Sign up for any social media account, and you’ll find countless memes and post about the unending love for sleep. Just like this one right here.
One would think that shuteye is de wey on this planet, but turns out, people glorify slumber like that, because they aren’t actually getting any. An average adult should sleep for 7-8 hours a day. But actually, they get just 4 to 5 hours of it on any given day. If you think this will have no effects on your health, and that it depends from person to person, you’re couldn’t be more wrong.
After a night of 4 hours of sleep, there is a drastic reduction in critical cancer fighting immune cells. This puts you at a risk for cancer by 70%! Who would’ve thought, decreasing your nap time by an hour or two can increase your risk to develop numerous types of cancers. The link with sleep deprivation and cancer is so strong that recently the World Health Organization (WHO) classified long night working hours as “Carcinogenic”.
Your beauty sleep also acts as a medication for high blood pressure. When an individual sleeps, the heart rate drops down and so does the blood pressure. So when you aren’t catching enough zzz’s, you’re overloading your heart, and thus increasing the blood pressure.
Lack of sleep has also been linked with Alzheimer’s Disease. When you’re asleep the sewage system in your brain flushes off of a harmful protein called beta amyloid which is linked with Alzheimer. Thus, when it pools up in your brain and BAM! You turn 60 and forget your first kiss back when you were 16.
What are you going to do when you are sleep deprived? You can try changing the world, but mostly, you’re gonna hog. With Insomnia, come the changing eating habits. That comfy midnight snack during your all-nighter, is no longer a rarity. You’re gonna see the fridge light on in the middle of the night, more often. This increases your probability of getting obese, and getting a heart attack by 200%.
After 16 hours of wakefulness, there is a decline in one’s brain function. Push it to 19, and you have the same brain state as that of drunken driver. Longest time someone has stayed up, is 264 hours, that is 11 days. The record holder didn’t really develop any long term ailments, but you don’t wanna try that. It’s no surprise that with a state of mind like that, hallucinations are going to be commonplace.
Sleep is something that still eludes scientists. Research goes on into the science of slumber, meanwhile, put on your sleeping socks, pull the sheets and snooze away!
Learn more about sleep deprivation and it’s effects here.