What Happens When You Don't Get Enough Sleep?

How Insomnia Affects Physical, Emotional, and Psychological Health

Apr 25, 2007
Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen

What Happens When You Don't Get Enough Sleep? - bonesdog sxc

If you wonder what happens when you don't get enough sleep, you're in for a surprise! Depression, weight gain, memory loss, and low self-esteem result from lack of sleep.

Getting enough sleep - sleeping throughout the night - is one of the keys to being emotionally, mentally, and physically healthy. Sleep deprivation or insomnia is associated with serious health problems such as obesity, depression, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.

Insomnia, not falling asleep fast at night, disrupted sleep, snoring (yours or others), and waking up early are different types of sleep deprivation. Parents with small children know firsthand how hard it can be to get a good night's rest – and what the effects of sleep deprivation are!

Lack of Sleep is Connected to Depression and Low Self-Esteem

Sleep-deprived children have longer illnesses, more severe depression, and greater fatigue than those who aren't sleep deprived. Other studies link sleep deprivation with self-esteem problems. Getting good sleep and curing insomnia helps with fight depression and increase self-esteem.

Emotional well-being, performance, productivity, and mental abilities are all linked with the amount of sleep a person gets...so it's important to know how to fall and stay asleep at night.

Insomnia Doesn't Affect Physical Appearance

Alex Gardner of the British Psychological Society and emeritus professor of dermatology Ronnie Marks of the University of Wales found that sleep deprivation did not alter study participants' physical appearance. However, the study participants who were sleep deprived felt self-conscious about their appearance and thought their skin showed their lack of rest. They were convinced their looks were affected by their lack of sleep, even though they looked the same as when they were rested. Getting good sleep makes you feel better about yourself -- but doesn't change how you look.

Not Getting Enough Sleep Leads to Weight Gain

If you're losing sleep your body mass index (BMI) is likely to increase, and so is your waist circumference. Your risk of becoming obese is almost doubled, according to Professor Francesco Cappuccio of Warwick Medical School. He detected this trend in adults and kids as young as five years old. Getting good sleep can help you lose weight.

Sleep deprivation increases appetite through hormonal changes. Specifically, more of the appetite-increasing ghrelin is produced when you're not getting good sleep; less of the appetite-suppressing leptin is produced. Sleep deprivation and insomnia causes you to eat more.

Insomnia Leads to Memory Loss

Dr. Jeffrey Ellenbogen of the Harvard Medical School found that "sleep protects memories from interference." The more quickly you fall asleep after studying for a test or learning a new skill, the more likely you'll remember it later. If you learn new information and then go about your daily business, you'll have about a 44% lower chance of retaining what you've learned. This research could be particularly helpful when you're learning a new job. Getting good sleep helps your memory, while sleep deprivation damages it.

Sleep Deprivation Leads to Intellectual Impairment

Researchers at the University of Virginia have found that insomnia or lack of sleep can impair IQ and cognitive development in children. Lower grades and poor peer relations could also result from sleep deprivation. Getting good sleep increases cognitive ability and the ability to relate to others.

Exploring different natural sleep remedies can help reduce insomnia in both children and adults.

Lack of Sleep is Connected to Physical Impairment

According to the National Sleep Foundation, your body suffers when you don't get enough good sleep. Your coordination and motor functions may be impaired, and your reaction time may be delayed. You could have reduced cardiovascular performance, reduced endurance, and increased levels of fatigue because of sleep deprivation. Tremors and clumsiness can also result.

Never underestimate the importance of getting good sleep -- your home and work life could depend on sleeping soundly throughout the night!

Comments

Jul 26, 2010 6:13 PM

Guest :

i always go to sleep late and i do have good grades btw im 14 and i do have good memory but i am not in shape.oh and i dont have low self-esteem but my eye twitches alot !!

Jul 16, 2011 10:15 PM

Guest :

"If you wonder what happens when you don't get enough sleep, you're in for a surprise!"

Even death could be a result especially if one is a MALE!

CNN had a health report that stated Insomnia is deadly but it went on even further, it was deadly for males.

Men with insomnia were more than four times as likely to die as “good sleepers” during the 14-year study, published Wednesday in the journal Sleep. (there are studies that show males need more sleep than do women also)

Add hypertension or diabetes, and men with insomnia were seven times as likely to die as those not suffering from sleep problems, the study found.

What was very interesting is that this report stated:

Self-reported chronic insomnia plus lack of sleep among women did not result in more deaths among women.

Insomnia like almost everything else will kill males faster than it does women.

I also see they were trying to make excuses for the fragile male by saying "Insomnia among women could be less severe, or the study did not follow women long enough." However, later it said they studied 1,000 women and 741 men, with an average age of 50. Of that group, 8 percent women and 4 percent of men complained of chronic insomnia and slept fewer than six hours when they were measured in a sleep laboratory so it seems that the most likely cause of the male deaths from lack of sleep is that males are much more fragile than women. How else do they explain a lot of male deaths and then state chronic insomnia plus lack of sleep among women did not result in more deaths among women. Twice as many women had insomnia as did the males yet far more males died as a complication from insomnia. Further proof of the weakness of males is that more males die every year than do women even though there are more women alive.
I know people do not like to hear it, especially males because we all know that the male ego is fragile too but this does show the superiority of women and if the males can acknowledge they are the inferior sex, maybe they can get help in the many areas they are weaker in. (the only thing more fragile than our male ego are our testicles and even they show the weakness of males) I think that when society can accept that not only are males not the superior sex, males are not even equal to women as women are far superior to males in almost every area. Now that women are getting an equal chance, even young girls are surpassing males and they are showing women can and do almost everything better than their male counterparts can do. Maybe it is time for us males to move over and let women take complete control of everything. It could only be an improvement over what we males have done with things.

Jul 22, 2011 1:14 AM

Guest :

It is interesting to see that lack of sleep can be fatal to males but according to the reports, it does not effect women. I can see why the guest who posted that report could conclude that women are superior to men. There is a book that gives a lot of evidence that women are superior to men but apparently that was one of hundreds of other reasons that the book did not include.

As to women being superior, there is a very good book that shows that women are superior to males. "The Natural Superiority of Women" The February 2000 edition of the American Psychiatric Association had a very interesting article regarding Montagu's "The Natural Superiority of Women" which at much as I hate to admit it, confirms what many have said here, women are the superior gender.

"the fifth edition, Montagu (1999) says that since the fourth edition of the book appeared in 1992, "much new information bearing on the natural superiority of women has become available" and that "the new findings unexceptionally support and confirm the conclusions reached in this book." He says that he tried to leave the book essentially as it was written, but has brought it up to date with the latest findings and has also added new material.

Over the centuries, male scholars have pointed to the larger male brain, skeleton, height, and muscle mass as clear evidence of the male's superiority, as in the view "might makes right." However, in a paradigm shift that seeks to include the overall performance of the anatomy and physiology of male and female, Montagu believes women come out on top. Women apparently have a more powerful immunological system, which affords them greater protection against and better recovery from starvation, fatigue, shock, and illness. Also, although a woman's brain may be smaller than a man's, it has more neurons in the corpus callosum, which enables better coordination between hemispheres. Consequently, the female brain is more highly developed structurally and functionally, and it is capable of thinking more soundly and intuitively than the male brain, Montagu says. The end result is that women are more insightful and have greater stamina and longevity—or, in other words, women stand the test of time.

In spite of the book's provocative title, Montagu insists it is not his intention to inflate the status of one sex over the other, but rather to bring the sexes closer together. Montagu believes that if we are to achieve social equality, men must be convinced that women are superior. His desire is for a reconstructed American culture in which the male values of physical dominance, acquisition of material goods, and aggression give way to humane attributes and abilities. Women, being the truly superior beings they are, will of course not brag about their biological superiority over men, but will treat them kindly and gently"

Much more has been learned since 1999, the last update of this book and sad for us males to say, even more ways women are superior have been discovered. But maybe he is right when he said "men must be convinced that women are superior"

I am ready to throw in the towel and admit that women are superior and that males are inferior to women

Sep 18, 2011 12:05 PM

Guest :

It is all true, woman or man... i cant sleep and it effects me every way they say, I get maybe 3-4 hours a nite (broken sleep) This has been going on for a good year and i am sooo tired of being tired. I have tried everything!! no sucess, getting more stressed and it is
effecting my life!!! what is a girl to do
SWEET DREAMS TO YOU ALL! IF YOU ARE SO LUCKY!!!

Mar 5, 2012 8:06 AM

Guest :

still doesnt give enough facts

Mar 29, 2012 8:02 AM

Guest :

a have a questions do you think kids should choose thier own bedtime

6 Comments

What Happens When You Don't Get Enough Sleep?

How Insomnia Affects Physical, Emotional, and Psychological Health

Lack of Sleep is Connected to Depression and Low Self-Esteem

Not Getting Enough Sleep Leads to Weight Gain

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Insomnia Leads to Memory Loss

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