Everyone knows
that drugs and alcohol can damage the brain, but all the clean living in the
world may not keep your cranium perfectly healthy. You probably have no idea
how much damage lack of sleep is doing to your brain.
If your body is
in a state of rest, it’s possible for your muscles and other parts of your body
to regenerate even if you are not asleep. This is not possible for your brain,
which stays in a state of alertness the entire time you are awake. Your brain
can’t refresh itself through ordinary sleep, either. You must reach certain
stages of sleep before your brain can even begin to get the rest that it needs.
If you consistently don’t get enough sleep, and give your brain enough time to
recharge itself, you’re doing a colossal amount of damage to yourself.
That word
colossal isn't being used lightly here. Lack of sleep will affect your
behavior, your judgement, and your overall health. It can even be deadly.
Without proper
sleep, the cerebral cortex does not regenerate. This area of the brain is
integral in processing language. In tests among sleep-deprived subjects, there
was a noticeable lack of activity in the cerebral cortex. This manifests itself
as slurred speech.
The frontal
lobe experiences a lot of function loss in sleep-deprived brains. This section
of the brain is used for creative thinking. Sleep-deprived people show a
noticeable difficulty in thinking creatively. They do not have the ability to
react to changes as a result. They cannot quickly come up with a decision, and
have difficulty focusing on multiple tasks at once.
Creative
thinking isn't even the half of it. The frontal lobe of the brain is also
responsible for functions like attention, visual association, judgment, and
impulse control, like binge eating….
In hand-eye
coordination tasks, people who are suffering from sleep deprivation performed
just as poorly, or even worse, than those who were intoxicated. By the way,
sleep deprivation makes the effects of alcohol much worse. Driver fatigue
results in about 1,500 deaths every single year.
Lack of sleep
will cause behavioral changes. Sleep deprived brains experience impaired memory
function, an inability to concentrate, irritability, and coordination difficulties.
Depriving
yourself of sleep can also cause fine lines and other symptoms of aging,
because collagen doesn't have adequate time to replicate itself. Sleep
deprivation also correlates to an increase in hunger. Not only does it give you
an appetite, lack of sleep makes you crave high-carb and high-fat foods. In a
brain that does not get enough sleep, metabolism stops functioning
efficiently.
Parts of the
brain that help control emotions and social interaction experience greatly
reduced activity in sleep-deprived people.
In time,
prolonged sleep deprivation can create hallucinations because brain activity is
so impaired. These visions are caused by tired, overused neurons that create
fictional images. Extreme sleep deprivation can even lead to temporary
insanity. Depriving the brain of
sleep will also aggravate mental illness. It can cause depression and even a
psychotic state of paranoia. Sleep deprivation can trigger manic episodes as
well.
Over time, the brain begins to
deteriorate.
Brains that
continue to go without sleep will die. Without sleep, the immune system becomes
weak. White blood cell count decreases. The body stops producing enough growth
hormones. This weakens you physically and compromises your ability to heal. In
some studies, sleep deprivation nearly doubled the risk of cardiovascular
disease.
Most adults
require about 7 to 8 hours of sleep per night to maintain good health, though
pregnant women require more. Caffeine can’t alleviate the effects of severe
sleep deprivation.
Have you got a
sleeping problem? Pay attention to your behavior. Notice if you feel drowsy or
fall asleep during the day. Pay attention to whether you fall asleep within the
first five minutes of lying down. If so, you could have a sleep disorder and
likely have severe sleep deprivation.
Getting six
hours of sleep a night, or less, is not healthy. Because of the way it affects
your brain, you can easily convince yourself that you’re fine. You may feel
that you’re used to sleep deprivation, and that you've adjusted. But that’s
your brain exhibiting poor judgment—one of the hallmarks of sleep deprivation.
You must stop, now, and start getting some sleep.
