What Actually Happens to Your Body When You Stop Sleeping?

If you eat well and exercise regularly, but don’t get at least seven hours of sleep every night, you may be undermining all of your other efforts.

And we’re not being dramatic! Sleep disorders expert Harneet Walia, MD, says sleep is crucial for our health – and many of us are lacking when it comes to it.

“First and foremost we need to make sleep a priority,” says Dr. Walia. “We always recommend a good diet and exercise to everyone, but along the same lines we recommend proper sleep as well.”

How much sleep do you actually need?

Everyone feels better after a good night’s rest.  But now, thanks to a report from the National Sleep Foundation, you can aim for a targeted sleep number tailored to your age.

The foundation based its report on two years of research and breaks it down into nine age-specific categories, with a slight range that allows for individual preference:

• Older adults, 65+ years: 7 to 8 hours.
• Adults, 26 to 64 years: 7 to 9 hours.
• Young adults, 18 to 25 years: 7 to 9 hours.
• Teenagers, 14 to 17 years: 8 to 10 hours.
• School-age children, 6 to 13 years: 9 to 11 hours.
• Preschool children, 3 to 5 years: 10 to 13 hours.
• Toddlers, 1 to 2 years: 11 to 14 hours.
• Infants, 4 to 11 months: 12 to 15 hours.
• Newborns, 0 to 3 months: 14 to 17 hours.

Dr. Walia says there’s evidence that genetic, behavioral and environmental factors help determine how much sleep an individual needs for their best health and daily performance.

But a minimum of seven hours of sleep is a step in the right direction to improve your health, she says.

What happens when you don’t get enough sleep?

Your doctor urges you to get enough sleep for good reason, Dr. Walia says.  Shorting yourself on shut-eye has a negative impact on your health in many ways:

Short-term problems can include:

• Lack of alertness. Even missing as little as 1.5 hours can have an impact on how you feel.
• Excessive daytime sleepiness. It can make you very sleepy and tired during the day.
• Impaired memory. Lack of sleep can affect your ability to think, remember and process information.
• Relationship stress. It can make you feel moody and you can become more likely to have conflicts with others.
• Quality of life. You may become less likely to participate in normal daily activities or to exercise.
• Greater likelihood for car accidents. Drowsy driving accounts for thousands of crashes, injuries and fatalities each year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

If you continue to operate without enough sleep, you may see more long-term and serious health problems. Some of the most serious potential problems associated with chronic sleep deprivation are high blood pressure, diabetes, heart attack, heart failure or stroke. Other potential problems include obesity, depression, impairment in immunity and lower sex drive.

Chronic sleep deprivation can even affect your appearance. Over time, it can lead to premature wrinkling and dark circles under the eyes. There’s also a link between lack of sleep and an increase in the stress hormone, cortisol, in the body. Cortisol can break down collagen, the protein that keeps skin smooth.

So lack of sleep could mean more wrinkles! Understand why sleep is so important yet?

How to Sleep Better

If you’re experiencing mild, occasional problems with sleep, try these simple strategies from sleep expert Michelle Drerup, PsyD, DBSM.

1. Treat getting enough sleep as if it is as important as taking medicine.

With all the demands on our time every day, you might put a good night’s rest at the bottom of your priority list. But Dr. Drerup says we need to schedule adequate time for sleep.

 “It’s very easy to stay up late and burn the candle at both ends,” she says. “However, when you do that, you quickly run into a problem of dealing with sleep deprivation.”

2. Keep a consistent wake time.

Wake up at the same time every day, including weekends or days off.  Waking at the same time every day will actually help you to sleep better at night. A fixed wake time helps to build a strong desire for sleep throughout wakefulness. This sleep drive gradually builds, and shortening it by sleeping in will make it harder to fall asleep the next night. Sleeping in on the weekend makes it much more difficult to wake up earlier on Monday morning.

It also is important, Dr. Drerup says, to do some relaxing activity such as taking a warm bath or reading a book before bedtime. By making these activities part of your bedtime ritual, you can train yourself to associate these activities with sleep. This association will help you to move more easily into slumber.

3. Put away the smart phones and tablets.

Electronic devices keep your mind humming — and far from the relaxed state you need to achieve before bedtime. Dr. Drerup advises it’s a good idea to put away devices like smart phones and tablets at least one hour before bed time.

4. If you do wake up during the night, avoid looking at the clock.

“The minute you look at that time it’s not just looking at one number,” Dr. Drerup says. “You start mental calculations, you think about how long it’s been since you’ve been in bed and what you have to do the next day. And before you know it, a long time has passed and that cuts into your sleep time.”

Make time for downtime

“In our society, nowadays, people aren’t getting enough sleep. They put sleep so far down on their priority list because there are so many other things to do – family, personal stuff and work life,” Dr. Walia says. “These are challenges, but if people understand how important adequate sleep is, and how to sleep better, it makes a huge difference.”

Do not forget to share your opinion with us to provide you with the best posts !