We all feel a bit tired sometimes, but do you know the consequences of sleep deprivation? How much sleep do I really need? What even happens to me while I sleep? That’s precisely what we’ll discuss in this fascinating article, starting with the basics right now.
Author: Yasmin Roos
We all feel a bit tired sometimes, but do you know the consequences of sleep deprivation? How much sleep do I really need? What even happens to me while I sleep? That’s precisely what we’ll discuss in this article, starting with the basics:
What happens to my body while I sleep?
Firstly, let us speak about the different sleeping stages. There are 4 stages of sleep which occur multiple times throughout the night, varying in length. These include 2 major phases of sleep: the non-rapid eye movement (non-REM) sleep and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. The four stages of sleep consist of three non-REM sleeping stages and one REM sleeping stage. The non-REM sleep features an absence of eye movement, while the REM sleep features dreams and rapid eye movements.
- Stage 1 (non-REM): Stage 1 happens when you first fall asleep. Your body enters a light sleep, your brain waves, heart rate, and eye movements slow down. This phase lasts for about 7 minutes.
- Stage 2 (non-REM): This stage involves light sleep just before deep sleep. Your body temperature decreases, your eye movements stop, and your heart rate and muscles continue to relax. Your brain waves accelerate and slow down. During a night of sleep, you spend most of the time in stage 2.
- Stage 3 (non-REM): In stages 3 and 4, deep sleep begins. Your eyes and muscles do not move, and your brain waves slow down even more.
- Stage 4 (REM): REM sleep first happens around 90 minutes after you fall asleep. During this stage, your eyes move quickly from side to side. Your brain waves and eye movements increase. Your heart rate and breathing also speed up. In this stage dreams can appear.
I am also sure we all know sleeping is an important part of our daily life like eating and drinking, but sleeping is not just giving a rest to our body. There is a lot more going on in our bodies than we think while we are asleep, including energy conservation, weight maintenance etc. Since our body functions at a lower metabolism while we are asleep this allows us to reduce our need for calories. This leads to research finding out that 8 hours of sleep can save up to 35% of energy per 24-hour cycle. Cellular restoration also happens while we sleep, which means that our body uses the time we sleep to repair and regrow cells. There are also other important processes like muscle repair, tissue growth and hormone releases. We may be sleeping, but our brain is not; in fact, our brain is busy with reorganizing our nerve cells, clearing out waste from our central nervous system and also removes toxic products that built up throughout the day. Sleep also strengthens brain functioning aspects, including learning, memory, problem solving skills, creativity, decision making, focus, and concentration.
Our weight maintenance is also connected to sleep. Sleep controls the hunger hormones ghrelin, which increases appetite, and leptin, which makes us feel full after eating. Since we are sleeping and need less energy, ghrelin decreases while we sleep. Due to lack of sleep, it can happen that ghrelin suppresses leptin. This causes you to feel hungrier and to potentially eating more calories, which results in you gaining weight.
How much sleep do I really need?
Depending on your age your body needs a different amount of rest and reset. It also varies from person to person, but here are the suggestions of the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
- Birth to 3 months: 14 to 17 hours
- 4 to 12 months: 12 to 16 hours per 24 hours, including naps
- 1 to 2 years: 11 to 14 hours per 24 hours, including naps
- 3 to 5 years: 10 to 13 hours per 24 hours, including naps
- 6 to 12 years: 9 to 12 hours
- 13 to 18 years: 8 to 10 hours
- 18 to 60 years: 7 or more hours
- 61 to 64 years: 7 to 9 hours
- 65 years and older: 7 to 8 hours
What happens if I don’t sleep enough?
People that don’t sleep enough or often wake up during the night are more likely to get coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity and strokes. A 2021 study has found that sleep deprivation can affect your sense of balance and coordination which can lead to accidents, falls and injuries.
Lack of sleep doesn’t only affect your physical health, but also your mental health. Studies also show that people with insomnia are twice as likely to get depression and that 80% of people with depression have insomnia too. Insomnia can also lead to anxiety and other mental issues.
Not getting enough sleep can affect your memory and your ability to react. An example of that are students who pull all-nighters. In fact, it is proven that even though they spent more time studying, they didn’t get better results because they didn’t leave enough time for their brain to establish the memories in their brains. Neurological disturbances like blurred vision can also appear. Even though it may sound rude when someone says you look tired, not sleeping enough can show up on your face. For example, you could get dark undereye circles, drooping eyelids, pale skin, red eyes and swollen eyes. Your immune system could also get damaged because while you are sleeping your body produces cytokines, proteins that tell other cells to keep your immune system functioning, but when you don’t sleep, they don’t get produced. This can cause a weaker immune system over time and get you more prone to illnesses and make it harder to recover from viruses like the cold or flu. Not sleeping will also cause you more stress which will cause you to not be able to sleep because of the built-up stress, this will eventually turn into a vicious circle. Sleep deprivation also raises the risk for dementia because your brain accumulates too many toxins that lead to Alzheimer. This doesn’t only affect adults, kids and teenagers can also get problems such as: behavior problems, impaired learning, poor concentration and decreased school performance. In the worst cases sleep deprivation can even cause death.
What can I do to fight against my sleep deprivation?
- Turn your bedtime back. Try to go to bed 15-20 minutes earlier. Then after some time add another 20 minutes until you are satisfied with your bedtime.
- Create a nighttime routine. Sometimes creating a nighttime routine can help normalize your sleep schedule.
- Drop your bad habits such as being on your phone before going to bed or drinking alcohol, because these things can damage your sleep more than you think.
- If nothing is working, consider going to a doctor, since they are professionals, they will hopefully be able to help you.
Here are also 5 fun facts about sleep:
- There are over 100 recognized sleep disorders.
- Many people experience hallucinations before or after their sleep.
- Genetics can affect how you sleep; it can also determine how you can function with only a few hours of sleep.
- Everybody dreams, even if they don’t remember it.
- Sweet snacks before bed can cause nightmares or bizarre dreams.
Edited by: Sergej Skackov; Leonie Goodchild;
