Surprising Ways that Lack of Sleep Affects Your Health
Most people already know that you’re supposed to get enough sleep at night, but not many people really understand why. When you sleep, your body performs important tasks such as regulating hormones and insulin levels, repairing damaged tissues, and improving the function of your blood vessels. It’s also crucially important for mental consolidation, which increases your ability to form memories and perform tasks. It’s no wonder that not getting enough sleep leaves you groggy and disoriented. But how serious are the long-term health effects? You could be surprised how even a brief bout of sleeplessness can damage your health.
1. Cardiovascular Disease
According to the West Virginia University School of Medicine, people who get less than 7 hours of sleep are at an increased risk for heart disease. Those who sleep less than 5 hours a night on average have at least twice the risk of heart attack and stroke. The reason that lack of sleep is so directly linked to your heart health is because of calcium. A mere one hour less sleep than needed per night can increase the calcium build-up in your arteries 15 percent, and this calcium creates the plaque which breaks up and causes heart attacks. Getting the right amount of sleep also lowers your blood pressure and reduces inflammation in the body. Without these periods of low blood pressure and stabilization, the plaque in your arteries is much more likely to dislodge.
2. Breast Cancer
Recent studies have linked getting less than 6 hours of sleep a night with an over 60 percent increase in the risk of breast cancer in women. Researchers are not exactly sure of the reasons, but a big one seems to be the production of melatonin, which the body secretes in total darkness. Blind women are known to have a 50 percent lower risk of getting cancer, and this is because of the melatonin they produce. When studying why higher breast cancer rates are linked to the industrialization of nations, experts have discovered that staying up late with electric and artificial lighting can affect melatonin levels. That’s why getting a good night’s sleep is more important than ever.
3. Mood Disorders
People with insomnia are 4 times more likely to develop depression than people who get enough sleep, because while lack of sleep hurts your brain’s cognitive functions, it actually boosts your emotional triggers. The fatigue, frustration, and lack of concentration experienced by those who can’t get to sleep at night is not a trivial matter to doctors. It can actually lead to anxiety, depression, unmanageable stress, and a number of psychological problems in both children and adults, something that scientists have only recently begun to understand. Sleep deprivation affects the prefrontal lobe, preventing it from functioning properly and leading to all kinds of irrational thoughts and behaviors. If you are irritable in the morning because you didn’t get enough sleep before work, it’s actually due to legitimate mental stress.
It is estimated that over 70 percent of Americans don’t get enough sleep, which makes for a huge problem in the modern, technological world. The real reasons for the country’s sleep loss and the increase in physical and mental problems that come with it is still something of a mystery. But scientists understand more and more just how important sleep really is, and it’s something nobody who wants to live a long, healthy life can afford to take for granted.
Sara Lewis writes articles about sleep and the effect it has on your body. Find out the dangers of sleep deprivation at www.fallingasleep.net.
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