Sleep is necessary for all living creatures, and a lack of sleep or insomnia will have serious long-term and short-term consequences for the human body. Sleep is one of the top basic needs for our bodies; absence of adequate sleep, like the absence of food or hydration, will leave your body achy and impaired. If this is a continuous practice, a sleepless body will begin to malfunction in key areas. A lack of adequate sleep will plague your body with the following five side effects.
Number Five: Your Bodily Systems Will Become Impaired. Not providing your body with the rest it needs to function affects the human body in many different major areas- almost the entire body! Bodily systems including the nervous, respiratory, digestive, cardiovascular, immune, and cognitive systems all receive some serious damage. Although the immediate symptoms of not sleeping will resolve once you do get some rest, there may be effects to these systems that go unnoticed, as they wear down over time. The best advice to stay in tip-top condition: get your recommended eight hours.
Number Four: You Will Get Very Emotional. Without adequate sleep, your body’s production of hormones is likely to be a bit out of whack. It is a common side effect of this to feel abnormally emotional and experience unpredictable moodiness. This is especially dangerous for those at risk or currently battling depression, as such mood swings can heighten the symptoms experienced with this condition.
Number Three: You May Become an Accident Magnet. If you’ve ever noticed that all seems to go wrong after an all-nighter, there is scientific data to tell you why this happens. No, you’re not crazy; after a sleepless night, you really are an accident magnet. Though you may not realize it, going twenty-four hours without sleep is enough to impair your hand-eye coordination to a similar effect of having a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.1, and worsens as time goes on. In addition to this, the part of your brain that controls your judgment is also slowed in function. This leads to hastily made decisions, slowed reaction time, and serious issues with concentration.
Number Two: Insomnia Can Damage Your Memory
Cognitive function can be slowed by as little as one night of restless sleep, or even sleeping less than six hours. Over any other area of the human body, lack of sleep affects the brain the most. Often, doing so will lead to various levels of hallucinations. Long-term practice of going long hours without sleep has serious consequences for memory over time. After many weeks of poor sleep practices, the neurons in your brain suffer by not getting the adequate rest they need to recharge themselves. Over time, these neurons will simply die off, or lose function as they are clogged with proteins that would normally be cleared away during sleep.
Number One: You Will Be Prone to Gaining Weight. Because of the hormonal imbalances that occur from a lack of sleep, weight loss becomes a near-impossible feat. Shortened sleep will decrease the production and regulation of gherkin, leptin, and other peptides that help us to suppress our appetite. In short, not sleeping will make your body want to eat more, and eat more of the wrong foods. Because of the confusion in the digestive system, your body will want to raise its caloric intake to make sure it is getting the necessary nutrients when its ability to track levels of nutrients is impaired. This will make your body crave higher calorie foods, often high in fat and sugar. Just another reason to get your recommended eight hours!
