If you’re not getting sleep, you’re not alone. Close to one-third of people in America don’t get enough sleep (less than 6 hours). The type of job you do may be a culprit as a result of erratic schedules and excessive deadlines or demands. Maybe you’re not getting enough sleep because you stay up thinking about life, as I’ve done many times before. At times you may find yourself having a good night’s sleep until you had to go to the bathroom. Or maybe you lost sleep simply because you stayed up late watching movies. What’s crazy is that we can actually adapt to a state in which we are sleep-deprived and not even recognize our own cognitive decline that results from it. We can become walking and talking shadows of our former selves and be none the wiser. A study by the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard Medical School was conducted in which participants were not aware of the cognitive decline they were experiencing due to lack of sleep. Even moderate amounts of sleep deprivation (1-2 hrs.) were found to seriously impair waking neurobehavioral functions in healthy adults. Lack of sleep can stem from the physical to the psychological or a combination of both.
The high-fueled and competitive culture that we live in contributes to the sleep-deprived state of its citizens as it rewards them for behaviors that are conducive to sleep deprivation; when these behaviors cannot be sustained, citizens feel the pressure and deprive themselves of sleep even more. Our society also tends to normalize sleep deprivation as a rite of passage to success. The “all night crammer” is often mentioned as part of the college experience. I heard a college acquaintance once brag about her experience of staying up all night writing a college paper. She told us how she got Adderall from another student and took it to stay up all night to finish her paper. It turns out that one student out of six in college misuse ADHD medication to improve their performance. If not by misusing prescription medication, all-nighters are often sustained with coffee and energy drinks. It’s often considered normal to struggle with sleep deprivation to achieve your goals and the ability to respond to those increased demands are often rewarded. What’s not rewarding are the effects of sleep deprivation and the long-term consequences that follow.
Sleep Deprivation can Cause Weight Gain and Long-Term Health Consequences
Not getting the right amount of sleep can have a major effect on your physical and mental health. According to the Mayo Clinic, sleep deprivation can decrease your immunity, which can put you at higher risk for viruses like Covid-19, and untreated sleep deprivation can increase long-term health consequences such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. Sleep deprivation can also lead to higher levels of the stress hormone known as cortisol. High levels of cortisol resulting from sleep deprivation can make you feel fatigued and irritable; it can cause headaches and digestion problems; it can increase anxiety and depression; it can slow down your metabolism and cause you to gain weight; it can increase your blood pressure, lower your libido, and make it difficult to recover from exercise; and to top things off, it can further deprive you of sleep. Eventually, a pattern of sleep deprivation can lead to an early death.
Sleep Deprivation Leads to a Decline in Moods and Depression
A study by the University of Pennsylvania demonstrated the connection between sleep-deprivation and mood. Participants in the study were restricted 4-5 hours of sleep for 7 cumulative days. The results of sleep deprivation showed “statistically robust cumulative effects on waking functions”. Participants reported fatigue, confusion, tension, and mood disturbances. After the participants went back to sleeping normal for two days, they reported a major improvement in their moods. But what if you can’t return to your regular sleeping patterns so quickly?
Lack of sleep can turn into a snake that eats its own tail in which sleep deprivation leads to depression and depression leads to insomnia which further perpetuates sleep deprivation. Many times sleep deprivation is a sign of major depression. It’s important to tackle sleep deprivation since it can make depression worse. When you are sleep-deprived, your ability to make effective decisions is greatly affected; therefore, any decisions made while sleep deprived can lead to negative consequences that are sometimes permanent and that in itself can lead to more depression. The link between sleep deprivation and depression is so strong in that it’s considered an important factor in relapse of depression and a strong factor for suicide. Even when other symptoms tied to depression are treated and improved upon, a relapse is significantly increased if sleep deprivation is still present. It’s important to get help if sleep deprivation continues as it is often linked with depression and can result in long-term consequences.
Sleep Deprivation Causes a Tendency to Catastrophize
The difference between my mood when I get enough sleep and when I don’t get enough sleep is night and day. On days when I get a decent amount of sleep (8 hours) my mood is light and positive. When I get enough sleep, I’m content and feel very productive; however, when I get less than 7 hours of sleep, I notice a decline in my mood to the point that small tasks become monumental, and any slight mishap turns into an I hate my life moment. When I don’t get enough sleep, I tend to catastrophize; interactions with others become unpleasant, I get snappy, and I’m often irritated when others interrupt me or speak “too loudly”. When I’m sleep-deprived and I have to drive, the simple effort of moving the steering wheel is like pushing an ox, and bumps on the road become mountains. During times like these, I try to remind myself that I don’t hate my life; it’s just the aftermath of sleep deprivation. I compare how I felt days ago when I wasn’t sleep-deprived to how I feel when I’m sleep deprived, and I find comfort in knowing that the torture of my insomniac existence will pass as soon as I get the right amount of sleep. I make it a point to avoid making any major decisions when I’m sleep deprived, since doing so could elicit a great deal of regret. My mood is so at the tipping point when I’m sleep-deprived that the only thing that can stop me from falling over is breathing and an awareness that this too shall pass.
Being Sleep Deprived is Like Being Drunk
According to the CDC, staying awake for a minimum of 18 hrs. is akin to reaching a blood alcohol content of 0.05%. And even worse, not getting sleep for 24 hrs. is equivalent to a blood alcohol content of 0.10%, which surpasses the legal limit of blood alcohol content for all states! Can you believe that?? This means that when you’re sleep deprived and you get behind the wheel, you put yourself and others in similar or equal danger as you would while drinking and driving. Buddy T., founding member of Online Al-Anon Outreach Committee, discusses how at 0.05 blood alcohol content you can lose some ability to control even the smallest of muscle movements, including those of your eyes which involve focusing. Your overall level of alertness is also diminished. Driving with a blood alcohol content of 0.05 can worsen your ability to steer and track moving objects, as well as diminish your reaction time which becomes necessary in an emergency. At 0.10%, those abilities decline even more to the point where simple things like keeping your car on the road and stopping when necessary become difficult.
This is indeed scary, and it makes me recall an experience I had while driving from Texas to Louisiana after a martial arts tournament. I didn’t want to stay the night in Texas, so I decided to drive back home that same night; I get tunnel vision when it comes to things like that. On the way back to Louisiana, I felt drowsy but thought nothing of it; surely I could control myself. Mind over matter right? Well, I learned otherwise in this case. At some point while on the road, for a brief second or two, I didn’t remember where I was or what I was doing. I had literally woken up to realize that I was “driving”, as I noticed my car was veering to the side. I was terrified! At that moment, I realized that my body had a mind of its own, which was contrary to my plans. If it was a mile later, I would have woken up driving off a bridge rather than driving to the side road. I decided that it was time to pull over at a truck stop and take a nap. I woke up what felt like an hour later feeling refreshed and continued back on my journey. When I got home, I was so sleep-deprived that I slept for the longest time I had ever slept in my life. I went to sleep at 3:00am and woke up at 3:00pm; that’s 12 hours later! From that day forward, I told myself that I would always drive responsibly by getting the rest I needed as soon as signs of exhausted began to creep in; you can’t procrastinate sleep while on the wheel. Driving can become a very automatic activity in which it can become easy to lose focus, even more so when we are tired.
Sleep Deprivation: What about Coffee and Tea?
I don’t know if anyone loves coffee more than I do. At times, coffee is what gets me up during the work week; it propels me forward. I love the aroma of coffee and the taste of it. I love the way coffee makes me feel, so much so that I often want to repeat the morning cup. Coffee gets me excited, and I love the ritual of making it. I imagine tea drinkers feel the same way about tea. I gotta say that I do enjoy tea as well, although I prefer the calming teas like chamomile and linden. Anyhow, I do love picking out the perfect cup and the perfect little spoon for my coffee. I mostly drink expresso with milk and sugar (aka café con leche). Since I often find myself wanting a second cup of coffee in afternoons, I drink decaf. Blasphemy! The reason I drink decaf is to simply train my brain to think it’s “real coffee” and avoid the caffeine. By the way, it actually is real coffee and it tastes a lot like it too :). Long are the days I drink more coffee in the afternoons to stay alert longer. I came to realize that drinking coffee to stay awake and alert is just another snake eating its own tail. Drinking more coffee will only give us more insomnia so that the next day we’ll want more coffee to stay awake longer…and so the cycle continues. A study published by The Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine found that caffeine up to 6 hours before your bedtime can cause you to lose 1 or more hours of sleep. Can you believe it? I couldn’t.
Sleep Debt: Can You Really Pay if Back?
According to the National Sleep Foundation, you can pay back sleep debt; however, it’s not so easy. Losing just one hour of sleep can take days to repay. The reason why it’s hard to repay sleep debt is because sleep debt is cumulative, and it may not be beneficial or possible to sleep more than what we’re use to in one morning. Sleeping-in can also affect the following night’s sleep, thus leading to more sleep deprivation. Repaying lost sleep is a gradual process as the body needs to reach a balance once again and recover from any physical damage incurred. Losing sleep can drain our bodies as the right amount of sleep is needed for tissue reparation and adequate hormone production. While we navigate the world in a sleep-deprived state, we’re putting a strain on our bodies and wrecking havoc on our lives. We may experience unwanted weight gain, make bad decisions, and spend time we can’t get back suffering from migraines instead of enjoying life. Lack of sleep equals lack of life. We can’t cheat to get more waking hours. It may seem like staying up late is a way to extend our day; however, we’re actually limiting the quality of our day and missing out on what the night has to offer us. Lack of sleep can actually reduce your creativity since you’ll be missing out on an important stage of sleep known as REM (Rapid Eye Movement). The REM stage of sleep is crucial when it comes to creativity as it’s a stage of sleep where memories and information is stored and assembled in new ways. When we allow ourselves to sleep well, we are increasing the quality of our waking lives while extending our life experiences through dreaming. I hope you are able to get the sleep you need so that you can have a peaceful life.
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Disclaimer: The information provided in this blog post is for educational purposes only and should not be considered as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health providers with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. The author and publisher of this article are not responsible for any adverse effects or consequences resulting from the use of any suggestions or techniques discussed herein. Additionally, individual experiences may vary. It is important to consult with a healthcare professional for personalized guidance and to address any specific concerns or conditions related to sleep deprivation or mental health.
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