Checklist: 8 signs that you are dangerously little sleep
alexander savina
We all heard in childhood that sleep is the best medicine. Of course, he will not replace medications, but he may significantly affect his well-being: lack of sleep is associated with an increased risk of developing type II diabetes and high blood pressure. The amount of sleep that every person needs is individual (the average norm fluctuates around seven to eight hours), but here lies the danger: we often think that everything is in order, although in reality we are sorely lacking sleep. Remember that sleep problems and a feeling of drowsiness can be a sign of another disease or condition - for example, apnea (that is, stopping breathing during sleep) or stress that prevents you from falling asleep. If you feel that sleep problems cannot be solved, contact a specialist: a somnologist, a neurologist or a psychotherapist.
1
You are irritable
A bad mood can have hundreds of reasons - from a hard day to clinical depression and hormonal fluctuations. Lack of sleep also affects our mental health: for a long time, sleep problems were considered a symptom of mental difficulties, but studies have shown that chronic lack of sleep or insomnia can increase the risk of psychological problems and worsen the condition of patients with certain diseases, such as depression or anxiety disorder. You probably already know how easily the mood deteriorates after a sleepless night - with a constant lack of sleep it can be the same. If you notice that you have become irritable and nervous more than usual, perhaps the fact is that you should better get enough sleep.
2
You instantly fall asleep
Many people think that the habit of instantly falling asleep as soon as your head touches the pillow is a sign that everything is fine. In fact, everything is exactly the opposite, and instant falling asleep is a sign that you have trouble sleeping. Psychologist and sleep specialist Michael Breus notes that sleep should not occur instantly: this process should resemble a car ride where you gently apply the brake and the car stops smoothly. According to the expert, if you fall asleep in less than five minutes, there is reason to wonder if you have enough sleep. But gradually sinking into sleep for twenty minutes is quite in the order of things.
3
You hope to sleep off at the weekend
Many of us live with the installation, that on weekdays, when we are loaded with a lot of things, you can sacrifice a dream - and then "catch up" or "sleep in advance" on Saturday and Sunday. If you live with such conviction, the bad news: to compensate for the lack of sleep two days a week, unfortunately, will not work.
In 2010, they conducted a study, the participants of which slept less than their own norm for five days, and then on the sixth they were given the opportunity to have a “restorative” sleep. When the time of “restorative” sleep was raised to ten hours, the subjects' cognitive abilities more or less returned to normal - but the results were still worse than before people were faced with a lack of sleep. Of course, this study does not take into account many nuances of real life (for example, all participants had no problems with sleep before the experiment), but the main conclusion is obvious: one night would not be enough to eliminate the consequences of the problem.
4
You became less attentive
Anyone who has come to a couple at least once during his student years after a sleepless night knows how difficult it is to focus on what the lecturer says. Lack of sleep affects our ability to concentrate and the speed of reaction: because of this, it is more difficult for us to perceive new information and make decisions. Including therefore, for example, sleepy drivers are not advised to get behind the wheel: insufficient care can lead to an accident. If you feel that it has become more difficult to perform work duties for no apparent reason, and normal work activities take much longer, it's time to try to sleep more.
5
You started having memory problems
One of the tasks of sleep is to help our brain process the information received in a day and prepare to receive it the next day. For more than a hundred years, scientists have been convinced that memory is closely related to sleep: it’s true that if it used to be that sleep helps memories “gain a foothold” by not allowing our brain to be distracted by external stimuli, now scientists think that at night our brain collects all the information and is looking for new connections in it. One of the possible effects of lack of sleep is the deterioration of short-term memory: a lack of sleep can prevent new memories from forming. So if you feel that lately they have begun to forget something more often - perhaps the point is lack of rest.
6
In the morning you still want to sleep
An obvious symptom, which, nevertheless, many ignore: if in the morning you strongly want to sleep and cannot tear your eyes, and during the day you only think about how to take a break or get to bed in the evening, you may not have enough sleep or you should work above its quality: develop a mode (that is, go to bed and get up at about the same time), sleep in a dark room, do not overeat before bedtime and use gadgets in bed less. Remember that under all conditions there may be other reasons - for example, because of apnea, you will feel tired even with enough sleep.
7
You often have a cold
The immunity and how often we get sick can be influenced by many factors - from smoking to uncleaned filters of an office air conditioner. Sleep is also an important factor, since with its deficiency we become more vulnerable in the face of the disease. A study by American scientists has shown that those who sleep six hours or less have a chance to catch a cold when confronted with a virus that is four times higher than those who slept for four hours.
This, of course, does not mean that sleep should become the main defense against seasonal cold (the habit of washing hands is useful not less, or even more; besides, the researchers themselves are talking only about correlation, not about causation) - but This is at least a reason to think.
8
You are constantly hungry
There is no obvious connection between sleep and eating habits - and yet you shouldn’t discount it. For example, a study by scientists at the California Institute of Berkeley showed that after a sleepless night, participants in the experiment wanted more junk food and snacks (this is, of course, not carrot sticks).
"We found that lack of sleep affects the highly organized parts of the brain that are required for complex decisions and judgments, reducing their activity. At the same time, the brain areas responsible for less complex processes that control motivation and desires begin to become more active," the senior author notes , a professor of psychology and neuroscience Matthew Walker. If instead of vegetables for a couple, the hand often reaches for chocolates, perhaps it’s also a lack of sleep - and that it’s harder for us to resist the primitive passion for carbohydrates.
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