What Happens When You Don't Get Enough Sleep

The amount of sleep required by the average person is five minutes more. ~ Wilson Mizener

How true.....especially so, when after a long night's duel with insomnia, when it finally seems that you're winning and both your eyelids appear to give way and roll down, you realize, with utter distress and unadulterated disgust, that you only have about a couple of hours before that tormentor of an alarm clock goes off! Anyway, you decide to put thoughts of this soon-to-occur, too-near-a-future-for-comfort possibility behind and decide to make the most of these two hours. Finally, after two hours, the inevitable happens - the alarm clock lets out a cacophonous shriek! It is then that you realize the true value of five more minutes of sleep - you see, as each drop of water adds to the volume of an ocean, similarly, each bundle of five minutes so borrowed from the fixed quota of 24 hours adds to the amount of time by which you are late for college or work!

Even after you embark upon your diurnal activities, you feel lethargic and listless due to such sleep deprivation. Well, if this happens to you on a regular basis, perhaps you're not getting enough sleep and you had better take it seriously. Do you have any idea what happens when you don't get enough sleep besides frequent yawning throughout the day and dozing off at odd moments? Read right ahead to find out!

What Happens to Your Body When You Don't Get Enough Sleep?

So you thought being sleep deprived would only make your vision foggy and your mind groggy for the entire day, eh? Well, lack of sufficient sleep does way more than that to your body and mind. Here's how not getting enough sleep can get to you in a number of unpleasant ways:-

• If you have not had enough sleep for even one night, the resulting drowsiness the next day gets in the way of your mental concentration. Since the brain is not rested enough, it will tend to be tired as it did not have enough opportunity to rejuvenate itself. Also, the nerves get strained due to lack of rest. All this makes it difficult for you to focus on various tasks and pay close attention to your surroundings. Carried on continuously for a long time, this can lead to frequent instances of memory lapses, carelessness and absent-mindedness.
• That's not where it ends. Studies have revealed that lack of sleep is one of the factors contributing to obesity! Yes, if you don't get enough sleep, you're highly disposed towards gaining weight around the abdominal region - even if you eat like a traveling monk! This happens due to disrupted rhythm of metabolism that occurs as a consequence of chronic lack of sleep.
• Long term and chronic insomnia has been known to cause memory loss and intellectual impairment in individuals who experience sleeplessness on a regular basis.
• You're more likely to develop various psychological disorders such as depression, anxiety and low self-esteem if sleep eludes you on a routine basis.
• The repair mechanism and immune system of your body get compromised if you do not get sufficient amounts of sleep. Most of the repairs and replacement of damaged or worn out tissues take place when we sleep as this is the time when the vital functions of our bodies slow down, allowing the body to allocate more resources towards tissue repair, replacement and recover. A good example of this is when you get a fever or a bad cold. Don't you feel refreshed and get well faster when you allow yourself sufficient rest and exert yourself the least? Don't allergy medications and headache pills work faster and better when you lie down for a while after taking them?
• Effects of sleep deprivation on the brain can be seen as difficulty in learning new skills and tasks as it reduces your capacity to concentrate and pay attention to any kind of training or tutorial session.
• Risks of cardiovascular diseases, high blood pressure and diabetes increase when you don't get to sleep enough as besides your immune system, your endocrine system also gets disrupted, tipping the balance of hormonal secretions and related functions.
• Besides obesity and the above mentioned diseases, another very disturbing effect of sleep deprivation on the body is related to aging. When your body is unable to repair and replace its tissues properly and when the immune system gets weakened leading to various other complications, the cells which are the building blocks of the body wear out faster, leading to rapid aging. You see, all those mom-talks about getting your beauty sleep are based upon solid scientific grounds!

So, you see what happens when you don't get enough sleep? Considering these points, it would be wise to grab at least 6 - 8 hours of sound sleep every day for a healthy body and a sharp mind. Sleeping is something which everyone enjoys, no matter what they say otherwise, and it is perhaps the only thing that is good for us that we like! I mean, we may go on a salad diet but that doesn't necessarily make us like it! Therefore, getting your rightful quota of sleep is of utmost importance alongside having healthy eating habits. Psssst! I'll let you in on an alarming fact before I take your leave - more people die every year from lack of sleep than from lack of food!