Some of the most serious potential problems associated with chronic sleep deprivation are high blood pressure, diabetes, heart attack, heart failure or stroke. Other potential problems include obesity, depression, reduced immune system function and lower sex drive.
Sleep deficiency is linked to many chronic health problems, including heart disease, kidney disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, obesity, and depression. Sleep deficiency is also linked to a higher chance of injury in adults, teens, and children.
When your body is without sleep, it is in a stressed state— your immune system is suppressed, making you more susceptible to illness; you produce more stress hormone cortisol; your blood pressure rises; and your internal temperature drops.
The longest recorded time without sleep is approximately 264 hours, or just over 11 consecutive days. Although it's unclear exactly how long humans can survive without sleep, it isn't long before the effects of sleep deprivation start to show. After only three or four nights without sleep, you can start to hallucinate.
Sleep deprivation increases your risk for health problems (even ones you have never experienced), such as disturbed mood, gastrointestinal symptoms (abdominal pain, gas, diarrhea, constipation, nausea, vomiting), headaches and joint pain, blood sugar and insulin system disruption, high blood pressure, seizures, and ...
Sleep deprivation can worsen anxiety, spurring a negative cycle involving insomnia and anxiety disorders. Anxiety disorders are the most common mental health problem in the United States, and insufficient sleep is known to have sweeping negative implications for overall health.
Poor Sleep Is a Major Risk Factor for Weight Gain and Obesity. People's sleep requirements vary, but research has observed changes in weight when people get fewer than 7 hours of quality sleep a night. Poor quality sleep has repeatedly been linked to a higher body mass index (BMI) and weight gain.
Take a bath, color, write in a journal, paint, listen to soothing music, read, stretch, or do a puzzle. Putting aside stressful and worrying thoughts until bedtime can make it difficult for you to fall asleep, and these thoughts might wake you up in the middle of the night.
We do not recommend sleeping for only one hour at night. Some research suggests that lost sleep can take years off your life and that you may not be able to catch up on the lost hours of rest.
The worst thing you can do when you can't fall asleep is lie in bed and attempt to force yourself to sleep. But you can't do anything that's stimulating or in violation of the basic rules of sleep hygiene.
Sleeping less than the recommended eight hours a night is associated with intrusive, repetitive thoughts like those seen in anxiety or depression, according to new research from Binghamton University, State University of New York.
It seems like the worst sort of cycle. The less sleep you get, the less effective you are. Then you have more to do, get more stressed, and stay up trying to get it all done (or lie awake stressing about it).
The sleep and mood connection
Chronic sleep deprivation can raise your levels of anxiety, depression and negative thinking. “Repetitive negative thinking occurs when someone lingers on thoughts that are unhelpful,” said Dr. Marino.