We, humans need sleep as much as we need to breathe and eat. While we sleep, our body is busy “charging” and tending to our physical and mental health to help us in getting ready for another day. Without enough of Zzzs, it can lead to a groggy morning.
But bleary eyes and gaping yawns aren’t the only things that can happen when our body needs more time to hibernate. Indeed, there are more sickening effects of sleep deprivation. According to Dr. Steven Feinsilver, the director of the Center for Sleep Medicine at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City,
If a person is deprived of sleep, it can lead to tremendous emotional problems. Sleep deprivation has been used as a form of torture,” he said.
When we are deprive from sleep, our brain can’t function properly that will affect our cognitive abilities and emotional state.
If it continues long enough, it can lower our body’s defenses, putting us at risk of developing chronic illness. Chronic sleep deprivation can interfere with balance, coordination, and decision-making abilities. You’re at risk falling asleep during the day, even if you fight it. Stimulants like caffeine are not able to override your body’s profound need for sleep.
More so, sleep-deprived people also don’t tolerate disappointment very well.
People might feel loopy after a night of no sleep. But in more extreme cases, losing sleep may cause delirium.
True delirium occurs when a person becomes completely disoriented. Sleep c
an play a role in that,” said Dr. Feinsilver.
” Patients who have been hospitalized in intensive care units — where lights and sounds may continue all day and night — can develop a condition that doctors call “ICU delirium”. And while it’s unclear if sleep deprivation is the cause of this delirium, doctors do think that loss of sleep is one reason people in the hospital for extended periods develop bizarre behavior. It’s fairly common for for hospitalized patients to develop insomnia,” Dr. Feinsilver added.
But the most scary thing about sleep deprivation according to Harvard Medical School, is that sleeping less than five hours a night increases the risk of death from all causes by about 15 percent.
Sleep deprivation is dangerous to your mental and physical health and can dramatically lower your quality of life.
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