Are You Sleep-Deprived? Know What This Condition Can Do To Your Body

There is nothing quite like spending an extra hour of sleep under the covers on a lazy Saturday or Sunday morning. However, if you are the type who regularly cuts his sleep short during weekdays, even the extra hour cannot save you from any impairment you are causing your body.

Based on the recommendation of the National Sleep Foundation, adults aim for seven to nine hours of sleep every night. But despite the recommendation, it may be hard to admit, but we are in a sleep-deprived nation."

Previously, the American Sleep Apnea Association cautioned that about 70 percent of adults were not getting the required amount of sleep needed, at least one night each month. In comparison, 11 percent of the people admit they were not getting the recommended hours of sleep every night.

Sleep experts also say that our hearts, brains, hair, and skin require adequate sleep and rest to function at its peak properly. Therefore, when we reduce our amount of sleep, our whole body suffers.

More often than not, when we are so busy, we don't care about how a lack of sleep is already affecting our health. In fact, there are many times too, when we don't know anymore when we are no longer sleeping enough.

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If you are the type who regularly cuts his sleep short during weekdays, even the extra hour cannot save you from any impairment you are causing your body.

The Mood Gets Affected

Do you find yourself nagging your kids or co-workers? If you do, you should start knowing that rapid mood swings can be the best sleep deprivation result.

According to Amie Gordon, a psychologist, when people lack sleep, they tend to be more "irritable, angry, and hostile."

Missing out on sleep, Gordon added, can leave us feeling more emotional as well, in general. Those who suffer from sleep loss are particularly possible to respond unfavorably when something goes wrong for them.

A Tel Aviv University study The Journal of Neuroscience published backs the said idea. The said study found that sleep-deprived people can lose their capability of differentiating what's essential and what isn't, making even minor things appear incredibly substantial and significantly increasing the risk of unpredictably "flying off the handle."

Relatively, the change in mood can take place after missing even just one night of proper sleep. The study authors found.

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The Tendency to Procrastinate

Haven't we all stayed up so late to work and set the alarm so early to make sure extra hours for work are spent even at the start of the day?

According to research that the Sleep journal published, what most of us don't know is that, as such tactics may help though must, temporarily, reducing the amount of sleep for work could make us even less productive in general.

Study authors investigated data from 1,000 men and women and found that those who got five to six hours of sleep every night were 10-percent less productive compared to those who slept from seven to eight hours each night.

That productivity loss undoubtedly adds up, the study investigators added. A separate study that examined more than 7,400 men and women about their lives, including their sleep habits, approximated that sleep deprivation "costs the average American worker 11.3 days of lost work every year," or approximately $2,280 in lost earnings. This is equivalent to $63.2 billion in productivity lost every year for the country, in general.

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