At a more advanced level, sleep deprivation can over-stimulate parts of the brain and even lead to permanent brain damage, according to a report on sleep deprivation among students published by The Guardian. “This is because of the brain's 'neural plasticity' – which means its ability to adapt to new situations.
How Does an All-Nighter Affect You? All-nighters have extensive and potentially serious negative effects. Sleep is vital to the proper functioning of the body, and completely skipping a night of sleep can harm your thinking and cognition, your mood and emotions, and your physical well-being.
Going without sleep for 24 hours won't have a long-term effect on your health, but it does have plenty of negative short-term consequences. Dr. Drerup says that going 24 hours without sleep is comparable to having a blood alcohol content of 0.1%, which is above the legal limit throughout the United States.
For a healthy person, there is unlikely to be long-term health consequences from a single all-nighter. “I think about sleep deprivation as a physiological earthquake,” Simon says. “If it's a relatively rare event… the body can recover after a couple of days."
The bare minimum of sleep needed to live, not just thrive, is 4 hours per 24-hour period. Seven to 9 hours of sleep are needed for health, renewal, learning, and memory. Disruption of the sleep cycle from shift work creates problems for the quality and quantity of sleep.
After 36 hours of being awake, the effects of sleep deprivation become more severe, putting notable stress on your body.
It's best not to make pulling an all-nighter a regular activity because it may disrupt your circadian rhythm, lead to sleep problems, and increase your risk of developing chronic illnesses.
"Staying up all night just once doesn't mean you'll develop one of these health conditions, but engaging in sleep deprivation can encourage poor sleep habits, which, over time, could ultimately impact your overall health," says Dr. Ram.
Sleep deprivation significantly impairs a range of cognitive and brain function, particularly episodic memory and the underlying hippocampal function. However, it remains controversial whether one or two nights of recovery sleep following sleep deprivation fully restores brain and cognitive function.
Catching up on sleep doesn't reverse damage to the body caused by sleep deprivation, according to a new study. In fact, so-called recovery sleep may make some things worse. About one of every three adults regularly gets less than seven hours of sleep a night. Over time, lack of sleep can lead to changes in metabolism.
Studies have also linked sleep deprivation to higher incidence of obesity, and increased risk for diabetes and chronic inflammation. Even without these conditions, simply sleeping less than 5 hours a night on average reduces your life expectancy by 15%.
All-nighters are fun, and a way to challenge yourself and your friends! To get the most fun from an all-nighter, you need to prepare yourself to stay awake, eat the right foods, and plan stimulating activities. During an all-nighter, you can leave behind daily routines and just commit to whatever activities you want.
The takeaway: After six nights of six hours of sleep, your energy levels and certain health metrics may recover from sleep deprivation with three nights of 10 hours of sleep, but your mental performance may take longer. Some things may bounce back fast.
If you have ever pulled an all-nighter you may have asked yourself, “Is it better to stay up all night or sleep for an hour?” Well, in truth neither answer would likely serve you best. Completing a sleep cycle takes 90 minutes, which is when sleepers should find their most beneficial rest.
After a long all-nighter, it's time to take some well-deserved rest. Set aside some time in your schedule for a quick nap to give you the boost you need to make it through the day. The following night, plan to turn in early so you can get some quality shut-eye.
Dark circles, bags under the eyes, constant yawning, and a struggle to keep your eyes open can all be expected when you pull an all-nighter to fix your sleep schedule. But, beyond the more obvious, short-term effects on your body, staying up all night can have long term effects on your body.
Now, he makes an effort to sleep at least six hours per night, he said in an interview with CNBC's David Faber on Tuesday. “I've tried [to sleep] less, but ... even though I'm awake more hours, I get less done,” Musk said. “And the brain pain level is bad if I get less than six hours [of sleep per night].”
After two days of no sleep, you can count on increased irritability, anxiety, foggy memory, and impaired thinking, says Hussam Al-Sharif, MD, a pulmonologist and sleep medicine specialist at the Mayo Clinic in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
If you are not getting enough sleep, your body will eventually make you sleep. How long it takes you to fall asleep (sleep latency) is affected by how much your body needs to sleep. Normally, it only takes one or two days to recover from the short-term problems caused by acute sleep deprivation.
VIDEO: Meet the 70-year-old Saudi man who hasn't 'slept for over 30 years' Saud Bin Muhammad Al-Ghamdi talks to the media at his residence in Al-Baha, Saudi Arabia.
In December 1963/January 1964, 17-year-old Gardner stayed awake for 11 days and 24 minutes (264.4 hours), breaking the previous record of 260 hours held by Tom Rounds.