We are always occupied with new jobs and excited about dates and trips
and parties and mistakes that you can fix (or forget about) in
And there's basically no time for sleep.
Unfortunately,
late nights don't just make morning suck. When you keep not getting
enough sleep, it can affect your body in the long run. (The American
Academy of Sleep Medicine [AASM] recommends between 7 and 9 hours of
sleep per night for adults.
Experts are just beginning to understand how
sleep affects just about everything you do. But they do suggest you look
out for these scary side effects of skimping on sleep:
1. Increased risk of disease: In a recent study involving
more than 54,000 adults, researchers found that people who sleep less
than six hours per night (or more than nine) were significantly more
likely to have heart disease or diabetes, have suffered a stroke, or be
obese, even after researchers adjusted the results for other known risk
factors.
2. Heightened blood pressure:
Sleep loss stresses out your body and mind in a way that causes your
blood pressure to spike. Over time, this could damage your heart,
arteries, kidneys, and even bring about stroke, loss of vision, and a
host of other health problems you seriously don't want.
3. Weakened immune system and reduced effectiveness of certain vaccinations: Vaccines
are designed to trick your body into creating antibodies that provide
immunity to a particular disease or infection. But exhaustion
compromises the immune system, so your body doesn't produce adequate
antibodies, according to a study in
which researchers administered hepatitis B vaccinations and measured
patients' antibodies before and after treatment. People who slept fewer
than six hours a night were the least likely to respond to the vaccine
and were 11.5 percent more likely to emerge unprotected.
4. Stress: When
you don't get enough sleep, your body naturally releases the stress
hormone cortisol, says Dr. Shalini Paruthi, director of the Pediatric
Sleep and Research Center at SSM Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical
Center in St. Louis, Missouri, and an AASM fellow. And it doesn't matter
whether you were up late to work on spreadsheets or to work on catching
up on The Mindy Project.
5. Greater risk of death: People who sleep less than five hours per night are 15 percent more likely to die from literally any cause, according to data from three massive studies. So yes, going to bed too late could eventually kill you.
6. Impaired creativity: Neuroimaging studies
suggest that the brain spontaneously reorganizes information when you
rest, which could explain why it's so much harder to focus and come up
with ideas when you haven't slept.
7. Moodiness: There's something about exhaustion that turns you into Negative Nancy: In a two-year study in
which 78 medical residents tracked their sleep and intermittently
recorded their emotional responses to various stimuli, researchers found
that fatigue intensified participants' negative emotions. Sleep
deprivation actually affects your mood even more than it does your motor
and cognitive performance, according to a massive review of 19 original
research studies published in Sleep. Meaning? You're more susceptible to angry tangents when you're sleepy.
8. Skin sensitivity: Your body's immune system builds its
strength while you sleep, Dr. Bank explains. Sleep deprivation can make
your skin more sensitive and even worsen existing skin conditions like
rosacea or eczema.
9. Poor decisions: Many
parts of the brain are involved in decision-making. When you don't give
your brain enough rest, it functions at half-mast, and you'll end up
making less than savory choices, Dr. Paruthi says.
10. Twitchy eyes: Dr.
Paruthi says fatigue can cause an awkward-looking eye spaz called
nystagmus, which makes your eyeballs move even involuntarily,
even though your head is still.
11. Fertility issues: While
there's no conclusive proof that sleep deprivation directly causes
infertility, experts know that lack of sleep can stress you out and
suspect it can also can interfere with your body's circadian rhythm.
Together, this can ultimately suppress your reproductive hormones and
impair your ability to sustain a pregnancy, according to an article published in Sleep Medicine.
12. Sex drought: Sleep or sex? Sex or sleep? When you're really, really tired, you don't always get to chooZzZz.
13. Weight gain: Countless studies
have found that people who sleep less are more likely to be overweight.
That's probably because sleep deprivation messes with the hormones that
regulate your appetite (ghrelin) and tell your brain you're full
(leptin), which can lead to chronic overeating, according to a review of
experimental and observational studies of sleep published in The American Journal of Human Biology.
14. Fat Gene activation: Sleep loss basically turns your body against you: Research done
on twins suggests that skimping on sleep (i.e., sleeping less than
seven hours per night for the purposes of this study) fires up whatever
fat-storing genes you have to increase your risk of gaining fat and
holding on to it for good.
15. Emotional eating: In a recent study of
114 college/university students, participants were more likely to increase their
food intake in response to strong feelings when they were particularly
tired.
16. Depression: Sleep and depression are interrelated: Research suggests people who suffer from insomnia are more likely to suffer from major depression than people who sleep regularly.
17. Increased risk of car accidents: "Sleep-deprived patients in simulators have just as many accidents as someone who is drunk," Dr. Paruthi says.
18. Slower reaction time: When
your brain isn't well rested, it doesn't take in information, process
it, and respond to it as quickly as usual. "You lose speed before
accuracy," Dr. Paruthi explains. "You'll get your work done, but it will
take longer."
19. Tired partner: Even if you're the lone wolf who stays up late to online shop or binge-watch The Affair,
you're not the only one who suffers sleep debt and associated side
effects. If you sleep with a partner, you'll likely wake him up when you
jump into bed a few hours later, which compromises his sleep quantity
and quality. Regular rude awakenings could cause him to experience any
number of the side effects listed here.
20. Tremors: Shaking
can mess with your ability to carry out precise movements and
detail-oriented tasks, like needle threading and tweezing your eyebrows.
Which you really don't want to mess up.
21. Premature aging: When
you don't get enough sleep, your body releases the stress hormone
cortisol. If your body releases too much cortisol, it starts to break
down collagen, a protein that promotes smooth skin and elasticity. Sleep
deprivation also may decrease the production of the growth hormones in
your body that strengthen the skin and fend off wrinkles, says Dr. David
Bank, dermatologist and director of The Center for Dermatology,
Cosmetic, and Laser Surgery in Mount Kisco, NY, and author of Beautiful Skin – Every Woman's Guide to Looking Her Best at Any Age. Skimp on sleep and you'll lose the restorative effects that make your skin look young and healthy.
Credit: #cosmopolitan
