When you toss and turn all night without getting quality sleep, you wake up feeling like a zombie ready to snap at anyone that gets in your way. It reduces your concentration and productivity level and it opens the door for a whole lot of health issues that can harm you.
Sleep deprivation makes you prone to problems that can damage your body. It affects both your physical and mental health by slowing down your energy level.
This is why you must avoid sleep deprivation like a plague and ensure that as much as you eat and exercise your body, you also get quality sleep.
What Is Sleep Deprivation?
Sleep deprivation means getting hours of sleep lower than the regular 7-9 hours. This condition is judged based on the number of hours that you can sleep. Children and teenagers require even more hours of sleep than this.
You can have acute sleep deprivation which occurs only for a few days when the number of hours that you sleep reduces. There is also chronic sleep deprivation that happens when an individual is unable to find quality sleep for up to 3 months or a longer span.
Sleep deprivation can be caused by various factors such as sleep apnea, mental problems, noise, chronic pain, or using electronic devices around your bedtime. Various reasons can reduce your sleep hours but you must learn to get quality sleep for your health. Have a look at the best number bed alternative if you are considering replacing your current bed or tempurpedic like mattresses.
How Sleep Deprivation Can Affect You Negatively?
There is more than one way in which sleep deprivation can affect you and none of them is good news.
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It Can Make You Forgetful
Quality sleep helps your brain to restart and refresh for the day ahead. When sleep deprivation sets in, your brain would feel like it has too much load and this makes you start forgetting important details. Imagine forgetting that you have an important meeting or a multi-million dollar business deal, that's what sleep deprivation causes.
Sleep affects the brain's neocortex and hippocampus which deal with long-term memories. These parts of the brain replay the day's activities during sleep and process them to ensure that the memory lasts for a long term. Also, deep sleep helps in securing important details.
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It Can Lead You To Depression
Sleep deprivation affects the amygdala which is the part of the body responsible for emotions. Depression is strongly linked to sleep deprivation because it leaves you irritable, vigilant, and full of tension. Your mind would be overly active and unable to settle down. Lack of quality sleep can trigger emotional and physical trauma which causes heavy depression.
Your body and mind are unable to relax properly and may allow the feeling of sadness, disappointment, or even hopelessness to set in. Sleep deprivation makes you attached to thoughts of situations that challenge you which dampens your mood and affects your entire day.
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It Can Negatively Affect Your Appearance
Sleep deprivation can make you start looking old and aging instead of looking young and revitalized. With those puffy eyes and grouchy feelings, your appearance looks dull and unappealing. Your eyelids begin to show more fine lines and lack of sleep makes your eyes prone to twitching due to muscle fatigue.
You start feeling like a shadow of yourself even though your complexion and skin fail to have the usual glow that they used to have. Stress becomes more obvious on your body in a way that others can easily notice. Sleep deprivation can reduce your confidence because of the way you start to look
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It Can Kill Your Libido
Now, your sex drive is a lamb that can be slaughtered on the altar of sleep deprivation if it persists. Lack of sleep affects your hormone production, growth hormones, and even testosterone.
Sleep deprivation causes your libido to die a gradual death which makes it difficult for you to copulate with your partner. This can put a strain on your relationships especially in the area of sustaining intimacy.
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It Can Put You At Risk For Cardiovascular Diseases
When you don't sleep well, multiple numbers of things happen in your body simultaneously. Your heart vessels fail to rebuild properly and heal which increases your blood pressure. With high blood pressure, you increase your chances of having a stroke which can put your entire life on hold.
Also, your sugar levels increase with sorrow deprivation which makes you more prone to having cardiovascular diseases such as heart attacks and diabetes. Sleep helps to slow down your heart, regulate breathing and reduce heart stress, and aids in a speedy recovery from strain. This is why it is important for your health.
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It Can Actually Kill You
Although sleep deprivation cannot kill you directly, it can still kill you. If you are sleep-deprived and you handle heavy machinery or even drive, there's a tendency that you can fall asleep on the job. This becomes exceedingly dangerous both to you and those around you.
Other conditions caused by sleep deprivation can kill you. Conditions such as depression which can lead to suicide, psychosis may cause self-harm, and cardiovascular diseases. Autopsies have shown seemingly normal people die due to sleep deprivation.
Sleeping is like breathing, when you lack enough oxygen, you can choke and die. Although sleep deprivation works slower than lack of oxygen, it can also damage your health and body.
Invest in quality beds and sheets that would help you sleep better. Stay away from the noise and put that phone away. The work that you want to finish so badly is not worth your life. Make sure nothing takes away your sleep.
