Sleep deprivation is a lack of sleep. This leads to sleep debt when our sleep needs are not met. If you know you need nine of hours of sleep a night to function at your best but only get seven, you will have a sleep debt of two hours. After a week of seven hour sleeps, you will have a sleep debt of 14 hours.
According to Dr. Cote, Director of the Sleep Research Laboratory at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, and psychology professor at Brock University, “The important thing to realize about sleep debt is that it doesn’t take one week, two weeks, or three months to have a real effect. Just one night of sleep loss can have dramatic and devastating effects. That is important to understand when talking about safety, be it driving safety, workplace safety, or even accidents in the home that may take place due to sleepiness following a single night of sleep loss.”
Signs You are Not Getting Enough Sleep
- You need an alarm clock to wake you
- You wake up tired and it is hard to get out of bed
- You feel lethargic during the day
- You crave naps and can doze anywhere, anytime
- You fall asleep almost immediately after getting into bed
- You sleep longer on days off
- You have more flu bugs or colds than usual
Consequences of Sleep Loss
Even one night of sleep deprivation can have lingering effects during the day.
- Itchy eyes and/or blurred vision
- Low energy level and fatigue
- Nonexistent attention span
- Moody and irritable, even depressed
- Diminished mental abilities; trouble concentrating and confusion
- Slower reaction times
- Lack of motivation
Long-term sleep deprivation increases these characteristics. It also decreases the effectiveness of your immune system. Your appetite usually changes. Your body’s ability to process blood sugar and regulate insulin decreases, resulting in an increased likelihood of obesity. Blood pressure can skyrocket. Depression can set it. Long-term loss of sleep leads to a poor quality of life.
Causes of Sleep Deprivation
One cause of sleep deprivation is the lack of time devoted to slumber. Crawling into bed at midnight and setting your alarm for six a.m. means you will be sleep deprived in the morning. Other causes of sleep deprivation include:
- Depression
- Worrying and stress
- Insomnia or sleep disorders
- Frequent trips to the bathroom
- Certain medications
- Over-consumption of caffeine or alcohol
- Not getting any/enough exercise
Sometimes sleep deprivation is unavoidable. Your newborn baby wakes up screaming every two hours. Your partner’s snoring is louder than usual. The teenagers down the road partied until the sun came up. Your children have the flu and you spend most of the night comforting them.
Paying Off Sleep Debt
The good news about sleep debt is you can adjust for past sleep loss. Three or four nights in a row of uninterrupted sleep should bring you back to normal function.
Can I Get by on Less Sleep?
Society envies people who claim to get five hours of sleep a night and function and peak levels. People claim they can train their bodies to get by on less sleep. Is this possible?
“There is no evidence that we can put our mind to it and get by on less sleep,” says Dr. Cote. “There will be consequences. Each person has their individual sleep need and it varies from 6-9 hours for most people and there is no changing that, especially because you’d just like there to be more time in the day. I find that when people have a busy work and social schedule, the first thing to go is sleep and people will do that night after night after night and that is when you have negative consequences. With sleep loss, you lose the perception. For example, people driving a car lose the ability to determine that they are unsafe to drive. It’s the same thing for people who are chronically sleep deprived. I’m sure they think they are superstars at work but on a bit more sleep they would be even better.”
You can make your body sleep less but you can’t make it need sleep any less. “Sleep is as important to our overall health as exercise and a healthy diet,” says Dr. Carl E. Hunt, a top sleep researcher.
Can I Get Too Much Sleep?
According to Dr. Cote, “It is possible to get too much sleep. It has been shown through scientific research that healthy, young adults who are assigned to a group who "oversleep" show similar deficits on performance tasks as those who are deprived of sleep. So, again, it is so important to determine your individual sleep need. Also, a note of caution, people who are sleeping long hours may indeed NEED that much sleep or they may have an untreated sleep disorder.”
Should I Seek Professional Help?
If you continue to be troubled by inadequate sleep after taking measures to improve your slumber, consult your doctor. (S)he may refer you to a sleep specialist or clinic for further assistance.
Last Word
Sleep is often associated with laziness and sloth when the opposite is true.
Dr. Cote encourages people to “Make time for sleep. It is extremely important. I was looking at a survey once that was done in the U.S. and the question was ‘If you knew that sleep loss affected your health, your safety, and your memory, would you get more sleep?’ 85% of the people surveyed said of course. It always amazes me that people don’t seem to know that it is extremely important to get enough sleep in order to function well during the day and it’s not just long-term health effects but immediate effects on mood, safety, especially driving safety and workplace safety, and just general well-being and functioning on the job, productivity, accuracy on the job. Consequences of sleep loss can be big or small.”
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Toby Welch - Toby is a full-time freelance writer who specializes in magazine articles, online writing, e-books, and manuscript editing.
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