It is not surprising for people to be irritable after a bad night’s sleep. If you’re the one who didn’t have enough amount of sleep, how would you feel?
We bet you’ll experience some of the most common effects such as a headache; it can make you grumpy, and may even let someone who lacks sleep experience back pain when you wake up in the morning. Did you know that it can do so many things when it comes to your physical and mental health?
In this article, we will give you some of the surprising but serious effects of sleep deprivation. Here are some of those:
- It may cause accidents
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Did you know that behind the greatest disasters in the world history such as the oil spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska (also known as Exxon Valdez oil spill), the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986 and much more massive accidents are commonly factored by one thing? Sleep deprivation.
Aside from that, it has been common that lack of sleep is also one factor in different road accidents. The feeling of being sleepy can have the same effect as drunk driving.
Studies also show that those who lack sleep causes more accidents in work and those who suffer from drowsiness has more sick days compared to those who had an adequate amount of sleep according to reports.
- Lack of sleep makes you dumb
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A right amount of sleep plays a vital role when it comes to your cognitive function and learning. There are tons of adverse effects when you lack sleep. The not so serious type is when you can’t focus or concentrate, it also makes your attention span shorter than normal.
At night, the amount of sleep that you’re getting contributes to the consolidation of memories when you sleep. If you don’t sleep well that night, expect that you can’t remember tomorrow what you learned and gone through yesterday.
- Sleeping poorly ages your skin
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Those who lack sleep for several nights may experience puffy eyes and yellowish skin. But eventually, it can lead to dull skin, some fine lines, and dark circles the eyes.
What happens when we don’t get enough sleep is that our body produces cortisol (a stress hormone). As a result, the protein that makes our skin glow and keeps it healthy, which is collagen, is broken into pieces by this stress hormone.
- Gain weight is another effect of inadequate amount of sleep
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Many studies associated lack of sleep to obesity and increase in appetite. According to a survey conducted in 2004, those who sleep in less than six hours every day are more likely to gain weight and become obese than those who sleeps seven to nine hours a day.
Lack of sleep does not solely increase your appetite. It’s like a thing that also acts as a stimulant that makes you crave for food with high-fat content or highly carbonated food or drinks. Therefore, some programs for weight loss should be thinking about sleep deprivation as a factor and should be a necessary part of the program.
- Sleep deprivation affects our judgment
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Unsurprisingly, we all know that when we lack sleep, we tend to have wrong interpretations of the events that are happening to us. As a result, it hurts our capability to make right decisions and judgments because we cannot evaluate the current situations fairly and it hinders us to think and function wisely.
Those who lack sleep may believe that this is not a serious issue, but it is (especially if you are someone who makes huge decisions as this may cause you big troubles in the future).
Takeaway
Deprivation of sleep is never good for someone. Inadequate amount of sleep is unhealthy; it may also lead to several unfortunate outcomes in the future. Make use of your beds at home. If your bed is the one that hinders you from sleeping, it may be best to change them.
Having a good night sleep has a huge effect than what we thought. It is best to give yourself enough time to revitalize and refresh you for you to perform your day-to-day tasks efficiently and swiftly.
