Sleep deprivation problem

A sleep deprivation is the same as a sleep loss – when a person does not get enough night sleep due to some reasons. There are two main ones:

• Stress (do not ever underestimate a negative impact of strong emotions on your organism! Most of them may leave an imprint on your state of health and mind in the form of some disorders. For example, insomnia. It is a vicious cycle: stress leads to the deprivation of sleep; in its turn sleep deprivation makes you more and more stressful day by day. Here, you must smooth away the source of these psychologically difficult situations. But you should not hang your head down if you are not successful at once. Mind that it may take some time).

• Health or mental disorders.

You even cannot imagine a full specter of negative consequences which follow your decision to sacrifice a couple of hours of a night sleep. It is fraught with a range of diseases, feeling ill, worsening of social and domestic relationships, early aging, a constant depressing state of mind, obesity, etc. It is not surprising that a sleep deprivation has been used as a means of tortures.

Why is a sleep deprivation so dangerous for human’s health?

• Alertness and concentration levels are decreasing by times. It does not only hinder successful studying and working; it can lead to fatal accidents and injuries. According to the statistics, each year, drowsy driving causes:

  • 1 million crashes

  • 500,000 injuries

  • 8,000 deaths

  A state of a person after one sleepless night equals to the one with 0.10% alcohol content in his/her blood – beyond a legal limit to drive.

  Alertness tends to decrease by about 32% per night if a person sleeps an hour and a half less than he/she should.

• Heart attack and failure.

• High blood pressure.

• Headache.

• Tremor of limbs.

• Nausea.

• Dizziness.

• Mania.

• Intestinal upset.

• Hallucinations.

• Visual and motor skills’ deterioration.

• Early aging of internal organs.

• Inability to judge reasonably.

• Memory and cognitive impairment.

• Rambling speech and fogged thoughts.

• Obesity (If a man is deprived of a sufficient night sleep for some reasons, there are chances that he/she may put on excess kilograms because of the change of a hormonal set which is responsible for appetite. A person’s food portions become bigger and high-caloric. Extra calories are turned not into muscle mass, but into adipose tissue).

The studies have shown that a man who sleeps less than 5 hours per night is exposed to a mortality risk by 15%. Consequently, it comes out that a sound sleep at night affects longevity.

It may seem to be not a big deal to stay awake all night long or sleep less than you have got used to. At first. I swear black and blue that after several times of such a routine, you will necessarily change your mind because overfatigue, feeling a slight malady, hazy thoughts and constant sleepiness will take over you.

Moreover, oversleeping is dangerous to the same extent as a sleep deprivation. It has the same influence on a man’s organism.

It is interesting to know that a sleep deprivation is a paradoxical phenomenon. It can both cause and treat depression.

Everybody knows that a person who has sleep problems soon becomes easily irritated; he/she gets upset because of trifles (it is because his/her world perception becomes distorted; brain’s exhaustion is the reason why it is difficult to solve even elementary problems); a person’s mood gets worse and worse every day; being in such a state, he/she can easily break up the relationships with the colleagues, friends, relatives, etc.; a productivity level is dropping that may lead to losing a job and financial hardship. Such a poor thing has a right to be depressed!

However, Walter Schulte discovered in 1966 that some people’s organisms react positively to a sleep deprivation. Regardless of the fact that they sleep less than they should (for an adult, the norm is 7-8 hours), they feel good: they are in high spirits, full of energy, their concentration ability and reasonableness are alright. Since then, a sleep deprivation is used for a depression treatment in some cases.

What is recommended to do to sleep well at night?

• Create a comfortable sleep environment:

  1. A mattress and a pillow are to be comfortable, otherwise you may suffer pains in the morning or won’t be able to fall asleep at all.

  2. The lights are to be dimmed or turned off in a bedroom.

  3. The temperature in a bedroom is to be a few degrees lower than an indoor temperature; you should feel fresh air.

  4. There should not be unnecessary, loud noises.

• Exclude (or at least restrict) caffeine, nicotine, drugs and alcohol consumption during a day. Maintain a nutritious diet. Do not eat within less than 2-3 hours before going to bed.

• Do more physical exercises during a day (it is not recommended to be engaged in physical activities within one hour before going to bed though).

• Keep a regular sleep schedule every single day. Try to get up and go to bed at the same time.

• Avoid long naps during a day. A 15-minute nap is quite enough to make you more energetic.

• Avoid playing computer games, watching TV and all the rest that keep you alert.

Remember that if you have a constant loss of sleep, it is a red flag which must push you to take decisive measures. Do not let everything run itself in this case - the price for your negligence can be too high.