A vast majority of people know that doing some form of physical activity and eating healthy food is extremely beneficial for our health. But what they frequently overlook is the fact that high-quality sleep matters as well.
Sleep is something that can greatly affect our overall wellbeing. According to some studies, each person must have approximately seven to eight hours of sleep each night. Unfortunately, a lot of people fail to sleep this much.
But in order to stay healthy and have the right amount of energy, we definitely must prioritize a good night’s sleep. Today, we’ll focus on this topic and what happens to our body when we do not provide it with high-quality sleep.
Numerous Ways Sleep Deprivation Impacts Our Mental Health
How Much Sleep Do We Really Need?
It’s widely known that we all feel great and energized if our bodies were provided with high-quality rest. And that cannot be achieved without a solid good night’s sleep.
According to the report showcased by the National Sleep Foundation, you can figure out how much sleep you need based on your age. The report was developed after two years of research and breaks the results down into several age-specific categories. Let’s check them out below:
- Adults older than 65 years = 7 to 8 hours
- Adults aged 26 to 64 = 7 to 9 hours
- Young adults aged 18 to 25 = 7 to 9 hours
- Teenagers aged of 14 to 17 = 8 to 10 hours
- Older children aged 6 to 13 = 9 to 11 hours
- Preschool kids aged 3 to 5 years = 10 to 13 hours
- Toddlers aged 1 to 2 years = 11 to 14 hours
- Infants aged 4 to 11 months = 12 to 15 hours
- Newborns aged 0 to 3 months = 14 to 17 hours
As we can see in the image below from Compare the Market health insurance, the average Australian is not getting enough sleep.
The Importance Of Sleep For Our Mental Wellbeing
Many studies have shown that sleep deprivation can negatively affect our mental health, emotions, and performance. It’s something that can seriously impact our daily mood, causing different mood swings throughout the day.
Additionally, sleep is practically recharging our brain at the end of every day. Just like you need to recharge your cell phone battery after a certain period of time, that’s how you need to “recharge” your body with sleep if you want to allow your body to reset each day and function properly.
If you continue to have poor-quality sleep, you will potentially develop some very serious mental health issues, such as anxiety (which can be worsened if you already have it), depression, and many other problems. It’s hugely important to recognize this problem on time, so you can start dealing with it.
How Does Lack Of Sleep Impact Our Mind?
Many scientists have concluded that lack of sleep can lead to poor focus and alertness, and a person is simply not capable of paying attention to many things during the day.
Besides that, it can also worsen judgment. If you didn’t have a high-quality sleep, you probably won’t be able to make decisions normally because you’ll be struggling to analyze the situation properly and choose the right behavior.
Furthermore, people who are not sleeping well find it hard to learn things because they are not able to concentrate; sleep loss also impacts memory and it’s widely known that this is crucial to learning. Moreover, kids who are not having enough sleep have a tendency to be hyperactive, while teenagers may deal with a lack of concentration and diligence.
You may be wondering whether anxiety leads to insomnia or if it’s vice-versa. Well, the answer to this question can be a bit complex. Namely, it all depends on which came first. If you are already having anxiety, then insomnia can worsen your current condition and slow down your recovery.
On the other hand, anxiety can also cause serious sleep problems and one of them is sleeping deprivation.
Insomnia And Other Health Conditions
In this article, we’ve so far talked about the negative impact that lack of sleep has on our mental health, but we mustn’t forget to mention how it can affect our physical health as well. Namely, a lot of people deal with weight gain precisely because of insomnia.
There are two hormones that play a major role during the sleep process: leptin and ghrelin. Ghrelin is a hormone that tells you when you’re supposed to eat, and when you have insomnia, you have more ghrelin.
On the other hand, leptin informs you when you should stop eating, and when you have poor sleep, you have less leptin. That’s the reason why a vast majority of people gain weight when they are having sleep issues.
Besides that, there are a number of other health problems that arise when you’re not getting enough sleep, including:
- Heart and blood-related problems
- Weakened immune system
- Obesity
- Decreased life expectancy
Even though this data seems very scary, that’s the harsh reality for those who are dealing with sleep loss. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you will suffer from any of these health conditions, it just means that insomnia can potentially cause these health problems.
As you can see, lack of sleep is something that should definitely be taken seriously if you want to make sure your body is healthy in every possible way. Therefore, be sure to seek help if you’re struggling with sleep loss.
