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How sleep deprivation may affect your brain

If you have spent a night, turning left or right, tossing or turning, you know how it feels the next day, tired and cranky. But getting less than recommended eight hours’ sleep makes you feel dazed and grumpy. Thus, don’t deprive yourself of mandatory eight hours of sleep, as it helps you in recovering from days’ fatigue, and stress.

sleep deprivation may affect your brain
sleep deprivation may affect your brain

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Published : Jun 3, 2020, 12:16 PM IST

Updated : Jun 4, 2020, 3:22 PM IST

If you have spent a night, turning left or right, tossing or turning, you know how it feels the next day, tired and cranky. Also getting less than recommended eight hours’ sleep makes you feel dazed and grumpy.

The long-term effect of sleep deprivation is real, as it drains your mental ability and increases the chances of physical risk as well.

Science has linked poor sleep to several health problems, from weight gain to weakened immune system and several others.

But, before getting into detail about sleep deprivation, it’s important to know causes.

Causes of sleep deprivation

In a nutshell, sleep deprivation is caused by consistent diminished sleep or reduced quantity of sleep. If a person gets less than eight hours of sleep, it leads to consequences on his/her bodies. Sleep deprivation is primarily caused by a sleep disorder.

Your body needs sleep, just like you need air and water to function properly. During sleep, your body heals and recovers from the days’ fatigue. Your brain also recovers, as it forges new thought and helps in memory retention.

Without sound sleep, your brain drains and doesn’t function properly. It dramatically results in lower quality of your life.

Some noticeable signs of Sleep deprivation include:

If sleep is deprived for a longer, it could lead to hallucination resulting to seeing or hearing the things that don’t exist. A lack of sleep can trigger mania in people. Other psychological risks of it include:

  • Impulsive behaviour
  • Depression
  • Paranoia
  • Suicide thoughts
  • Mood swings

Here are the things that happen, when you don’t sleep for long hours depending on your mental as well as the physical state:

Makes your immune system more vulnerable

Not getting enough sleep makes your body more vulnerable to diseases. It’s proven in research that sleep and immunity are interrelated.

Impacts your behaviour

Scientists measuring sleep behaviour have found that not getting enough sleep hampers your thinking ability. It’s makes more difficult for us to concentrate and ends up with confusion.

Increases weight

Lacking enough sleep brings major changes to your body, as appetite and hunger hormone secretion is impacted by sleep deprivation. There is a set of hormones responsible for appetite and hunger, ghrelin and leptin, the hormone ghrelin, triggers a feeling of hunger, on the other hand, leptin suppresses appetite and encourages the body to expand.

Affects your cardiovascular health

Getting enough sleep betters our heart health, an adult who sleeping for less than 7 hours each night is more likely to have had health problems, including heart attack, asthma, depression.

Thus, don’t deprive yourself of mandatory eight hours of sleep, as it helps you in recovering from days’ fatigue, and stress. For a healthy mind, you need a healthy body that is impossible to attain without sound sleep.

Last Updated : Jun 4, 2020, 3:22 PM IST

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