Serious Sleep Deprivation Effects

Sleep deprivation effects are one of today's leading health problems and a major cause of weight gain. We are sleeping an average of 2 hours less a night than we did 100 years ago, and we are just not designed to function like that. In our over stimulated and time poor world, we tend to cut out sleep time to carry out other tasks.

Inadequate sleep can show up in many ways you might not think of, like weakened immune system, impaired thinking abilities, and increased stress levels. Some people may be fine on 5 hours of sleep but most of us need at least 6-8 hours every day.

When we party all night, or stay up with a sick child, we expect to feel at least a bit awful the next day. We know that if we need to drive a long way or do a task requiring major accuracy and focus that staying up late isn't a good idea. What we don't usually consider though is the cumulative effect of that 2 hours less a night. Chronic sleep deprivation builds up a major sleep debt your body can't continue to pay.

The Stress / Sleep Deprivation Merry go round

Excess cortisol from chronic stress lowers our ability to sleep deeply. Inadequate quality sleep then increases cortisol making it increasingly difficult to deal with stress.

Sleep Deprivation Effects and Risks

While one of the most obvious sleep deprivation effects is fatigue, it can more commonly affect your metabolism, resulting in weight gain. Other consequences include increasing the risk of diabetes, and hypertension. Because our immune system needs deep slow wave sleep when we don't get enough, we may be more likely to get sick. Inadequate rest can harm our health, career, relationships and overall well-being.

Obesity and weight gain

The hormones Leptin and Grehlin control appetite and weight gain and loss. Leptin signals that we are full, while Grehlin increases appetite. Sleep deprivation cause overall levels of Grehlin to increase along with appetite, especially for refined carbohydrates. Levels of Leptin decrease, so we don't feel satisfied after eating either.

One of the most dastardly sleep deprivation effects is the increase in cortisol (stress hormone) which reduces muscle mass. Losing muscle mass is your worst weight loss nightmare because metabolism slows down.

Depression

Fatigue and hormonal disruption can lead to feeling sad, losing interest in activities you used to enjoy and pulling away from other people.

Anxiety

Sleep deprivation can trigger fears and even panic attacks.

Coronary heart disease and hypertension

Excess cortisol and insulin have devastating effects on blood triglycerides.

Type 2 Diabetes and Insulin Resistance

Increased cortisol (stress to body from not sleeping) goes hand in hand with increased insulin, increasing the risk of type 2 diabetes and its increased health risks.

Memory

The hippocampus enables us to store and organize memories - essential for retaining new information. Excess cortisol from stress and insufficient sleep interferes with this process. The hippocampus can actually shrink. Fatigue also interferes with our short-term memory by reducing the number of information chunks we can deal with.

Cognitive performance and alertness

Without enough sleep, we are not able to think properly and our brain reacts to any issue slowly. Our brains have to work harder to make up for a general lack of alertness. By reducing the brain's ability to link events and actions with emotion, lack of sleep can bring on an array of psychiatric conditions including psychosis and memory loss. Mental fatigue leads to poor decision making and impaired problem-solving skills. Your relationships and performance at work can suffer as a result.

Accidents

Drowsiness can make you more accident-prone. Physical fatigue will make your response times slower - dangerous while you're driving a vehicle or operating machinery.

Immune function and overall health

Sleep deprivation and associated elevated cortisol suppresses our immune system and can kill off thymus cells (protect against viruses and tumor cells). We catch cold bugs and flu more easily and open ourselves up to other health risks.

Premature Aging

One study found that sleeping less than 4 hours per night was associated with a 2.8 times higher rate of mortality for men and a 1.5 times higher rate for women. Making length of sleep time a better predictor of mortality than smoking, cardiac disease, or hypertension. We produce HGH (growth hormone that keeps us youthful) in deep sleep stages. If we don't get quality sleep, we don't make HGH.

NLP Help

• How much do you value your sleep time? Do you see it as a waste of time, or an absolute necessity for optimal performance?
• Meta programs that can affect sleep include:
  • Motivation Direction - Motivating yourself with negative outcomes.
  • Relationship filter - Mismatching so that we focus on how it's not going to work
  • Modal operator of necessity - thinking in terms of all the things you have to do
• Quality of your internal world can interfere or enhance the quality of your sleep.
  • Happy pictures, positively framed memories and supportive internal dialogue create a very different world than their opposite.
  • Being associated to negative events - replaying that awful movie over and over in your head.
• Trusting your unconscious mind - sleep is not something you can consciously do.

Self Hypnosis to deal with Sleep Deprivation Effects

• Restorative Healing Sleep
  Sleep is nature's way of letting your body regenerate and heal. But sometimes sleep can be affected by: worries and anxieties; emotional problems and stress.
• Beat Insomnia into Sleepy Submission
  Insomnia causes exhaustion and irritability. There's nothing worse than lying awake worrying about the fact that you're lying awake.
• Enjoy Deep Sleep
  It's annoying to be lying awake worrying about not getting enough sleep. You watch the minutes tick by, knowing you will feel terrible when it's time to get up.
• No More Nightmares
  Nightmares can seem so real that we wake up terrified. It can get so bad that we put off going to sleep just to avoid the panic.
• Discover how to fall asleep fast
  Not being able to go to sleep quickly is very frustrating, especially when it becomes a regular sleep pattern.