The dangers of sleep deprivation 

The struggle of not getting sufficient sleep is real! 1 in 3 adults suffers from sleep deprivation! In these strange times we live in, most of us have forgotten that lack of sleep can often lead to serious consequences for our body and mind.

Let’s explore how difficulties catching enough Zs affect our health and our figure.

Short-term effects 

It happens to everyone. You spend the night tossing and turning, trying really hard to lull yourself into sleep. No luck. Hours pass and before you know it your alarm goes off and your tired and grumpy self enters a new day. Just great!

But being sluggish after a poor slumber is the least of your worries. Inadequate sleep means your body doesn’t replenish its energy and repair itself.

It can also affect judgement, the ability to learn and memorise information and result in impaired focus that can cause accidents and injury. 

Long-term effects

Sleep deprivation has other more profound consequences too. 

Most of us need around 8 hours of good-quality sleep to function normally. An occasional night with sub-optimal sleep won’t harm your health but admit to yourself that it doesn’t happen once in a blue moon.

Some of the serious effects of sleep deprivation include proneness to heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes. It can also result in depression. 

The link between insomnia and obesity has been extensively studied too and research has shown that not only can sleep loss stimulate appetite, it also has you craving for food with high fat and carb contents. Just great!