Sleep deprivation:Saying you are fine when you are not!

October 01, 2021

Sleep deprivation:Saying you are fine when you are not!

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SLEEP.

It's cool to say I have slept fewer hours because I was working on a project or I was up all night, studying.
All my life I have been a night owl because I like the feeling of being alone and doing my own thing at night that I used to sleep at 5 am and wake up at 2 pm. I used to feel tired the whole day but at night I was wide awake. But nowadays I wake up early and now it is the best feeling ever. It is so calm and peaceful in the morning and I am the first one to wake up so I get almost 4 hours for myself which is pretty cool. But I swear getting to bed early is the hardest part.

It is recommended to sleep 7 to 9 hrs daily but it can be skewed depending on age, activity level, stress level, etc.
How does sleep deprivation impact our day-to-day life? And what happens if it's long-term?
You might think missing out on 1 or 2 hrs of sleep doesn't matter but when you add up to 5 years of practice, it compromises your overall health.

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1. Lack of sleep decreases leptin level (feeling less satisfied) and increases ghrelin level(feeling more hungry). Thus it takes twice the amount of food to feel satiated. Various studies have been conducted on sleep-deprived people who are trying to lose fat who struggle to eat under a calorie deficit. Their NEAT(non-exercise activities) and PA(physical exercise) decrease due to tiredness, so even their reduced calories aren't a deficit any more.
2. When you don't get enough sleep, you can't digest properly so you get bloated and hold on to a lot of water weight. And you tend to develop early signs of constipation-you get gassy and your stool cycle changes(come randomly throughout the day at 10 pm or 4 pm).
3. If you are sleep-deprived, cortisol(stress hormone) increases and collagen(which prevents breakage of the elasticity of the skin)reduces. So you look old for your age very quickly. Maybe that's why they call it beauty sleep.
4. Memory decreases when you don't get enough sleep, so when you cram up any new information before exams, most likely you will end up forgetting the day after.

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Melatonin rises after sunset, which means your body prepares for rest. It is much easier to sleep at 10 pm than at midnight because melatonin starts to drop. The higher the melatonin, the easier and better the quality of sleep.
It is advised to eat early because a lot of energy goes into digesting food that it affects sleep quality. And exercising 4 hours before sleep will affect sleep because your body gets energetic and it becomes difficult to relax the body.
I have spoken to a couple of sleep-deprived people to know their experiences. If you also feel the same way its a sign you need to improve your sleep quality:
1. They take more than 30 minutes to fall asleep
2. They wake up multiple times at night
3. They feel tired and find it hard to concentrate during the day
4. Their eyes turn red and develop dark circles
5. They get sick easily or their immunity is compromised
6. They feel emotionally exhausted and stressed easily.
I know many people don't care about sleep in their 20s because I didn't care when someone advised me to sleep early. But when it affected other areas of my life, that's when I knew its significance.