What Happens If I Don't Sleep

For some, sleep just gets in the way of life. If there's plenty to do and no time to do it in there's nothing more annoying than being stopped in your tracks by sleep. The phrase not enough hours in the day seems crazy when your younger but it's true when life gets busy.

(Fight club spoiler alert) Tyler Durden, the character from the book and film Fight Club was a product of that main characters lack of sleep. The nameless main character was suffering from insomnia and because of this his personality split in two. When he thought he was sleeping his alter ego tyler was actually up to no good. This is a rather extreme stream of events and not likely to happen to you if you miss a few days sleep but the effects none the less would be pretty severe.

Some people can go up to 3 days without sleep but there comes a point when the brain takes over and just puts you to sleep. 24 hours without sleep is common enough for some people after a heavy night out but it just leaves the body in need of more sleep than it would have needed if sleep had come naturally.

When you sleep your body breaks down proteins absorbed throughout the day. The body and mind gets to rest and without sleep it would be difficult to carry out daily duties. Without sleep humans wouldn't be able to live very long. This is easy to understand if you've ever tried to function normally after a 24 hours without sleep. The average grown adult needs 8 hours of sleep per night in order to feel and act normal.

Without sleep comes a number of problems such as slurred speech due to the frontal lobe being affected. Another effect is hallucinations which to some may seem like a bit of fun but they could interfere dramatically with day to day life.

There are different ways that you can improve your chances of having a good nights sleep. One is by ensuring that you get lots of exercise. Being active outdoors on a sunny day or near the sea is a sure fire way of tiring your body out. Sunlight gives you vitamin d which can help aid sleep among other things. Another thing that can help sleeping patterns is the type of bed you sleep in. A firm mattress is usually preferred as it gives more support to the body but a bed shop can point you in the right direction.

Things to avoid include eating late, too much nicotine, caffeine and alcohol as well as stressful situations.