You know lack of sleep can make you
grumpy and foggy. You may not know what it can do to your sex life,
Sleep deprivation was a factor in some
of the biggest disasters in recent history: the 1979 nuclear accident at Three
Mile Island, the massive Exxon Valdez oil spill, the 1986 nuclear meltdown at
Chernobyl, and others.
But sleep loss is also a big public safety
hazard every day on the road. Drowsiness can slow reaction time as much as
driving drunk. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates
that fatigue is a cause in 100,000 auto crashes and 1,550 crash-related deaths
a year in the U.S. The problem is greatest among people under 25 years old.
Studies show that sleep loss and
poor-quality sleep also lead to accidents and injuries on the job. In one
study, workers who complained about excessive daytime sleepiness had
significantly more work accidents, particularly repeated work accidents. They
also had more sick days per accident.
2. Sleep Loss Dumbs You Down
Sleep plays a critical role in thinking
and learning. Lack of sleep hurts these cognitive processes in many ways.
First, it impairs attention, alertness, concentration, reasoning, and problem
solving. This makes it more difficult to learn efficiently.
Second, during the night, various sleep
cycles play a role in “consolidating” memories in the mind. If you don’t get
enough sleep, you won’t be able to remember what you learned and experienced
during the day.
3. Sleep Deprivation Can Lead to
Serious Health Problems
Sleep disorders and chronic sleep loss
can put you at risk for:
• Heart
disease
• Heart
attack
• Heart
failure
• Irregular
heartbeat
• High
blood pressure
• Stroke
• Diabetes
According to some estimates, 90% of
people with insomnia -- a sleep disorder characterized by trouble falling and
staying asleep -- also have another health condition.
4. Lack of Sleep Kills Sex Drive
Sleep specialists say that
sleep-deprived men and women report lower libidos and less interest in sex.
Depleted energy, sleepiness, and increased tension may be largely to blame.
For men with sleep apnea, a respiratory
problem that interrupts sleep, there may be another factor in the sexual slump.
A study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism in
2002 suggests that many men with sleep apnea also have low testosterone levels.
In the study, nearly half of the men who suffered from severe sleep apnea also
secreted abnormally low levels of testosterone during the night.
5. Sleepiness Is Depressing
Over time, lack of sleep and sleep
disorders can contribute to the symptoms of depression. In a 2005 Sleep in
America poll, people who were diagnosed with depression or anxiety were more
likely to sleep less than six hours at night.
The most common sleep disorder,
insomnia, has the strongest link to depression. In a 2007 study of 10,000
people, those with insomnia were five times as likely to develop depression as
those without. In fact, insomnia is often one of the first symptoms of
depression.
Insomnia and depression feed on each
other. Sleep loss often aggravates the symptoms of depression, and depression
can make it more difficult to fall asleep. On the positive side, treating sleep
problems can help depression and its symptoms, and vice versa.
6. Lack of Sleep Ages Your Skin
Most people have experienced sallow
skin and puffy eyes after a few nights of missed sleep. But it turns out that
chronic sleep loss can lead to lackluster skin, fine lines, and dark circles
under the eyes.
When you don’t get enough sleep, your
body releases more of the stress hormone cortisol. In excess amounts, cortisol
can break down skin collagen, the protein that keeps skin smooth and elastic.
Sleep loss also causes the body to
release too little human growth hormone. When we’re young, human growth hormone
promotes growth. As we age, it helps increase muscle mass, thicken skin, and
strengthen bones.
“It’s during deep sleep -- what we call
slow-wave sleep -- that growth hormone is released,” says sleep expert Phil
Gehrman, PhD. “It seems to be part of normal tissue repair -- patching the wear
and tear of the day.”
7. Sleepiness Makes You Forgetful
Trying to keep your memory sharp? Try
getting plenty of sleep.
In 2009, American and French
researchers determined that brain events called “sharp wave ripples” are
responsible for consolidating memory. The ripples also transfer learned
information from the hippocampus to the neocortex of the brain, where long-term
memories are stored. Sharp wave ripples occur mostly during the deepest levels
of sleep.
When it comes to body weight, it may be
that if you snooze, you lose. Lack of sleep seems to be related to an increase
in hunger and appetite, and possibly to obesity. According to a 2004 study,
people who sleep less than six hours a day were almost 30 percent more likely
to become obese than those who slept seven to nine hours.
Recent research has focused on the link
between sleep and the peptides that regulate appetite. “Ghrelin stimulates
hunger and leptin signals satiety to the brain and suppresses appetite,” says
Siebern. “Shortened sleep time is associated with decreases in leptin and
elevations in ghrelin.”
Not only does sleep loss appear to
stimulate appetite. It also stimulates cravings for high-fat, high-carbohydrate
foods. Ongoing studies are considering whether adequate sleep should be a
standard part of weight loss programs.
9. Lack of Sleep May Increase Risk of
Death
In the “Whitehall II Study,” British
researchers looked at how sleep patterns affected the mortality of more than
10,000 British civil servants over two decades. The results, published in 2007,
showed that those who had cut their sleep from seven to five hours or fewer a
night nearly doubled their risk of death from all causes. In particular, lack
of sleep doubled the risk of death from cardiovascular disease.
10. Sleep Loss Impairs Judgment,
Especially About Sleep
Lack of sleep can affect our
interpretation of events. This hurts our ability to make sound judgments
because we may not assess situations accurately and act on them wisely.
Sleep-deprived people seem to be
especially prone to poor judgment when it comes to assessing what lack of sleep
is doing to them. In our increasingly fast-paced world, functioning on less
sleep has become a kind of badge of honor. But sleep specialists say if you
think you’re doing fine on less sleep, you’re probably wrong. And if you work
in a profession where it’s important to be able to judge your level of
functioning, this can be a big problem.
“Studies show that over time, people
who are getting six hours of sleep, instead of seven or eight, begin to feel
that they’ve adapted to that sleep deprivation -- they’ve gotten used to it,”
Gehrman says. “But if you look at how they actually do on tests of mental
alertness and performance, they continue to go downhill. So there’s a point in
sleep deprivation when we lose touch with how impaired we are.”
http://www.webmd.com
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