Serious Consequences of Sleep Loss

You know that sleep loss is not a just a nighttime problem.

Its effect can extend far into the daytime functioning.

You cannot substitute anything for a good night’s sleep.

Sleep loss causes depression:

In college students, depression is two times more common than in the general population, affecting approximately 20% of students.

Researchers believe that sleep loss contributes to high rate of depression in college students.

Attending college increases the incidence of both sleep problems and depression. Lack of sleep for more than two weeks is a risk factor for developing depression. Some people have sleep loss due to the work submission before the deadline. [Depression Management]

For many students, it’s an indication of achievement to function on minimal sleep, but lack of sleep carries risks. Sleep less than 6.5 hours per night is related with 1.7 times greater risk of disease and death.

Sleep loss causes:

• Automobile accidents (exhaustion is the leading cause)
• Illness such as colds and flu
• Mental illnesses
• Decreased academic performance

Sleep loss alters hormones and metabolism:

Sleep loss can decrease the capacity of even young men and women to perform metabolic functions, such as processing and storing carbohydrates or regulating hormone secretion.

If the sleep is decreased from eight hours to four hours, glucose tolerance and endocrine function changes. These changes resembled the effects of early stages of diabetes after less than one week.

The chronic sleep loss may not only hasten the onset but could also increase the severity of age-related ailments such as diabetes, hypertension, obesity and memory loss.

Due to the time pressures of modern industrial societies, the average sleep is reduced. Millions of shift workers sleep less than five hours per workday.

Van Cauter and colleagues Karine Spiegel and Rachel Leproult chose to focus instead on the physiologic effects of sleep loss, how sleep deprivation alters basic bodily functions such as regulating blood-sugar levels, storing energy from food and the production of various hormones.

Sleep deprivation alters the production and action of other hormones, dampening the secretion of thyroid-stimulating hormone and increasing blood levels of cortisol, especially during the afternoon and evening.

Elevated evening cortisol levels are typical of much older subjects and are thought to be related to age-related health problems such as insulin resistance and memory impairment.

Sleep loss boosts appetite and may encourage weight gain:

Researchers at the University of Chicago have found that partial sleep deprivation alters the circulating levels of the hormones that regulate hunger, causing an increase in appetite and a preference for calorie-dense, high-carbohydrate foods.

Research subjects who slept only four hours a night for two nights had an 18 percent decrease in leptin, a hormone that tells the brain there is no need for more food, and a 28 percent increase in ghrelin, a hormone that triggers hunger.

A study on all healthy young men reported a 24 percent increase in appetite, with a surge in desire for sweets, such as cookies and candy, starchy foods such as pasta and bread, and salty foods such as nuts and chips.

American adults have cut their average sleep time by nearly two hours. As sleep time fell, average weights increased.

In 1960 only one out of four adults was overweight and about one out of nine was considered obese, with a body mass index of 30 or more. Now two out of three adults is overweight and nearly one out of three is obese.

Several epidemiologic studies showed that people who sleep less are more likely to be overweight. One recent study found that those who reported less than four hours of sleep a night were 73 percent more likely to be obese.

Sleep Loss can affect Daytime Performance

Sleep can have serious effects on your daytime functioning. Sleep loss can have effects on performance if it is significant and occurs for several days without recovery sleep.

Many studies have shown that if eight-hour sleepers are limited to four hours of sleep for as little as a few days, their performance goes down on tasks like problem solving, reaction time and memory.

These effects depend upon the person, how much sleep is lost, motivation and the circumstances under which sleep loss takes place.

Some people show a notable tolerance for sleep loss, particularly if the person is motivated to cope with sleep loss or if the sleep loss occurs under positive circumstances such as an excitement or a function.

The effects of sleep loss are more when people lose half of their normal sleep but the effects will be less when they lose one or two hours. Sleep loss may be due to stress at the work place or at home. Due to the sleep loss, the next day performance is affected.

How to overcome sleep loss?

Following these tips will help to overcome the consequences of sleep loss.

• Maintain regular sleep time and wakeup time including holidays and weekends.
• As bright light suppresses the secretion of melatonin, dim the lights in the bedroom before going to sleep. Get bright light in the early morning to get up at regular time.
• Take hot bath before bedtime if you don’t get sleep
• Avoid stimulants such as caffeine, nicotine and alcohol as they disrupt the sleep.
• Don’t eat large meals before bedtime.
• You can drink warm milk to get a good sleep.
• Exercise 3 to 4 hours before going to bed. As you will be tired, you can get good sleep.
• Avoid sleeping pills as you will be addicted to them.
• Avoid daytime naps as they may interrupt night sleep.
• If you don’t get sleep, you can listen to calm music or you can read any book.