Sleep doesn't just feel good, it's a life-saving, necessary human function.
Our bodies don't operate normally when we're sleep deprived. Research shows just one night of no sleep can
impair movement and focus and destroy your mood.
However, as the BuzzFeed video above points out, that's just the
beginning. The longer you go without sleep, the bigger the toll it takes
on your health. Take a look at the clip above to learn more about how a
lack of sleep messes with your brain and body. It certainly isn't
pretty.
Ready to hit the pillow yet?
See Video:
This is what happens to your body when you don't sleep http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/sleep-deprivation-effects_us_56c36521e4b08ffac126a5e2 #powerofsleep via @HPLifestyle
What Sleep Loss Will Do To You
Infographic by Alissa Scheller for The Huffington Post
After one night you're...
hungrier and apt to eat more. Studies have linked short-term sleep deprivation with
a propensity to load up on bigger portions,
a preference for high-calorie, high-carb foods and a greater likelihood of
choosing unhealthy foods while grocery shopping.
more likely to have an accident. Getting six or fewer hours of shut-eye a night triples your risk of drowsy driving-related accidents,
according to the National Sleep Foundation's Drowsydriving.org. Plus, just one bad night's sleep can affect a driver's eye-steering coordination,
according to research from Manchester Metropolitan University. And sleep deprivation can just make you generally more clumsy, whether you're behind the wheel or not,
reports Prevention.
not looking your best -- or your most approachable.
Beauty sleep is legit. A small study published last year in the journal
SLEEP found that sleep deprived study participants were rated as less
attractive and sadder,
HuffPost reported at the time.
A different study from the Medical Institutet Karolinska in Stockholm,
Sweden found that exhausted people are also judged to be less
approachable. And the problem only gets worse over time: Researchers
have linked chronic sleep deprivation with
skin aging.
more likely to catch a cold. Proper rest is one of the building blocks of a healthy immune system. In fact,
one Carnegie Mellon University study found that sleeping fewer than seven hours a night was associated with a
tripled risk of coming down with a cold. What's more,
the Mayo Clinic explains:
During sleep, your immune system releases proteins called cytokines,
some of which help promote sleep. Certain cytokines need to increase
when you have an infection or inflammation, or when you're under stress.
Sleep deprivation may decrease production of these protective
cytokines. In addition, infection-fighting antibodies and cells are
reduced during periods when you don't get enough sleep.
losing brain tissue. A small, recent study of 15 men, published in the journal SLEEP, found that
just one night of sleep deprivation
was linked with signs of brain tissue loss, measured by blood levels of
two brain molecules that usually increase after brain damage.
more likely to get emotional. One 2007 study
from researchers at the University of California, Berkeley and Harvard
Medical School used functioning Magnetic Resonance Imaging to show that
after sleep deprivation, the brain's emotional centers were more more
than 60 percent more reactive. "It's almost as though, without sleep,
the brain had reverted back to more primitive patterns of activity, in
that it was unable to put emotional experiences into context and produce
controlled, appropriate responses," senior author Matthew Walker,
director of UC Berkeley's Sleep and Neuroimaging Laboratory, said in a
statement. "Emotionally, you're not on a level playing field."
less focused and having memory problems. Being exhausted
zaps your focus, and can render you
more forgetful
(no wonder you keep misplacing your cell phone after a bad night
between the sheets). On top of that, sleep is thought to be involved in
the process of memory consolidation, according to Harvard, which means shortchanging it can make it more difficult to learn and retain new things.
After a while your...
stroke risk quadruples. Research presented at the
SLEEP 2012 conference suggested that getting fewer than six hours a
night can ratchet up stroke risk for middle- and older-aged people.
"These people sleeping less than six hours had a four times increased
risk of experiencing these stroke symptoms compared to their normal
weight counterparts that were getting seven to eight hours," study
researcher Megan Ruiter, of the University of Alabama at Birmingham,
told HuffPost at the time.
obesity risk jumps. Not only can short-term sleep
loss lead to increased caloric consumption, but multiple studies have
suggested a link between chronic sleep deprivation and increased obesity
risk over time.
One 2012 research review
from Penn State, for instance, found that sleeping fewer than six hours
a night was linked with changes in levels of the appetite hormones
ghrelin and leptin.
Another 2012 study
published in the American Journal of Human Biology showed that too
little sleep was tied to changes in appetite regulation, which could
trigger people to eat more.
And yet another study
from the University of Pennsylvania found that study participants who
were sleep deprived for five nights in a row gained about two pounds,
perhaps because of late night snacking.
risk of some cancers may increase. One Cancer study
of 1,240 participants who underwent colonoscopies found that those who
slept fewer than six hours a night had a 50 percent spike in risk of
colorectal adenomas, which
can turn malignant over time.
Another 2012 study identified a possible link between sleep and aggressive breast cancers.
Researchers have also suggested a correlation between sleep apnea and increased cancer risk of any kind.
diabetes risk goes up. A 2013 study
from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that too
little (and too much!) sleep was linked with a host of chronic diseases,
including Type 2 diabetes.
And the same 2012 study
that found that sleep deprivation was linked to hormonal changes
associated with obesity also found that too little sleep was tied to
decreased insulin sensitivity, a diabetes risk factor.
heart disease risk increases. Chronic sleep
deprivation has been associated with high blood pressure,
atherosclerosis (or cholesterol-clogged arteries), heart failure and
heart attack,
Harvard Health Publications reports.
A 2011 study from Warwick Medical School researchers found that
inadequate shut-eye was tied to heart attack risk, as well as
cardiovascular disorders and stroke. "If you sleep less than six hours
per night and have disturbed sleep you stand a 48 percent greater chance
of developing or dying from heart disease and a 15 per cent greater
chance of developing or dying of a stroke,"
lead author Francesco Cappuccio said in a statement on the findings,
which were published in the European Heart Journal. "The trend for late
nights and early mornings is actually a ticking time bomb for our
health so you need to act now to reduce your risk of developing these
life-threatening conditions."
sperm count decreases. Besides the obvious fact that
exhaustion isn't typically conducive to getting busy, skipping your Zzs
can take a hit on fertility.
A 2013 study
published in the American Journal of Epidemiology of 953 young men in
Denmark found that those with high levels of sleep disturbances had a 29
percent lower concentration of sperm in their semen.
risk of death goes up. A SLEEP study
evaluating 1,741 men and women over the course of 10 to 14 years found
that men who slept fewer than six hours had a significant increase in
mortality risk, even after adjusting for diabetes, hypertension and
other factors.
This story appears in Issue 87 of our weekly iPad magazine, Huffington
, available Friday, Feb. 7 in the iTunes App store.
Link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/sleep-deprivation-effects_us_56c36521e4b08ffac126a5e2?utm_hp_ref=healthy-living&
