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Staying up to watch a late-night TV show or movie may look fun, but it causes you to lose much-needed sleep time, which can lead to dire consequences. You know by now that getting enough sleep does your body good, but have you ever wondered what happens if you don’t?
In the U.S., around 35% percent of adults fail to get enough sleep, which prompts these problems to appear:
- Increased appetite
- Mood changes and irritability
- Daytime fatigue and sleepiness
- Problems with alertness, memory and concentration
- Decreased coordination
Some sleep deprivation-related issues can manifest within 24 hours. When you lose a day’s worth of sleep, it’s similar to having a blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.10%. To put into perspective, it’s illegal to drive if your BAC is 0.08% and above. Staying awake for 24 hours can also disrupt your body’s natural sleep-wake cycle by affecting hormones that help regulate and influence growth, appetite, metabolism, stress levels and your immune system.
The brain can also enter a state of “local sleep” by temporarily shutting down neurons in some regions, so it can conserve energy. In effect, you look “fully awake,” but you cannot do complex tasks properly due to:
- Drowsiness
- Muscle tension
- Impaired judgment
- Increased levels of stress hormones (like cortisol and adrenaline) and blood sugar
If you push yourself further and go 48 to 72 hours without sleep, severe health problems can appear:
- After 48 hours without sleep — You may experience involuntary microsleep, wherein your brain progresses into periods of unconsciousness lasting for a few seconds. You can also feel extremely fatigued and have impaired cognitive performance.
- After 72 hours without sleep — Problems communicating well with other people and extreme fatigue, paranoia, depressed mood and multitasking difficulties may develop.
Sleep deprivation can even put your life in immediate danger. Your risk for car accidents greatly rises if you drive without enough sleep. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NTHSA) reported that sleep-deprived drivers caused 90,000 motor vehicle crashes in 2015, and 795 deaths occurred due to drowsy driving in 2017. Chronic sleep deprivation caused by failing to get enough sleep can also make you more susceptible to developing:
It’s also possible for you to develop a genetic condition called fatal familial insomnia (FFI). It occurs when there’s a mutated prion protein (PRNP) gene in your body that causes misfolded prions to gather in the region of the brain responsible for sleep regulation, called the thalamus. FFI may lead to weight loss, body temperature changes, reduced appetite, mild insomnia that may gradually worsen and rapidly progressing dementia.
These effects should make you realize how vital it is to address this issue immediately. To prevent sleep deprivation and lower your risk for its related symptoms, seek to get around eight hours of sleep every night. Anything below seven hours can impact your health.