Chronic sleep loss can have a real effect on your health. If you occasionally miss a few hours of sleep,it’s not a big deal, but serious sleep disorders should be dealt with, and here’s why:
- Sleep helps the brain absorb new information to the memory. This process is called memory consolidation, and studies have shown that people who lack sleep have a harder time remembering things.
- Sleep directly affects the mood. Sleep loss can result in impatience, touchiness, mood swings and lack of concentration. Chronic sleep loss often results in depression as well. Even occasional fatigue influences your mood and makes your day very hard to get through. Fatigue can result in thirst, nausea, lightheadedness and even a fever.
- Sleep has a direct effect on our hormone levels and metabolism. Continuous sleep deprivation can cause weight gain and other metabolic issues.
- Sleep can also affect our cardiovascular health. Studies have linked sleep disorders with increased stress levels, hypertension and irregular heartbeats.
- Sleep loss can reduce the immune system’s efficiency.
- Last, but definitely not least, sleep loss can result in a tendency to fall asleep during the day- in the middle of an activity. This can lead to falls, medical mistakes and road accidents.