Sleep, we need it. Ideally, a human spends around one-third of their life sleeping. But what happens if you consistently fail to get adequate sleep? Once you know if you regularly do not catch enough sleep, you may want to consider insomnia treatment.
What Is Adequate Sleep?
What counts as adequate sleep can vary throughout your life. Infants need copious sleep. Kids need 9 or more hours, and teens need between 8 and 10. For most of adulthood, a 7-hour period of sleep will be enough. However, past age 60, many adults find they need increasingly less sleep.
But quality matters just as much as quantity. You need sleep that allows you to go through each sleep stage, including REM and deep sleep. When something interrupts a sleep cycle, it can decrease your quality of sleep.
What Happens If You Consistently Fail to Get Adequate Sleep?
Consistently failing to get adequate sleep can spell bad news for your body and mind. Even minor deficits can build up over time, causing increasing risks and effects.
You can notice some of these effects after a single night of poor sleep. For others, they only manifest as you build up a sleep debt. Routine sleep loss puts you at further risk.
Mental Health Effects
Inadequate sleep has been linked to a range of mood disorders, including depression. Teens, in particular, have an increased risk for mental health issues related to insufficient sleep.
Many people may then encounter a vicious cycle. Poor sleep can lead to mental health issues, which in turn can lead to further deficits in sleep quantity and quality.
Physical Effects
From changes in blood circulation to physical fatigue, impaired sleep can wreak havoc on the body. Infamously, dark circles and sunken eyes are a side effect of poor sleep. Many people may also notice decreases in skin and hair quality. Without enough sleep, the body cannot complete key restorative processes at night.
Additionally, chronic sleep loss and weight gain go hand in hand. Obesity is consistently correlated with inadequate sleep. In turn, obesity places individuals at increased risk for many other health conditions.
Cognitive Impairment
Sleep deprivation harms the body, but perhaps most notably, it harms the mind. The immediate effects of insufficient sleep include memory and attention difficulties. Try taking an exam after sleeping only a handful of hours, and you will see your performance decline significantly.
The brain does much of your memory consolidation during sleep. Without enough sleep, you will notice impaired memory formation. This can vary among individuals but is a persistent sign of sleep loss.
Increased Risk for Diseases
Without the restorative hours of sleep each night, your body can become vulnerable to a range of diseases. From heart disease to diabetes, inadequate sleep puts you at risk for significant medical conditions. Some of the main diseases linked to lack of sleep include:
- Alzheimer disease and dementia
- Cardiovascular disease, including heart disease and stroke
- Certain types of cancer
- Type 3 diabetes mellitus
- Obesity
- Hypertension (high blood pressure)
Overall, regularly sleeping only 5 hours a night has been linked to a 15% increase in mortality from all causes. A lack of sleep could literally be shortening your lifespan.
Insomnia
It might sound impractical at first. But sleep loss can increase your risk for insomnia, which leads to more sleep loss. Having a regular biological rhythm is vital for falling asleep and maintaining quality rest.
When your sleep is deficient, it can throw off this internal rhythm. This can lead to insomnia, which may mean interference in falling or staying asleep.
How to Improve Your Adequacy of Sleep
The right amount and quality of sleep need to be aligned to count as adequate sleep. Working with a sleep doctor is the fastest way to find a solution that works for you. However, some steps that can help improve sleep include:
- Avoid substances that impair sleep. Alcohol, tobacco, coffee, and other substances can all interfere with falling asleep or drag down your sleep quality.
- Maintaining a healthy sleep ritual. By ritual, we mean something you do each night to signal to your body it is soon time to sleep. Maybe read a book, do breathing exercises, or take a shower. Whatever it is, just avoid using screens (so no phones, tablets, or computers out).
Professional Sleep Help Makes a Difference
Working with a sleep specialist can give you the tools you need to improve your sleep for a lifetime.
