Sleep deprivation is common and people talk about it as though being sleep deprived is something to be proud of – it’s a sign of dedication to job, toughness, and a commitment to getting everything done. While occasional sleep deprivation is almost inevitable, studies show that about 40% of Americans sleep less than 6 hours per night, which makes them chronically sleep deprived. Chronic sleep deprivation can cause many health issues.
In today’s article, I collaborated with Dr. Pam Popper to tell you about 12 health reasons to avoid sleep deprivation and how to get quality sleep your body needs.
Dr. Pam Popper, PhD, is an author, naturopath, nutritionist and the Executive Director of The Wellness Forum.
12 Health Problems caused by Sleep Deprivation
Sleep deprivation increases inflammatory markers, which could lead to heart disease and other problems. (1, 2)
Sleep deprivation results in increased resting blood pressure and decreased muscle sympathetic nerve activity. (3)
Cortisol levels go up, and heart rates can increase. (4)
Production of human growth hormone decreases, which can impair many functions ranging from recovery from exercise to bone remodeling. (5)
Since sleep is when the body processes information and consolidates memory, lack of sleep can result in diminished cognitive function and memory. (6)
Immune function can become impaired, increasing susceptibility to colds and other condition. (7)
Studies show that sleep deprivation increases hunger and the propensity to not only overeat, but to eat more foods high in sugar and fat. (8, 9, 14) Sleep duration is an important regulator of body weight and metabolism. Short sleep duration is likely to increase appetite, leading to weight gain. (10) A recent study showed that sleep restriction can lead as much as over extra 560 calories consumed a day, leading to weight gain; while getting enough rest leads to a reduced caloric consumption. (9) Another recent study showed that short sleep duration has been shown to be associated with elevated body mass index (BMI). (8)
Sleep deprivation can lead to increased risk of diabetes and heart problems. (11)
Sleep deprivation can lead to increased risk for psychiatric conditions including depression and substance abuse. (11)
Sleep deprivation puts a damper on intimacy: sleep-deprived individuals report lower libidos and less interest in sex. Sleep deprived men secrete lower than average levels of testosterone during the night.(12)
Sleep deprivation leads to increased incidences of death. A study in the journal Sleep found men who got less than six hours of sleep a night were four times more likely to die over a 14-year period. (13)
Sleep deprivation ages your skin. The study, commissioned by the cosmetic company Estée Lauder, showed that poor sleepers exhibited increased signs of skin aging when compared to good quality sleepers.
How Much Sleep Do We Need?
There are no hard and fast rules. Sleep needs vary from person to person and day to day and depend on many factors, including health status and activity levels. For example, people who exercise regularly may need less sleep. Some research indicates that physically active people experience deeper and higher quality sleep, which can reduce the amount of sleep they need.
Your body will give you some clues about your sleep status. If you have difficulty getting out of bed in the morning and hit the snooze button several times; find yourself falling asleep during meetings or when reading at work; or need caffeine to keep yourself going during the day, you probably are not getting enough sleep, and might actually owe your body a sleep debt.
It is estimated that the average adult needs between 7 and 9 hours of sleep per night. But studies show that about 40% of Americans sleep less than 6 hours per night, which makes them chronically sleep deprived. (16)
Repaying Your Sleep Debt
Just like you can become bankrupt financially, if you spend more than you earn, you can run up sleep debt, if you chronically sleep less than your body needs to recover and restore itself.
In a recent study participants were first evaluated in a sleep lab for four nights of 8-hour sleep to establish a baseline. This provided the researchers with a measurement of normal attention, stress, sleepiness and inflammation levels to measure against. The participants then endured six nights of six-hour sleep (remember that about 40% of Americans sleep less than 6 hours per night). They were then allowed three nights of 10-hour catch-up sleep. Throughout the study, participants’ health and ability to perform a series of tasks were evaluated. (17)
The analysis showed that the six nights of sleep deprivation had a negative effect on attention, daytime sleepiness, and inflammation. After three-nights of catch-up sleep, daytime sleepiness returned to baseline levels. Attention levels, however, which dropped significantly during the sleep-deprivation period, didn’t return to baseline after the catch-up period.
When we don’t get adequate sleep regularly, we accumulate a sleep debt that can be difficult to “pay back” if it becomes too big. Even sleeping heavy on the weekends won’t renew what we lose chronically sleep depriving our bodies.
The best way to repay your sleep debt is not catching a couple of hours of extra sleep over the weekend, but rather retraining your body and changing your schedule to get adequate sleep regularly.
How to Get Quality Sleep
The amount of sleep is important, but so is the quality of sleep. A sleep cycle involves four stages of sleep and the cycle takes between 90 and 110 minutes to complete. Most people will repeat this cycle several times each night. The first stage of sleep is very light and occurs as you first fall asleep. This constitutes about 5% of the cycle. During light sleep, which constitutes 50% of the cycle, your heart rate and breathing slow down. Deep sleep, the most restorative, constitutes 50% of the cycle. Rapid eye movement or REM is the fourth stage, and this is when you dream.
People who wake up frequently throughout the night interrupt their sleep cycles, compromising the quality of sleep, rest, and recovery. Keeping a consistent sleep schedule, taking time to wind down before going to bed, avoiding caffeine later in the day, eating something before bed (hunger can cause people to wake up prematurely), and drinking less water in the evenings (stopping liquid intake early in the evening can reduce or eliminate getting up in the middle of the night for bathroom breaks), and removing disturbances from your sleeping quarters, such as TV and other gadgets, can help you to get better, uninterrupted sleep.
Sleep Re-training
If you trained your body into sleeping poorly, not getting enough sleep (as a business owner and a mother of a 2 year old I know exactly how this can become a problem rather quickly), or suffering from insomnia, instead or reaching for sleeping pills, you might have to sleep train yourself (and you think sleep training was only for babies).
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Instead of Sleeping Pills
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for insomnia is a structured program that helps to identify and replace thoughts and behaviors that cause sleep problems with habits that promote sound sleep. (18, 19)
One of the pillars of CBT for insomnia is sleep restriction. It sounds counter intuitive, since you are trying to achieve exactly the opposite. The premise of sleep restriction is to reduce the amount of time you spend in bed in an effort to increase sleep drive.
First you estimate the average number of hours you sleep per night, then
Decrease the total time you spend in bed per night to that average sleep time, as long as it is not less than four hours.
A rigid bedtime and awakening time are enforced and naps are not permitted. If you have a habit of waking up at 4 in the morning, staying up for an hour, then going back to sleep, you will need to stop doing that. With sleep training, if you wake up at 4 am, you will begin your day at that point and not go back to bed until your regular bed time. This will cause partial sleep deprivation, which will increase your need to sleep the next night.
You will repeat this until you begin to sleep better and your sleep quality will improve. Sleep training is tough for the first few days to few weeks. You may feel sleepy during the day. Try to avoid falling asleep during the day by increasing activity levels when sleepy.
Once that happens, you may slowly increase time in bed to improve alertness during the day, until you get to sleeping 7-9 hours each night.
Sleep is Not a Luxury!
It’s easy to discount sleep as a luxury to be enjoyed by other people, not by those of us who have lots of responsibilities and things to do. But getting enough high quality sleep is a requirement for optimal health, optimal cognitive function, and optimal quality of life; and will insure that you will be able to keep your commitments and get everything done.
While it is tempting to catch up on your favorite show when your kids are in bed, read a book into the wee hours, or catch up on studying and house chores, make sure to take an extra hour to catch up on much needed sleep, because if you do not take care of yourself, you will eventually be no good to take care of others.
I personally have to make a conscious effort to take care of my sleep needs. I normally begin my work day when my child goes to bed, which means that I can easily stay up working until 2-3 am, and start the day over by 6 am. It is good for my business, but not as good for my health. To improve on this, I have to rearrange my schedule and re-prioritize what I do, so I do not bankrupt my health.
Share Sleep Tricks
Are you sleep deprived? How does that affect you?
Have you found ways to get enough sleep, even with a busy schedule? What steps do you take to do that?
Share you thoughts, tricks and tips, and make sure to share this article with the people you care about. Let’s make this world a healthier place, one person at a time.
References
1. Kathi L. Heffner, Ph.D., H. Mei Ng, M.S., Julie A. Suhr, Ph.D. Sleep Disturbance and Older Adults’ Inflammatory Responses to Acute Stress Am J Geriatr Psychiatry. Sep 2012; 20(9): 744–752.
2. Smagula SF, Ancoli-Israel S, Barrett-Connor E, Lane NE. Inflammation, sleep disturbances, and depressed mood among community-dwelling older men. J Psychosom Res. 2014 May;76(5):368-73.
3. Kato M1, Phillips BG, Sigurdsson G, Narkiewicz K, Pesek CA, Somers VK. Effects of sleep deprivation on neural circulatory control. Hypertension. 2000 May;35(5):1173-5.
4. Laura Redwine, Richard L. Hauger, J. Christian Gillin, and Michael Irwin. Effects of Sleep and Sleep Deprivation on Interleukin-6, Growth Hormone, Cortisol, and Melatonin Levels in Humans. JCEM March 27, 2000
5. J R Davidson, H Moldofsky, and F A Lue. Growth hormone and cortisol secretion in relation to sleep and wakefulness. J Psychiatry Neurosci. Jul 1991; 16(2): 96–102.
6. Rauchs, G., Desgranges, B., Foret, J., & Eustache, F. (2005). The relationships between memory systems and sleep stages. Journal of Sleep Research, 14, 123-140
7. Irwin M. Effects of sleep and sleep loss on immunity and cytokines. Brain Behav Immun. 2002 Oct;16(5):503-12.
8. Bayon V1, Leger D, Gomez-Merino D, Vecchierini MF, Chennaoui M., Sleep debt and obesity. Ann Med. 2014 Jul 11:1-9
9. Calvin AD1, Carter RE, Adachi T, Macedo PG, Albuquerque FN, van der Walt C, Bukartyk J, Davison DE, Levine JA, Somers VK. Effects of experimental sleep restriction on caloric intake and activity energy expenditure. Chest. 2013 Jul;144(1):79-86. doi: 10.1378/chest.12-2829.
10. Taheri S1, Lin L, Austin D, Young T, Mignot E. Short sleep duration is associated with reduced leptin, elevated ghrelin, and increased body mass index. PLoS Med. 2004 Dec;1(3):e62
11. http://sleepfoundation.org/how-sleep-works/how-much-sleep-do-we-really-need/page/0%2C1/
12. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2453053/
13. http://www.journalsleep.org/ViewAbstract.aspx?pid=27894
14. http://www.medicaldaily.com/tired-and-hungry-brain-scans-point-why-sleep-deprivation-triggers-junk-food-eating-249323
15. Oyetakin-White PA, Koo B, Matsui MS, Yarosh D, Cooper KD, Baron ED. Effects of sleep quality on skin aging and function. Journal of Investigative Dermatology. 2013.
16. http://www.gallup.com/poll/166553/less-recommended-amount-sleep.aspx
17. Slobodanka Pejovic , Maria Basta , Alexandros N. Vgontzas , Ilia Kritikou , Michele L. Shaffer , Marina Tsaoussoglou , David Stiffler , Zacharias Stefanakis , Edward O. Bixler, George P. Chrousos, Effects of recovery sleep after one work week of mild sleep restriction on interleukin-6 and cortisol secretion and daytime sleepiness and performance, American Journal of Physiology – Endocrinology and Metabolism, October 2013 Vol. 305 no. E890-E896
18. http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/insomnia/in-depth/insomnia-treatment/art-20046677
19. http://www.talkaboutsleep.com/sleep-restriction-therapy-when-nothing-else-works/
cover image credit: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/young-beautiful-woman-sleeping-in-bed-photo-p262882
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