Sleep is a necessity to healthy living. It’s a time when your conscious control shuts down and allows your body to heal and perform self-maintenance. There are a great deal of things that a lack of sleep can affect mentally, but there is also a host of things it can affect physically.
If you are in need of a sleep specialist in New York, to get your restless nights on the right track, schedule a consultation with Dr. Shukla today.
Weight Gain
There have been studies that found that sleeping more can help with weight loss. Not necessarily because you burn more fat while asleep, but because of chemical balances. People who sleep more will be able to lose or maintain their weight better than those who sleep less, so don’t just sacrifice an hour to go for that early run and properly schedule it instead. Our bodies create hormones which trigger certain processes and feelings. One of these is Leptin which sends a signal to our brains to say we’ve had enough to eat. Without proper sleep, less leptin is produced making us crave more food than we need. Insulin is also affected by sleep and causes fat to be stored and may cause muscle to be lost.
Lower Sex Drive
A loss of sleep doesn’t just make you tired and not want to do things, but can cause other deficiencies which lower a person’s libido. For example, men need at least three hours of uninterrupted sleep in order to produce appropriate measures of testosterone.
Poor Balance
Sleep deprivation can make you feel sluggish, that’s very clear, but the reason behind that not only deals with the brain but the pathways the brain creates when you learn new things. The brain is not fully rejuvenated without the proper amount of sleep and the new pathways needed can cause it to work harder to send signals. The signals can become delayed which can hinder reaction time making you lose balance and increase risk of accidents.
Blood Pressure
Stress and blood pressure have been found to have a cause and effect relationship. Sleep is one of many factors that keeps stress in check because it helps regulate the stress hormone known as cortisol. Those who sleep less than six hours have an increased amount of cortisol being produced which can raise blood pressure and thus expose you to the dangers of having high blood pressure.
Physical Appearance
Someone telling you that you look tired can often be taken as criticism, but take is a warning sign. Others may be able to see it more than you do. If you are sleep deprived you can appear older and have less energy due to your body not processing glucose in the necessary amounts. There are also the common dark circles around your eyes and a loss of skin elasticity which causes additional wrinkles. This may be why the term beauty sleep originated. With the minimum of six hours of sleep you can seem brighter, younger, and more energetic.
Impaired Vision
With the brain taking the biggest hit with sleep deprivation, it’s no wonder that your vision is affected. Your eyes need to be closed during sleep to repair themselves and rehydrate in order to be able to focus sight and keep your eyes open for the average amount of time. If you work on a computer or read documents during work, sleep deprivation will make your eyes feel strained which will make even the simplest task seem more consuming. Things can also become blurred which makes tasks such as driving dangerous.
Sleep Specialist in New York
The physical effects of sleep deprivation are warning signs that something is wrong. Some are easily seen while others need aid to diagnose. As the premier sleep specialist in New York, Dr. Shukla and his staff know the symptoms to spot a patient that is sleep deprived and the step to get them back on track. Contact the experts at Sleep MD NYC to see if your sleep deprivation is causing more serious issues and how to resolve them.
