin signals to your brain that you have had enough food. Without enough sleep, your brain produces less leptin and more of the appetite-stimulating hormone ghrelin. The fluctuation of these hormones may account for late-night overeating or overnight munching.
You can feel too exhausted to exercise if you don’t get enough sleep. Reduced physical activity over time can result in weight gain because you don’t burn enough calories and don’t develop muscle mass.
Lack of sleep also affects the amount of insulin your body releases after meals. Your blood sugar (glucose) level can be decreased with the aid of insulin.
Lack of sleep also reduces the body’s ability to tolerate glucose and is linked to insulin resistance. Obesity and diabetes mellitus can result from these changes.
Cardiovascular system
Processes that maintain the health of your heart and blood vessels, such as those that impact your blood sugar, blood pressure, and inflammation levels, are all impacted by sleep. It is essential for your body’s capacity to heal and maintain the heart and blood vessels.
Cardiovascular disease is more likely to affect people who receive insufficient sleep. One study found a connection between insomnia and a higher risk of heart attack and stroke.
Endocrine system
Your sleep quality is necessary for hormone production. You need at least three hours of unbroken sleep to produce testosterone, which is roughly the length of your first R.E.M. episode. Hormone production may be impacted by frequent nighttime awakenings.
Growth hormone synthesis may also be impacted by this disruption, particularly in young children and teenagers. In addition to other growth-related activities, these hormones aid in the body’s ability to increase muscle mass and repair cells and tissues.
Growth hormone is released throughout the day by the pituitary gland, but getting enough rest and exercising also promote the release of this hormone.
Treatment for lack of sleep
Getting enough sleep, usually 7 to 9 hours each night, is the most fundamental method of treatment for sleep deficiency.
This is frequently easier said than done, especially if you haven’t had any sleep in weeks or longer. After this, you might require assistance from your doctor or a sleep expert who, if necessary, can identify and treat a potential sleep disorder.
It may be tough to get good night’s sleep if you have sleep disorders. They might also make you more susceptible to the bodily consequences of sleep deprivation listed above.
Some of the most prevalent forms of sleep disturbances include the following:
– obstructive sleep apnea
– narcolepsy
– restless leg syndrome
– insomnia
– circadian rhythm disorders
Your doctor might request a sleep study to identify these disorders. There are now methods to assess your sleep quality at home in addition to the typical setting of a formal sleep lab.
If you have a sleep issue, you may be prescribed medication or a device to keep your airway open at night (for obstructive sleep apnea) to assist tr
eat the condition and help you consistently get a better night’s sleep.
Prevention
Make sure you get enough sleep as this will help you avoid sleep deprivation the best. Follow the requirements for your age group, which for most adults ages 18 to 64 is 7 to 9 hours.
Other techniques for regaining a regular sleep schedule include:
– restricting daytime naps (or avoiding them altogether)
– avoiding coffee after noon or at least several hours before bedtime, going to bed and waking up at the same times every day, and maintaining your bedtime schedule on weekends and holidays.
– avoiding heavy meals a few hours before bedtime, spending an hour before bed calming activities like reading, meditation, or having a bath.
Hope it helps!