How Lack Of Sleep Changes Your Body And Mind

I wont sleep till I get this right. I’ll sleep for a few minutes tonight and get back to work. You cant afford to waste precious time sleeping! In our fast paced world that makes 24-hours look like such a little time, its I all too common to hear statements like the ones mentioned at the onset of this article. To man, sleep is a waste of time. They would rather engage in a daily routine of stressful work and other engagements and only sleep when extremely tired.

To some other people, they don’t joke with a good night rest. Once it’s time for bed, they cut off all engagements just to get that much needed sleep. Yet there are quite a few that actually want to sleep but finds it almost impossible to. Is sleep something to be desired or is it just a waste of time? 

THE CONCEPT OF SLEEP

Why and how exactly do we fall asleep? This is still one big question that science has been unable to provide reliable answer to. The best answer given so far about sleep is that it is a complex process which is controlled by the brain and which follows a 24-hour biological clock.

Each individual and age group has a variation in biological clock. This explains why newborn babies always sleeps frequently for short periods which when calculated totals about 16 to 20 hours a day. Teenagers are likely to sleep late at night and find it difficult to get out of bed in the morning. The order the teen gets, the lesser this trend continues.

Two hours in to sleep, the eyes begin to quiver back and forth and a fast pace. This phenomenon of rapid eye movement occurs several times during sleep. This is also the period when a person is most likely to have a dream. It is at this stage that the body experiences a soothing relaxation of muscles as well as memory retention.

After the rapid eye movement stage passes, the next stage is the deep sleep stage. In this stage, there is no rapid eye movement. This is the stage where blood pressure and the person’s heart rate reach lower ranges, thus helping to provide rest for the circulatory system and fight off heart disease.

EFFECTS OF SLEEP

Sleep is actually very important to the overall well being of a person. During sleep, the body breaks down free radicals which are molecules that are harmful and quite known to play a role in causing cancer and quick aging. The University of Chicago conducted a study on 11 men. For six days, these young men were set up to sleep for just four hours.

After the six days study, it was reported that their body cells performed very poorly, more like that of 60-year-olds. Even worse, the level of insulin in their blood sample was as much as that of a person suffering diabetes. Not getting enough sleep is also detrimental to the production of white blood cells thus making a person vulnerable to infections and other dangerous circulatory diseases.

Sleep is not just a luxury as some people view it, it is a necessity. It is very vital and helps in keeping a person healthy. A sleep deprived body is a ticking bomb.