5 Things That Happen To Your Body When You’re Sleep-Deprived
You may have some not-so-fond memories of days you’ve been severely sleep-deprived. Whether it was from pulling an all-nighter to study for an exam or having a social commitment that goes on for longer than you’d like…we’ve all been there. You yearn for that blissful moment when your head hits the pillow and can finally get a good night’s sleep.
But if you can’t manage to get enough sleep (7–9 hours per night), well…all hell breaks loose. You feel groggy, irritable, and just wish you were already with your under-appreciated friend — the bed. But sleep deprivation has impacts beyond just heavy eyes and a sour mood. Here’s what happens to your body when you have a lot of sleep-deprived nights:
1. Major brain fog
You may have noticed the little things that happen to you after a sleepless night. You’ve forgotten where you kept your keys or phone. It’s difficult to engage in conversations. You can’t seem to focus on anything. Studies that have analyzed the MRI scans of brains have shown that sleep deprivation affects parts of the brain responsible for attention and memory. Sleep deprivation has also been linked to impacts on reward processing by your brain. This means that if you are sleep-deprived, you are more likely to take risks and engage in impulsive behaviour. Your sleep-deprived brain may also find it challenging to accurately recognize and discriminate between emotions. Thus, you may react to situations with excessive emotions, raising the tendency to have conflicts with others. So the next time you find yourself mad at your co-worker after a night of disturbed sleep, maybe cut them some slack!
2. You crave more calories
When you’re sleep-deprived, all you may think about is stuffing your face with something deep-fried or sugar-loaded (or even possibly both). Science has shown that sleep deprivation increases your craving for sweet, salty, and carb-heavy foods. This is because of the imbalance in two hormones involved in metabolism: leptin and ghrelin. Leptin suppresses appetite, while ghrelin stimulates it. With sleep deprivation, the functioning of leptin lowers and that of ghrelin rises, leading to an overall increase in appetite. This makes you turn to unhealthy, calorie-dense foods to satisfy your cravings.
3. Your blood sugar levels go out of whack
When you’re sleep deprived, you may become more vulnerable to insulin resistance. This means the insulin released is not enough to counteract your rising blood sugar levels (you can read more about insulin resistance and its link with type 2 diabetes here). But how does sleep deprivation cause insulin resistance? Lack of sleep increases the levels of cortisol (stress hormone) in your body and decreases the use of glucose by the cerebrum of your brain. This can lead to high glucose levels circulating in your blood and can also damage the specialized cells in your pancreas that produce insulin.
4. Your blood pressure rises
When you get healthy levels of sleep, your blood pressure goes down by about 10–20%, which is normal. But if you stay awake for long hours, your blood pressure also remains high for long hours. Being sleep-deprived is a stressful situation, and this can send your sympathetic nervous system (responsible for preparing your body for stressful scenarios) into overdrive. This raises your blood pressure to abnormal levels, and can also increase your risk of hypertension.
5. Your immune system weakens
If you’re chronically sleep-deprived, you tend to get ill more often, and it may also affect how fast you recover from an illness. This is because sleep deprivation impacts your immune system. Sleep strengthens your adaptive or acquired immunity, the type of immunity that helps your body recognize pathogens so that it can later fight against an infection caused by that pathogen. When you don’t sleep enough, your body does not produce important cells that are involved in adaptive immunity and memory formation in the immune system. Sleep deprivation also reduces the number of natural killer cells circulating in your blood. These cells are responsible for short-term immunity, that is, the immune responses that kick in during the initial hours of infection.
Long-term sleep deprivation takes a toll on your body and can have several negative impacts on your health. But burning the midnight oil may be unavoidable in some circumstances.
So what can you do if you’ve had a sleepless night?
If you lose a night’s sleep because of work, caring for your kids, or preparing for an exam, don’t fret! One night won’t set you back on your journey to good health. Take a nap during the day, and make sure you get into bed early to catch up on your sleep. Your body is resilient and can adapt to stress as long as it has the time to recover. But you should ensure that sleep-deprived nights don’t become a habitual thing.
Remember, the only person who can keep YOU the healthiest is YOU!
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