Sacrificing a few hours of sleep here and there is pretty much a way of life. You always have something more important to do or some place to be that makes you get a little less sleep. No biggie, right? Well, two hours of less sleep every day can harm you in more ways than you can imagine. A recent sleep experiment undertaken by Sarah Calmers, a 46-year-old working women has proved that sleeping affects your skin immediately with enlarged pores, a swollen lackluster face and reddish spots. But that’s not all, it also leads to whole lot of other problems too.
Lack of sleep can make your life topsy turvy with its long lasting effects. Here are some the things you didn’t know could happen if you don’t get eight hours of sleep every night.
1. Obesity: One of the main things that causes obesity is lack of sleep. Less sleep makes you take bad decisions and indulging in high calorie foods is one of them. Hormonal changes that happen due to lack of sleep also increase production of hunger hormones in the body.
2. Heart Trouble: Major health issues are also caused by not getting enough shuteye. Chronic heart diseases such as stroke, heart failure, irregular heartbeat and high blood pressure are all effects of less sleep.
3. Depression: Not being able to snooze enough can make you a depressed person. Sleeplessness gives rise to anxiety issues.
4. Impaired learning: Sleeplessness affects your learning ability as, to comprehend and learn, it is necessary to stay alert and this will not happen unless you’ve slept well.
5. Wrong judgement: When you are suffering from lack of sleep, you are more likely to make the wrong judgements. It also limits your ability to understand and experience, leaving you unable to make smart, swift choices.
6. Skin damage: Lack of sleep affects your skin a lot and makes it look old. Puffy eyes, sallow skin and red patches are all noticed when you’ve not slept well. Dark circles and redness have also been noticed along with loss of skin elasticity.
7. Loss of sex drive: Lack of sleep also leads to a loss of sex drive, which is because you’ll have less energy and consequently low desire for intimacy.
8. Forgetfulness: Forgetfulness is one of the main effects of sleep deprivation as you cannot pay attention and this hurts your long term memory.
9. Risk of death: Sleeping for lesser hours than necessary can lead to a risk of death as it doubles up your chances of mortality from various causes especially cardiovascular diseases.
10. Damaged bones: Long term sleep deprivation leads to osteoporosis, according to research. Sleep is known to affect the mineral density of the marrow, which leads to weaker bones.
Image courtesy: Shutterstock
More On >> Health
