What happens if you don’t sleep enough?
A lot of evidence shows how sleep affects your overall health. During sleep, both the body and the brain can get better. You’ll feel refreshed and ready to go when you wake up in the morning after a good night’s sleep.
Not getting enough sleep will not only make you feel tired, but it can also make you more likely to get sick or have other health problems. These are heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and stroke. Not getting enough sleep can also put your health at risk. Studies show that up to 19% of adults in the United States regularly don’t get enough sleep.
What are side effects of not getting enough sleep?
Sleep is very important for your mental and physical health. During sleep, different things happen that help keep the brain and the body healthy. Sleep is also important for kids and teens to grow and develop properly.
When you don’t get enough sleep, these things can go wrong. The term “sleep deficiency” means you can’t get enough good sleep. This could be caused by not getting enough sleep or not getting enough sleep, or it could be caused by a sleep disorder or a misaligned circadian rhythm. If you don’t get enough good sleep, your body has less time to heal while you sleep. This can also make your body less able to fight diseases and other health problems.
The effects of not getting enough sleep:
Good sleep and weight loss or obese
Studies have shown that not getting enough sleep can make you more likely to gain weight. During sleep, your body makes and controls many hormones. Some of these are ghrelin, which makes you feel hungry, and leptin, which makes you feel full. If you don’t get enough sleep, your ghrelin levels can go up, and your leptin levels can go down. This makes you more likely to feel too hungry and eat too much.
Heart Issues
During sleep, blood pressure usually goes down. So, getting less sleep can cause your average blood pressure, which can increase your risk of heart disease and stroke. Lack of sleep has also been linked to calcification of the coronary arteries, a major sign of coronary heart disease.
Insulin monitoring
Insulin is a natural hormone that controls how much sugar is in your blood. Your body’s response to insulin can change if you don’t get enough sleep. This can cause your glucose level to rise, which makes you more likely to get Type 2 diabetes. In the same way, less sleep or poor quality sleep may make it harder for people with diabetes to control their blood sugar.
Immune health
During sleep, the number of certain T-cells, different cytokines, and other important parts of your immune system reaches its highest point. If you don’t get sufficient sleep, your immune system might not be able to fight off viruses and other infections as well as it could. Long-term lack of sleep can also cause low-level inflammation all over the body, which is the cause of many long-term health problems.
Cognitive Capacity
Night’s sleep can help you focus, think of new ideas, and learn new things. People who don’t get enough sleep often have trouble focusing and are more likely to make mistakes at work or school.
Consolidating memories
Sleep is important for remembering things. During slow-wave sleep, the third stage of your sleep cycle that doesn’t involve rapid eye movement, your brain starts to organize and consolidate memories. The next stage, rapid eye movement, may help these memories stick. So, not getting adequate sleep can make it harder to remember important things.
Mood
People who don’t get enough sleep may find it harder to control their emotions, make good decisions, and deal with different parts of daily life. Lack of sleep can also cause mental health problems like depression and make someone more likely to kill themselves.
Development and Growth
For kids and teens, deep sleep makes hormones come out that help them grow and develop normally, gain muscle mass, control puberty and fertility, and repair cells and tissues. When kids don’t get adequate sleep, they may feel angry or sad, have trouble with schoolwork, and find it hard to interact with their peers in a good way.
Protection
A big danger for U.S. drivers on the road is falling asleep at the wheel. An absence of sleep can slow down a person’s reaction time and cause them to fall asleep at the wheel. People who don’t get adequate sleep are also more likely to get into workplace accidents.
How much sleep you require changes as you get older. Babies and newborns need up to 17 hours of sleep each night, while teenagers can usually get by on 8 to 10 hours. Most adults between 18 and 64 need between 7 and 9 hours. When a person turns 65, this number goes down to seven or eight hours.
Why sleep hygiene is important?
Sleep hygiene is a catch-all term for habits and actions that affect how well and how long you sleep. It can include how you go to sleep and wake up, what you eat, how much you exercise, and other parts of your daily life.
Important parts of good sleep hygiene are:
Maintain a Regular Sleep Schedule
It would help if you tried to go to bed and wake up simultaneously every day, even on the weekends and when you’re traveling. Many people find that having the same routine before bedtime helps them sleep on time.
Taking priority Sleep
When you have a family, work, and social life, it can be hard to get enough sleep. But sometimes you may have to skip these things to get enough rest.
Taking Care of Your Sleep
If you nap during the day, it can be hard to get enough sleep at night. It would be best if you only napped in the morning or early afternoon. It would help if you also didn’t take naps that last longer than 20 minutes8 because this can make you feel tired and unable to concentrate when you wake up.
Calming bedroom atmosphere
Think of your room as a safe place to sleep. You should make sure your bedroom is a good place to sleep by using thick curtains to block out light, using a white noise machine or earplugs to drown out loud noises, and setting your thermostat to 60 to 67 degrees Fahrenheit (15.6 to 19.4 degrees Celsius), which many experts agree is the best temperature for sleep.
Habits
A healthy diet and moderate exercise can help you sleep better and for longer at night. People who have trouble sleeping should stop smoking and not drink alcohol or take caffeine hours before bed. Eating late at night, especially if it’s a big meal, can make it hard to sleep.