Makes You Act Drunk, Even If You Never Drink a Drop of Alcohol
What Happens in Your Body When
You’re Sleep Deprived?
March 03, 2016
Story at-a-glance
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Short term, lack of sleep has an immediate effect on
your mental and emotional states. Over the long term,
poor sleep can contribute to a whole host of chronic
health problems, both physical and mental
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Going just one night without proper sleep starts to
impair your physical movements and mental focus,
comparable to being drunk
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Your problem-solving skills dwindle with each passing
sleepless night, and paranoia, hallucinations, and sleep
deprivation psychosis can set in after as little as 24
hours without sleep, mimicking symptoms of schizophrenia
By Dr. Mercola
Lack of sleep has many ramifications, from minor to major,
depending on your accumulated sleep debt. Short term, lack of sleep
tends to have an immediate effect on your mental and emotional
states.
Over the long term,
poor sleep can contribute to a whole host of chronic health
problems, from obesity and
diabetes to immune problems and an increased risk for cancer.
Plus it raises your risk of accidents and occupational errors.
Unfortunately, few are those who sleep well on a regular basis.
Part of the problem is our propensity for using artificial lighting
and electronics at night, in combination with getting insufficient
exposure to full, bright, and natural sunlight during the day.
This disconnect from the natural cycles of day and night,
activity and sleep, can turn into a chronic problem where you’re
constantly struggling to sleep well.
Fortunately the remedy is simple, and if you follow the
recommendations at the end of this article, chances are you’ll be
able to reestablish a healthy sleep pattern, without which you
simply cannot be optimally healthy — even if you do everything else
right.
A Single Night Without Sleep Can Have Severe Implications
As shown in the video above,1
going just one night without proper sleep starts to impair your
physical movements and mental focus, comparable to having a blood
alcohol level of 0.10 percent.2
In essence, if you haven’t slept, your level of impairment is on
par with someone who’s drunk.
According to researchers, 24 hours’ worth of sleeplessness breaks
down cognitive faculties to such a degree that you’ll be 4.5 times
more likely to sign a false confession.3
Overall, you become more susceptible to "suggested" memories, and
start having trouble discerning the true source of your memories.
For example, you might confuse something you read somewhere with a
first-hand experience. According to the authors of this study:
"We propose that sleep deprivation sets the stage for a
false confession by impairing complex decision making abilities
— specifically, the ability to anticipate risks and
consequences, inhibit behavioral impulses, and resist suggestive
influences.”
Lack of Sleep Linked to Internet Surfing and Poor Grades
Other research4
has linked lack of sleep to more extended internet usage, such as
browsing through Facebook rather than studying or working. The
reason for this is again related to impaired cognition and the
inability to focus, making you more prone to distraction.
Not surprisingly, academic performance also suffers. In one
recent study,5
the less sleep high school students reported getting, the lower
their average grades were.
How Sleep Influences and Regulates Emotional Perception
Sleeping well is also important for maintaining emotional
balance. Fatigue compromises your brain’s ability to regulate
emotions, making you more prone to crankiness, anxiety, and
unwarranted emotional outbursts.
Recent research also shows that when you haven’t slept well,
you’re more apt to overreact to neutral events; you may feel
provoked when no provocation actually exists, and you may lose your
ability to sort out the unimportant from the important, which can
result in bias and poor judgment.
Reporting on this research, in which participants were kept awake
for one whole night before taking a series of image tests to gauge
emotional reactions and concentration levels, Medical News Today
writes:6
“... Eti Ben-Simon, who conducted the experiment,
believes that sleep deprivation may universally impair judgment,
but it is more likely that a lack of sleep causes neutral images
to provoke an emotional response.
The second test examined concentration levels.
Participants inside an fMRI scanner had to complete a task that
demanded their attention to press a key or button, while
ignoring distracting background pictures with emotional or
neutral content ...
After only one night without sleep, participants were
distracted by every single image (neutral and emotional), while
well-rested participants only found the emotional images
distracting.
The effect was indicated by activity change, or what
Prof. Hendler calls ‘a change in the emotional specificity’ of
the amygdala ... a major limbic node responsible for emotional
processing in the brain.”
What Happens in Your Body After Two or More Sleepless Nights?
After 48 hours of no sleep, your oxygen intake is lessened and
anaerobic power is impaired, which affects your athletic potential.
You may also lose coordination, and start to forget words when
speaking. It’s all downhill from there.
After the 72 hour-mark of no sleep, concentration takes a major
hit, and emotional agitation and heart rate increases. Your chances
of falling asleep during the day increase and along with it, your
risk of having an accident.
In 2013, drowsy drivers caused 72,000 car accidents in which 800
Americans were killed, and 44,000 were injured.7
Your problem-solving skills dwindle with each passing sleepless
night, and paranoia can become a problem.
In some cases, hallucinations and sleep deprivation psychosis can
set in — a condition in which you can no longer interpret reality.
Recent research suggests psychosis can occur after as little as 24
hours without sleep, effectively mimicking symptoms observed in
those with schizophrenia.
Sleep Deprivation Decreases Your Immune Function
Research published in the journal Sleep reports that sleep
deprivation has the same effect on your immune system as physical
stress.8,9
The researchers measured the white blood cell counts in 15 people
who stayed awake for 29 hours straight, and found that blood cell
counts increased during the sleep deprivation phase. This is the
same type of response you typically see when you’re sick or
stressed.
In a nutshell, whether you’re physically stressed, sick, or
sleep-deprived, your immune system becomes hyperactive and starts
producing white blood cells — your body’s first line of defense
against foreign invaders like infectious agents. Elevated levels of
white blood cells are typically a sign of disease. So your body
reacts to sleep deprivation in much the same way it reacts to
illness.
Other study10
findings suggest that deep sleep plays a very special role
in strengthening immunological memories of previously encountered
pathogens in a way similar to psychological long-term memory
retention. When you’re well rested, your immune system is able to
mount a much faster and more effective response when an antigen is
encountered a second time.
When you’re sleep-deprived, your body loses much of this rapid
response ability. Unfortunately, sleep is one of the most overlooked
factors of optimal health in general, and immune function in
particular.
Sleeping Poorly Raises Your Risk of Type 2 Diabetes
A number of studies have demonstrated that lack of sleep can play
a significant role in insulin resistance and
type 2 diabetes. In earlier research,11
women who slept five hours or less every night were 34 percent more
likely to develop diabetes symptoms than women who slept for seven
or eight hours each night.
According to research12
published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, after four nights of
sleep deprivation (sleep time was only 4.5 hours per night), study
participants' insulin sensitivity was 16 percent lower, while their
fat cells' insulin sensitivity was 30 percent lower, and
rivaled levels seen in those with diabetes or obesity.
Senior author Matthew Brady, Ph.D., an associate professor of
Medicine at the University of Chicago, noted that:13 "This
is the equivalent of metabolically aging someone 10 to 20 years just
from four nights of partial sleep restriction. Fat cells need sleep,
and when they don't get enough sleep, they become metabolically
groggy."
Similarly, researchers warn that teenage boys who get too little
slow-wave sleep are at increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Slow-wave sleep is a sleep stage associated with reduced levels of
cortisol (a stress hormone) and reduced inflammation. As reported by
MedicineNet.com:14
“Boys who lost a greater amount of slow-wave sleep
between childhood and the teen years had a higher risk of
developing insulin resistance than those whose slow-wave sleep
totals remained fairly stable over the years ...
‘On a night following sleep deprivation, we'll have
significantly more slow-wave sleep to compensate for the loss,’
study author Jordan Gaines ... said ... ‘We also know that we
lose slow-wave sleep most rapidly during early adolescence.
Given the restorative role of slow-wave sleep, we weren't
surprised to find that metabolic and cognitive [mental]
processes were affected during this developmental period.’”
The Many Health Hazards of Sleep Deprivation
Aside from directly impacting your immune function, another
explanation for why poor sleep can have such varied detrimental
effects on your health is that your circadian system "drives" the
rhythms of biological activity at the cellular level. We’ve
really only begun to uncover the biological processes that take
place during sleep.
For example, during sleep your brain cells shrink by about 60
percent, which allows for more efficient waste removal. This
nightly detoxification of your brain appears to be very
important for the prevention of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
Sleep is also intricately tied to important hormone levels,
including melatonin, the production of which is disturbed by lack of
sleep.
This is extremely problematic, as melatonin inhibits the
proliferation of a wide range of cancer cell types, as well as
triggers cancer cell apoptosis (self-destruction).
Lack of sleep also decreases levels of your fat-regulating
hormone leptin while increasing the hunger hormone ghrelin. The
resulting increase in hunger and appetite can easily lead to
overeating and weight gain. In short, the many disruptions provoked
by lack of sleep cascade outward throughout your entire body,
which is why poor sleep tends to worsen just about any health
problem. For example, interrupted or impaired sleep can:
Contribute to a
pre-diabetic state, making you feel hungry even if
you've already eaten, which can wreak havoc on your
weight |
Harm your brain by halting new cell production.
Sleep deprivation can increase levels of corticosterone
(a stress hormone), resulting in fewer new brain cells
being created in your hippocampus |
Aggravate or make you more susceptible to stomach
ulcers |
Raise your blood pressure and increase your risk of
heart disease |
Promote or further exacerbate chronic diseases such
as: Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis (MS),
gastrointestinal tract disorders, kidney disease, and
cancer |
Contribute to premature aging by interfering with
your growth hormone production, normally released by
your pituitary gland during deep sleep (and during
certain types of exercise, such as
high-intensity interval training) |
Worsen constipation |
Increase your
risk of dying from any
cause |
Worsen behavioral difficulties in children |
Increase your risk of
depression. In one trial, 87 percent of depressed
patients who resolved their insomnia had major
improvements to their depression, with symptoms
disappearing after eight weeks |
Alter gene expression. Research has shown that when
people cut sleep from 7.5 to 6.5 hours a night, there
were increases in the expression of genes associated
with inflammation, immune excitability, diabetes, cancer
risk, and stress15 |
Aggravate chronic pain. In one study, poor or
insufficient sleep was found to be the strongest
predictor for pain in adults over 5016 |
Tips to Improve Your Sleep Habits
Small adjustments to your daily routine and sleeping area can go
a long way toward ensuring you uninterrupted, restful sleep — and
thereby better health. To get you started, check out the suggestions
listed in the table below. For even more helpful guidance on how to
improve your sleep, please review my “33
Secrets to a Good Night's Sleep.”
If you're even slightly sleep deprived, I encourage you to
implement some of these tips tonight, as high-quality sleep is one
of the most important factors in your health and quality of life. As
for how much sleep you need for optimal health, a panel of experts
reviewed more than 300 studies to determine the ideal amount of
sleep, and found that, as a general rule,
most adults need right around eight hours per night.
Your pineal gland produces melatonin roughly in
approximation to the contrast of bright sun exposure in the
day and complete darkness at night.
If you’re in darkness all day long, your body can't
appreciate the difference and will not optimize melatonin
production.
Make sure you get at least 30 to 60 minutes of outdoor light
exposure during the daytime in order to "anchor" your master
clock rhythm, in the morning if possible. More sunlight
exposure is required as you age.
Once the sun sets, minimize artificial light exposure to
assist your body in secreting melatonin, which helps you
feel sleepy.
It can be helpful to sleep in complete darkness, or as close
to it as possible. If you need navigation light, install a
low-wattage yellow, orange, or red light bulb.
Light in these bandwidths does not shut down melatonin
production in the way that white and blue light does. Salt
lamps are great for this purpose. |
A sleep disturbance is always caused by something, be it
physical, emotional, or both. Anxiety and anger are two
mental states that are incompatible with sleep.
Feeling overwhelmed with responsibilities is another common
sleep blocker.
To identify the cause of your wakefulness, analyze the
thoughts that circle in your mind during the time you lie
awake, and look for themes.
Many who have learned the
Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) find it is incredibly
useful in helping them to sleep.
One strategy is to compile a list of your current concerns,
and then “tap” on each issue. To learn how to tap, please
refer to our free
EFT guide. |
Many people keep their homes too warm at night. Studies
show that the
optimal room temperature for sleep is between 60 and 68
degrees Fahrenheit. |
This raises your core body temperature, and when you get
out of the bath it abruptly drops, signaling your body that
you’re ready for sleep. |
Electronic devices emit blue light, which tricks your
brain into thinking it's still daytime. Normally, your brain
starts secreting melatonin between 9 pm and 10 pm, and these
devices may stifle that process.
If you have to use your cellphone or computer at night,
downloading a free application called F.lux will
automatically dim your computer device screens as the
evening wears on.17 |
EMFs can disrupt your pineal gland and its melatonin
production, and may have other detrimental biological
effects.
A gauss meter is required if you want to measure
EMF levels in various areas of your home. Ideally, you
should turn off any wireless router while you are sleeping —
after all, you don’t need the Internet when you sleep. |
Going to bed and getting up at the same time each day
helps keep your sleep on track, but having a consistent
pre-sleep routine or “sleep ritual” is also important.
For instance, if you read before heading to bed, your body
knows that reading at night signals it’s time for sleep.
Sleep specialist Stephanie Silberman, Ph.D. suggests
listening to calming music, stretching or doing relaxation
exercises.18
Mindfulness therapies have also been found helpful for
insomnia.19 |
Two of the biggest sleep saboteurs are caffeine and
alcohol, both of which also increase anxiety. Caffeine’s
effects can last four to seven hours. Tea and chocolate also
contain caffeine.
Alcohol can help you fall asleep faster, but it makes sleep
more fragmented and less restorative.
Nicotine in all its forms (cigarettes, e-cigs, chewing
tobacco, pipe tobacco, and smoking cessation patches) is
also a stimulant, so lighting up too close to bedtime can
worsen insomnia.
Many other drugs can also interfere with sleep. |
To optimize sleep you need to go to bed early enough. If
you have to get up at 6:30am, you’re just not going to get
enough sleep if you go to bed after midnight.
Many
fitness trackers can now track both daytime body
movement and sleep, allowing you to get a better picture of
how much sleep you’re actually getting.
Newer fitness trackers like Jawbone’s UP3 can even tell you
which activities led to your best sleep and what factors
resulted in poor sleep. |
© Copyright 1997-2016 Dr. Joseph Mercola. All Rights Reserved.
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