The Effects of Sleep Deprivation on Your Body
How Does the Body Respond to Sleep Deprivation?
At its core, sleep is a healing mechanism that repairs your systems for all the work that it did during the day. Notice how tired you feel when you’re not able to get enough sleep? It’s your body telling you that it didn’t complete its restorative processes.
Knowing when you’re sleep-deprived already seems like a given. However, sometimes it may not be easy to realize that sleep, or the lack thereof, is the factor that’s causing your health problems. If you’re unsure whether sleep deprivation is to blame, listed below are 11 of its notable effects:
1. Mood Swings and Depression
One of the first things that you’ll notice when you’re missing out on sleep is that it’s relatively easy for you to snap and have frequent mood swings. It also makes you more prone to develop anxiety and depression. If left untreated for a long time, sleep deprivation can even cause hallucinations.
2. Weight Gain
Lack of sleep also throws off your body’s hunger signals. As a result, those who are sleep-deprived are more likely to gain weight. That’s because sleep deprivation increases ghrelin (hunger hormone) and decreases leptin (satiety hormone), thereby stimulating your cravings for high-carb and high fat food items.
3. Poor Productivity and Work Performances
Sleep is an essential component in consolidating your memories and sharpening your thinking skills. Sleep-deprived people, therefore, are far less productive because they have lower attention spans, focus levels, and alertness.
This compromises their judgment and problem-solving skills. If you want to manage your sleep, along with your work productivity, consider using sleep trackers.
4. Poor Skin Conditions
We often hear the term “beauty sleep” whenever we look for skincare tips. See, sleep deprivation releases cortisol, or what is often referred to as the stress hormone. Cortisol isn’t exactly bad in itself, but too much of it can break down the collagen in your skin, which maintains its smoothness and elasticity.
5. Increased Sensitivity to Pain
In the same manner that you’re more irritable when sleep-deprived, you also become more sensitive to pain. As mentioned earlier, sleep is a healing process. Thus, when you’re not giving your body enough time to heal itself, you become more prone to pain and inflammation.
6. Increased Risk for Serious Health Issues
The length and quality of your sleep are important factors in keeping yourself protected from serious health issues. Chronic sleep deprivation is known for increasing your risk for diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure, and heart illnesses.
7. Increased Risk for Accidents
This study shows that commercial drivers are more likely to get involved in road accidents when they’re sleep-deprived. This also applies to other kinds of accidents. Sleep loss makes people more injury and accident-prone because they can’t focus on what they we’re doing.
8. Decreased Alertness
Following from the previous point, being sleep-deprived makes it a lot more difficult to respond to external stimuli on time. Decreased alertness may sometimes be just a harmless nuisance, but it can be dangerous if you’re handling things that require your undivided attention.
9. Decreased Libido
If you care about your sex life, you should also start caring about having a good night’s sleep regularly. That’s because lack of sleep results in lack of interest in sex. After all, if you’re too sleepy and depleted, it’s really tough to make yourself chase after some steamy action.
10. Decreased Fertility
Couples who are trying to have a child should consider getting more sleep, because sleep deprivation can make it more difficult to conceive. Apparently, lack of sleep prevents your body from producing enough reproductive hormones for a successful conception.
11. Decreased Immunity
Are you having a hard time fending off common illnesses like the flu? Your sleeping habits may be to blame. Constantly being sleep-deprived lowers the production of cytokines, or cells that fight infection. Recovery may take longer if your immune system is off-guard.
Make Sure You Get Enough Sleep Each Night!
Can Alexa play rain sounds all night?
It’s always easy to take sleep for granted, especially if you constantly have a lot of things on your plate. However, sleep deprivation can be physically and mentally exhausting, especially if it happens too often.
You don’t want to run yourself empty and make yourself vulnerable to various health issues. Getting the right amount of sleep each night ensures that your body goes through the healing that it deserves.
