Sleeping the necessary hours and ensuring that these are of quality is essential to preserve our physical and emotional health. Let’s see what negative effects lack of sleep has on our body.
In this sense, sleep is one of the essential elements for day to day; sleeping well and enough hours plays a crucial role in our day to day life, and lack of rest can trigger visible negative consequences relatively quickly and that can affect all areas of our lives.
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What are the main consequences of lack of sleep on health?
Here you will find a summary of the most important consequences of lack of sleep on people’s physical and mental health.
1. Anxiety
Lack of sleep prolonged over time causes alterations in the mental health of the person , and these are usually related to the appearance of cases of anxiety that can be of lesser or greater intensity, or can even lead to a disorder of anxiety (i.e., a diagnosable psychopathology).
Excess anxiety is currently one of the main psychological problems in Western societies and it is intensified by lack of sleep or lack of rest during working days.
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2. Lack of concentration
With lack of sleep there is also a notable decrease in some of the most important brain and cognitive functions in the person, among which concentration stands out.
This is one of the main reasons why little sleep affects our work performance and the ability to concentrate on a given task for a more or less long time: having slept little, we are more likely to become absorbed in ourselves or seek distractions that “cover “Our discomfort.
3. Irritability
Another of the classic consequences of lack of sleep on an emotional level is the person’s irritability, bad mood and even aggressiveness. This effect of lack of rest has to do with the fact that by spending several hours without getting enough sleep we enter a “state of alert”, which causes any setback to overwhelm us emotionally because we are forced to attend to several “fronts “at the same time with few psychological resources.
Again, this irritability can be greater when the lack of sleep to which the individual is subjected is greater, and it usually has effects both at a personal and relational level as well as at a professional and work level.
4. Loss of ability to memorize
Memory is another capacity that is diminished in those people who do not sleep enough hours at night. In addition to that, in severe sleep deficits it can also happen that the affected person does not distinguish sleep from wakefulness and after a while does not remember if something has really lived or dreamed. Fortunately, in the vast majority of cases, if we go back to sleep correctly, memory problems disappear.
5. Headaches
People with insomnia or who spend long days without getting enough sleep recognize this as another of the classic symptoms of lack of sleep . Headaches and migraines are usually a very reliable indicator that we are forcing the machine and need more sleep to achieve a general rest in our body.
6. Stress
Stress is another of the classic signs caused by accelerated work rhythms, a phenomenon that increases when the person is subjected to several days without sleeping enough hours of rest.
The solution to reduce work stress or any other type of stress is to sleep no less than 8 hours a day and practice, if necessary, relaxation activities that allow us to achieve a state of calm and personal balance.
7. Cardiovascular problems
The human body is interrelated and when a certain deficit occurs, such as lack of sleep, it can affect other areas of the body, even leading to the appearance of serious health disorders . Some of the main cardiovascular problems associated with lack of sleep in the person are: hypertension, heart attacks, strokes, obesity or diabetes.
8. Aging
A prolonged lack of sleep is related to an increase in the rate of aging of the person, since the body cannot correctly carry out the “maintenance” functions of cellular tissues,
On the contrary, sleeping enough hours to rest the body and getting up at more or less the same time is related to less aging, as are most healthy lifestyle habits.
9. Psychotic disorders
Sleep deprivation can also have dire consequences in the form of psychotic-like disorders . This class of psychiatric disorders arise due to dysfunctions in brain activity patterns, triggered by the lack of hours to sleep well.
10. Other health problems
Some other health problems linked to a lack of sleep can be depression, a weakened immune system, infertility and, in general, a state of discomfort both physically and psychologically.
Are you looking for professional psychological support?
If you are interested in having psychological assistance, please contact me . My name is Tomás Santa Cecilia and I am a psychologist specialized in the cognitive-behavioral intervention model; I offer face-to-face sessions in my office in Madrid and also online sessions by video call.
To the classic question “what do you do?” I always answer “basically I am a psychologist”. In fact, my academic training has revolved around the psychology of development, education and community, a field of study influenced my volunteer activities, as well as my first work experiences in personal services.