Little things people do that harm your health...not sleeping

Why is it that we, as humans, KNOW we need to get sleep to be healthy...yet we don't. 




Ever watch a cat or dog stay up for hours when they are tired?  No.  They sleep when they need to sleep.  This is a great video if you need to learn how to sleep.

According to WebMD there are 10 things YOU should HATE about "lack of sleep."

1. Accidents.  We all know what can happen when you are driving and fall asleep...people die.  Maybe what you didn't know was "sleep deprivation was a factor in some of the biggest disasters in recent history: the 1979 nuclear accident at Three Mile Island, the massive Exxon Valdez oil spill, the 1986 nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl, and others."
2. Lack of sleep "dumbs you down."  (WebMD's words not mine):  Sleep helps you think so lack of sleep; "First, it impairs attention, alertness, concentration, reasoning, and problem solving. This makes it more difficult to learn efficiently.Second, during the night, various sleep cycles play a role in“consolidating” memories in the mind. If you don’t get enough sleep, you won’t be able to remember what you learned and experienced during the day."
3. Causes serious health issues: "Sleep disorders and chronic sleep loss can put you at risk for:
   Heart disease
   Heart attack
   Heart failure
   Irregular heartbeat
   High blood pressure
   Stroke
   Diabetes
   According to some estimates, 90% of people with insomnia -- a sleep disorder characterized by trouble falling and staying asleep -- also have another health condition."
4. No sleep, no sex drive:  "Sleep specialists say that sleep-deprived men and women report lower libidos and less interest in sex. Depleted energy, sleepiness, and increased tension may be largely to blame."
5. Depression:  "Insomnia and depression feed on each other. Sleep loss often aggravates the symptoms of depression, and depression can make it more difficult to fall asleep. On the positive side, treating sleep problems can help depression and its symptoms, and vice versa."
6. Ages your skin:  "When you don’t get enough sleep, your body releases more of the stress hormone cortisol. In excess amounts, cortisol can break down skin collagen, the protein that keeps skin smooth and elastic."
7. Where did I put my.......?  Forgetfulness:  "In 2009, American and French researchers determined that brain events called“sharp wave ripples” are responsible for consolidating memory. The ripples also transfer learned information from the hippocampus to the neocortex of the brain, where long-term memories are stored. Sharp wave ripples occur mostly during the deepest levels of sleep."
8. Weight Gain:  "According to a 2004 study, people who sleep less than six hours a day were almost 30 percent more likely to become obese than those who slept seven to nine hours.  Recent research has focused on the link between sleep and the peptides that regulate appetite. 'Ghrelin stimulates hunger and leptin signals satiety to the brain and suppresses appetite,' says Siebern. Shortened sleep time is associated with decreases in leptin and elevations in ghrelin.”
9. May increase death:  "In the “Whitehall II Study,” British researchers looked at how sleep patterns affected the mortality of more than 10,000 British civil servants over two decades. The results, published in 2007, showed that those who had cut their sleep from seven to five hours or fewer a night nearly doubled their risk of death from all causes. In particular, lack of sleep doubled the risk of death from cardiovascular disease."
10. Impairs Judgement:  "Sleep-deprived people seem to be especially prone to poor judgment when it comes to assessing what lack of sleep is doing to them. In our increasingly fast-paced world, functioning on less sleep has become a kind of badge of honor. But sleep specialists say if you think you’re doing fine on less sleep, you’re probably wrong. And if you work in a profession where it’s important to be able to judge your level of functioning, this can be a big problem."

This is just an overview on what the affects of "lack of sleep" can cause.  To read in more detail visit WebMD.

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