Sleep or the lack of it has become a critical health issue among contemporary Americans. In fact, this lack of sufficient slumber is considered to be a major cause of fatal motor vehicle accidents, industrial mishaps, as well as occupational errors of assorted kinds. Falling asleep inadvertently, being lethargic during driving, and finding it hard to perform common everyday tasks due to nodding off, can very well contribute to such perilous outcomes. All those who undergo sleep insufficiency can also suffer from such chronic maladies like diabetes, hypertension, obesity, cancer, increased mortality, diminished quality of life as well as productivity. It is estimated that a whopping 50 to 70 million American adults suffer from wakefulness/sleep disorders. All these end up in what sociologists call TATT Syndrome, an abbreviation for Tired All The Time. As a result people are turning stupid, morose, clumsy, and even not surprisingly, dead.
Sleep insufficiency can prevent you from enjoying an undisturbed slumber. This means that you are unable to fall asleep, are unable to return to sleep once awoke, and often waking up at night. It can leave you irritable and exhausted, making it hard to concentrate on anything during daytime.
Some common causes of sleep insufficiency are...
• Beware of that nightcap!
Many have a nightcap before going to bed believing that drinking makes one feel drowsy and so makes it easy for one to sleep well. However, the response of the human body to alcohol is not that easy. Experts opine that alcohol disrupts the rhythm of your sleep. At first it makes you drowsy as expected, but once the level of alcohol in your blood drops, you are awake again. So to prevent this from occurring have that nightcap at least three hours prior to bedtime.
• Sleep apnea
Sleep apnea remains a typical sleep disorder that troubles a lot of people. Those who suffer from this condition tend to cease breathing unexpectedly during asleep. At such brief occasions, there is a build up of carbon dioxide in the blood stream that makes the sufferer wake up suddenly, gasping for breath. This period can range from a couple of seconds to longer durations resulting in the bluing of the skin from the resultant lack of oxygen.
• Narcolepsy:
Narcolepsy is neurological in nature and this sleep disorder results in severe sleepiness during the day. Those who suffer from this ailment are subject to bouts of overpowering sleepiness, making them fall asleep several times during daytime. These periods of slumber can range from a few seconds, to an hour and even or more. They can even fall asleep while enjoying a meal, talking to someone, or even driving an automobile. This syndrome affects around 250,000 in the US alone. It is in fact a chronic condition that begins during the teens. The sufferers might also experience hallucinations.
• Sleepwalking
Sleepwalking, or somnambulism as it is known in medical circles is characterized by getting out of bed frequently, while still asleep and walking around.
• Night terrors
Many young children in the age group of 2 to 6 frequently suffer from the mental condition, although persons of other ages can also be affected by this fearsome sleep disorder. Common symptoms are shaking of the body while asleep, excessive sweating, as also apparent fear.
Effects of sleep deprivation:
• Accidents
Loss of sleep can be catastrophic to public safety especially on the highways. Like driving drunk, sleepiness can critically bring down reaction time. According to the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, drowsiness is a major cause of around 100,000 automobile crashes as well as 1550 deaths linked to crashes, every year. And this problem is at its worst, among youth in their early twenties. Recent research has shown that sleep deprivation also causes on-the-job injuries and accidents.
• Health problems
Lack of sleep can also bring about grave health problems. Chronic sleep disorders can result in heart attack, heart disease, heart failure, hypertension, stroke, irregular heartbeat and diabetes.
• Affects sex drive
Sleep deprivation can adversely affect the sex drive. According to specialists both men and women when deprived of sleep tend to have lower libidos and diminished sex-drives. This is brought about by factors such as drowsiness, depleted energy, and excess tension.
• Lack of sleep makes you dumb
Slumber plays a decisive role in the process of learning and thinking. This sleep deprivation adversely affects our cognitive processes by various means. To begin with it weakens attention, concentration, alertness, reasoning, and the capacity to solve problems. Thus learning is considerably impaired. Secondly, certain sleep cycles help to combine memories in one’s mind at night. So unless you get sufficient sleep, you cannot recall the things you learned as well as experienced during daytime.
• Lack of sleep and depression
Insufficient sleep can gradually bring forth the various indications of depression. Studies reveal that those are diagnosed with anxiety or depression tends to sleep for not even six hours per night. Also, insomnia is strongly linked to depression and often the condition is an initial symptom of depression. In fact, depression and insomnia are teamed together in a vicious cycle. Loss of sleep intensifies most of the symptoms of depression which in turn makes it hard to achieve sound sleep.
• Lack of sleep and forgetfulness
Recent studies made by French and American scientists revealed that certain events occurring in the human brain termed ‘sharp wave ripples’ consolidate the memory. These ripples also convey information from the hippocampus region to neocortex, a location where memories of a long time nature are stored. And these sharp wave ripples arise while we are undergoing deep sleep. Thus it is clear that in order to maintain sharp memories we need a lot of sleep.
• Loss of sleep and unhealthy skin
If you miss a lot of sleep, your eyes turn puffy and skin sallow. Thus chronic loss of sleep can result in fine lines on your face, dark circles under your eyes as well as unhealthy looking skin. This is because sleep insufficiency causes the body to release cortisol, the stress hormone. And if it is released in large quantities it tends to break down the protein skin collagen which maintains the smoothness and elasticity of the facial skin. Loss of sleep also inhibits the release of growth hormones which can thicken the skin, strengthen the bones as also increase the mass of the muscles. This is essentially the normal process of repairing the wear and tear caused by the elements, every day.
• Loss of sleep and weight gain
Studies show that those who sleep less tend to become obese. This is because lack of sleep deprivation increases appetite and hunger. While the peptide gherkin excites hunger, another peptide leptin conveys satiety to your brain, thereby suppressing appetite. However, lack of sleep elevates ghrelin and suppresses leptin. What is more, sleep deprivation not only seems to promote appetite, but also arouses cravings for foods high in carbohydrates and fats. In the future, weight loss programmes might insist on sufficient sleep to begin with.
• Lack of sleep can impair judgement
Insufficient sleep can adversely affect the way we interpret events, thereby harming our aptitude to arrive at sound judgments. Thus, we might not evaluate situations precisely as well act on them sensibly. The one thing wrong with people who sleep less is that they feel they are adapted themselves to lack of sleep. However, this is a fallacy, for sleep depraved people fail markedly in tests of mental alertness. And the most unfortunate thing is that you are not aware of how impaired you are.
• Lack of sleep and risk of death
A study conducted in the UK in 2007, entitled Whitehall Second Study revealed that patterns of sleep affected the mortality rate of around 10,000 civil servants over a period of forty years. Those who cut down their sleeping hours by 7 to 5 every night, almost doubled the risk of death, especially from cardiovascular disorders.
Treating sleep deprivation
The ultimate treatment for lack of sleep is easy: sleep more. If you suffer from acute loss of sleep, a mere eight hours of sleep during a single night ought to do the trick. If you suffer from chronic sleep loss, you need to sleep for longer hours with extra naps during daytime to compensate. Youngsters might take a little longer to get well from extended sleep deprivation.
