What living an active busy lifestyle usually results in is sleep being sacrificed, as it becomes a common occurrence. What’s then lost is sleep you can’t get back, such as on the weekends for instance. Throwing in a late night every once in a while however, won’t raise alarm bells.
But if it gets chronic, once you begin to skimp on sleep and it becomes routine, is when the problems arise.
Sleep and food are obviously essential for survival. What the lack of either leads to, is a breakdown of both physical and mental health.
Over time, it can lead towards chronic personal issues. Sleeping along with breathing and eating are the vital key essentials for existing another day.
10. Affects Memory And Brain Function
What having just one sleepless night, does is harms your concentration and focus the next day, which forces you to become dozy and irritable.
Adequate sleep is essential when it comes to better cognitive health, which plays a key role in thinking and learning.
A lack of sleep is known to impair attention, concentration, alertness, reasoning, and problem solving.
A lack of it also negatively impacts both short and long term memory. Getting enough sleep allows your brain to function efficiently.
9. Causes Fatigue Related Accidents
One of the most common reasons for serious accidents is because of being too tired, this because of a lack of sleep.
This includes driving when fatigued, where the symptoms and consequences, can at times be just as bad as driving when drunk.
What sleep deprivation does is impairs coordination, delays reaction times, impairs judgment, impairs memory, and the ability to focus.
What all these factors does is affects the ability to drive safely. It’s thought that 1 in every 5 serious motor vehicle accidents, is because of driver fatigue.
8. Shortens Life Span
Similar to eating and breathing, getting sleep is a basic human need. What’s known for certain is it’s sleep that’s most vital for survival.
What’s known is sleep deprivation leads to over 700 genetic changes which can worsen your health.
For those who fails to get adequate routine sleep on a nightly basis, the mortality rates are known to be higher.
What’s also known is sleeping too much can be just as harmful as not sleeping enough, so it’s best to stick with the prescribed 7 to 9 hours per night.
7. Plays Havoc On Your Skin
Even just having one poor night of beauty sleep can do is cause puffiness and dark bags under the eyes, along with sallow skin.
What severe sleep deprivation does is results in a pale wrinkly dried out complexion. What not getting enough sleep does is impacts the elasticity of the skin.
Lack of sleep leads to excess stress, which forces the body to produce more of the cortisol hormone, which breaks down protein in the skin, preventing it from being glowing and smooth.
6. Increased Risk Of Diabetes
What constant long-term lack of sleep over time, can do is raise the risk of developing chronic diseases such as diabetes.
Getting less than 6 hours of sleep per night, or more than 9 hours, does is increases the prevalence of impaired glucose intolerance, along with increasing diabetes mellitus.
How the body reacts to a lack of sleep, is similar to how it reacts to insulin resistance. This is when the cells fail to use the insulin efficiently, which is a known precursor to diabetes.
5. Can Cause Weight Gain
What getting adequate regular sleep does is helps you maintain a healthy appetite and eating schedule. If you get less sleep than what your body needs, what it produces is a hormone known as ghrelin.
What this hormone does is stimulates hunger while reducing the production of leptin, which is known appetite suppressor.
What sleep deprivation does is affects appetite along with energy metabolism, which in turn contributes to weight gain.
What failing to control appetite, while not getting enough sleep, can do is lead to obesity.
4. Causes Moodiness
What sleep deprivation does is alters your mood, as it affects the neurotransmitters in the brain, which is one of the key causes of depression.
What extreme mood swings during the day also does, is impacts the ability to fall asleep at night.
Those diagnosed with mood disorders usually gets less than 6 hours of sleep on a nightly basis. Insomnia is also one of the first symptoms of those who are depressed.
So if you experience extreme mood swings, along with having trouble sleeping, it can become a “Catch 22” situation, and medical help should be sought.
3. Weakens The Immune System
Sleep deprivation also affects the immune system, as it weakens it’s ability to protect you from infections such as the common cold, flu, and other immediate ailments.
Once the immune system fails to function properly, the body then becomes susceptible to attacks by external viruses and bacteria, making you sick more often.
What sleeping does is fortifies the immune system by releasing proteins known as cytokines, along with other infection fighting antibodies which protects the body against infection or inflammation.
2. Decreases Heart Health
What getting adequate sleep is especially important for, is better heart health.
What depriving sleep does is places you at a higher risk of stroke, this regardless of age, weight, or exercise habits.
What sleep does is plays a key role for the body to heal itself, which includes repairing the blood vessels that leads to the heart.
Studies show those who sleep less than 6 hours a night, has is a greater risk of heart disease and cardiovascular issues, than those who gets the recommended 7 to 9 hours per night.
1. Reduces Sex Drive
What a lack of sleep can lead to is the loss of interest in intimacy and sex. One reason is because sleep deprivation directly reduces your energy level.
What this leads to is increased tension, stress, and anxiety, which dampens the spirit to become intimate, this in both men and women.
For men who suffer from sleep apnea, which is a sleep disorder that interrupts getting a good nights sleep. What results is lower testosterone levels, which results in lower libido function.