Experts give tips on how to fall asleep properly
Experts reveal the chaos that unfolds inside the body when a person spends just one night without sleep. Just one night of sleep deprivation leads to impaired thinking and irritability, and avoiding caffeine and technology before bed can promote quality sleep.
Anyone who has ever had a bad night's sleep will remember the difficulties they faced the next day, writes the Daily Mail. You feel confused, delusional, emotional and barely able to function. Sometimes the side effects of poor sleep can be similar to a bad hangover, causing nausea and headaches. And to think, all you did was go without sleep. But given the cascade of harmful things churning through your brain and body while you lie awake, the feeling of a hangover when you're sober isn't surprising.
Speaking to DailyMail.com, experts detailed the intriguing biology that happens when we can't sleep – whether it's simply staying awake late at night, staying awake for 24 hours, or going for days without sleeping.
Experts describe chaos as a "ripple effect" – when one malfunction causes another, followed by another.
Research has long shown that chronic lack of sleep can increase the risk of developing a number of diseases, such as obesity, memory loss, diabetes, heart disease and a weakened immune system answer, which makes you vulnerable to infections, writes the Daily Mail.
But now experts have found that just one night without sleep is enough to cause harm, which is to be expected, given that sleep is critical to virtually every bodily function: regulating hormones, repairing tissue and maintaining a healthy weight.
< p>So, where does it start?
According to experts, the effects of sleep deprivation begin to appear after 18 hours of wakefulness. This is the equivalent of going to bed at 2 am if you woke up at 8 am the night before. Eighteen hours without sleep is the time when blood pressure will begin to rise, causing the heart to work harder and placing additional stress on the organ.
In people with underlying heart disease, it may increase the chance of a heart attack or stroke. A 2014 study found that heart attacks increased by 25 percent on the Monday after Daylight Saving Time, when clocks move forward and you lose an hour of sleep. Studies show that on Monday, after setting the clocks back, the number of heart attacks decreases by 21 percent.
Waking more than 18 hours also leads to a decrease in testosterone levels, the male sex hormone. Energy levels decrease, as does the immune system's defenses. In just one week of sleeping less than five hours a day — or being awake for 19 hours — The young man's testosterone levels dropped by 10 to 15 percent compared to the normal rate of one to two percent per year.
Sleep plays an important role in regulating hormones, and when the body does not receive enough of them, it cannot perform its normal functions properly.
Also around this time, the immune system will begin to produce inflammatory proteins associated with heart disease and chronic disease, and our natural “fighter” cells that fight bacteria and viruses will become less effective.< /p>
Dr. Andrey Zinchuk, a specialist in pulmonology, critical care and sleep medicine at Yale University, told YaleMedicine: “I think of every hour of sleep as depositing money into a sleep savings account. If your sleep savings account is depleted or overdrawn, it will negatively impact your brain and the way you interact with the world.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, twenty-four hours without sleep has the same effect on the brain as drinking four glasses of wine or beer. This means you may have slower reaction times, slurred speech, and slower thinking. Other symptoms include irritability, increased stress, difficulty concentrating and food cravings.
Dr Carolyn Williams, a registered dietitian and author of Meals That Heal, told DailyMail.com that lack of sleep also affects on your ability to make healthy food choices.
A 2015 study found that for every hour teens didn't get enough sleep, they ate 210 more calories the next day, mostly from fat and carbohydrates. Teens with inconsistent sleep patterns were also more likely to snack.
Dr. Williams says lack of sleep changes your brain function, affecting the foods you choose, how the body regulates hormones and how the body processes food, making you experience cravings for foods that you would not normally consume.
Carolyn Williams added that when you don't get enough quality sleep, your brain's reward center is activated more by food, and a recent study found that tired people responded more to unhealthy foods and were willing to spend more money on them than on healthy alternatives.
After 36 hours without sleep, any symptoms you were experiencing will get worse. You may also experience microsleep, short periods of involuntary sleep lasting up to 30 seconds.
During microsleep, you appear awake and your eyes are open, but your brain “switches off,” writes the Daily Mail.
Research has shown that brain activity slows down, making it difficult for you to process information. Without sleep, the brain struggles to cope without having the time it needs to heal itself, leading to extreme stress and decreased performance. With 36 hours of wakefulness, different parts of the brain have difficulty communicating with each other. This means that memory, learning, decision making and reacting all become difficult. In addition, your blood pressure and heart rate will increase, your metabolism will slow, and your heart will be forced to work harder.
Another 12 hours without sleep will put you in what is considered extreme sleep deprivation.
It is likely that the frequency of microsleeps is increasing. After 48 hours of being awake, you may experience hallucinations and increased stress, depersonalization, anxiety and increased irritability.
The brain's amygdala, which helps regulate mood and memory, and the prefrontal cortex, which controls executive functions and impulse control, are severely impaired.
Dr. Scott Lyons, a licensed psychologist, told DailyMail.com that the impact on the amygdala the body causes people to react 60 percent more actively in situations of stress or discomfort.
After 72 hours without sleep, the brain has difficulty coping with fatigue, which can lead to hallucinations, delusions and impaired thinking.
With 96 hours of sleep deprivation, the risk of psychosis increases. This is when you experience an altered perception of reality and may suffer from intense hallucinations as well as severe mood swings. Sleep deprivation psychosis usually goes away once you get enough sleep. However, excessive repeated sleep deprivation can be fatal.
Extreme fatigue is a major factor in motor vehicle accidents as well as fatal workplace errors.
Jessica Tapia, a 29-year-old mother of five children ranging in age from 10 years to three weeks, told DailyMail.com that she slept about four to five hours a night for the better part of a decade. According to her husband, she is often “irritable and very grumpy,” and sometimes suffers from dizziness, brain fog and problems making decisions.
Ms Tapia, owner of a digital marketing agency, says: “Sleep deprivation is such a real thing and it can drive you crazy. Some mornings I wake up and feel so dizzy that I can't move… and my husband has to pick up our son and feed him. The worst thing is that I feel that one day I will simply no longer be aware of what is happening.
In addition to physical problems that can cause sleep problems, a person's mental health also plays a big role in the quality of sleep.
Dr Lyons tells DailyMail.com about mood disorders such as bipolar disorder, depression or generalized anxiety disorder, which can disrupt a person's sleep patterns. Poor sleep can also make mental health problems worse.
In these cases, seeking psychological therapy may be helpful.
Sleep experts recommend going to bed early and avoiding caffeine in the afternoon , lowering the bedroom temperature and cutting out electronics immediately before bed are ways to improve sleep health.
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