Lack of sleep, do we all truly understand the consequences?
Despite the recommended sleeping time for teenagers being 9 - 9.5 hours, the average teenager in the UK sleeps for only 7 hours per night. Whilst most people think that they understand the side effects due to lack of sleep - the most common being mood swings, increased emotional sensitivity, headaches and fatigue - there are many more side effects that people don’t know about, especially younger people.
It is true that a lack of sleep causes mood swings and increased mental irritability. It can also cause impulsive behaviour as it compromises decision-making processes and creativity, it causes anxiety and depression, paranoia and even dark thoughts. A study took place assessing the link between depression and lack of sleep in 553 young people who had severe depression. In this study, 72.7% also reported experiencing sleep disturbances. Furthermore, a lack of sleep can also cause people to microsleep; this is where you fall asleep for a period of a few seconds, some people don’t even realise that this happens. This can be dangerous, especially when driving, cooking, using machinery etc. This could also affect how you learn and remember things, which is especially important nearing exam periods. A lack of sleep can cut an individual's memory retention and recall ability by up to 40%. On top of this, the possibility of microsleep can ruin your experience in the classroom as well as studying, as you can’t fully listen to everything being said.
Lack of sleep also has a number of physical effects that many people don’t talk about. Whilst there is the obvious headaches and fatigue, a lack of sleep can also lead to a raised blood pressure, heart problems and diabetes. It can also lead to weight gain, as it not only affects the chemical signals that change your appetite, but also decreases a person’s metabolism, which is the process by which the body converts food and drink into energy. The slower a person’s metabolism is, the harder your body finds it to burn calories, which, whilst not the main factor in weight loss or gain, can make it harder to lose or maintain weight. Lack of sleep can also affect your skin, meaning that a person can spend hundreds of pounds on fancy skincare, but if that person is not getting enough sleep, then their cortisol levels could increase, which can negatively impact your immune system’s abilities, leading to an increase in skin problems. Your skin could appear puffy, wrinkly or pale and you could face an increase in acne breakouts, only made worse by the stress lack of sleep can cause.
What can you do to help solve lack of sleep? The most commonly recommended methods are to avoid electronics for an hour before you sleep, to drink a hot drink (not coffee) before sleeping, to take a hot bath before bed, and to meditate. But if those don’t work, a few methods are to avoid large meals directly before sleeping, only use your bed for sleeping, and to take melatonin and other relaxing over the counter medication. If none of these work, then it is possible you could have a sleep disorder, and is recommended that you go to your GP to get medication or other treatment.
Sleep is one of the most important things for your health and should not be overlooked as something to simply just refresh your body. Especially during exam periods, it is imperative that you get the recommended amount of sleep for your mind and your body.
Sources:
https://www.med.upenn.edu/csi/the-impact-of-sleep-on-learning-and-memory.html
Picture: Photo by Ivan Oboleninov : https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-sleeping-935777/