Sleep and Health: How Chronic Sleep Deprivation Can Harm You
July 28, 2014
We know sleep as the final act of our day. It is your ultimate guide to relaxation, as well as your body’s way of recharging itself. This being so, do you know that it’s best to be asleep when a tornado strikes? Your chances of getting hurt are lowered if you’re slumbering away when a tornado whisks you into Oz.
However important sleep is, the fact that it can be difficult to come by usually leads you discouraged and unable to fall for its caresses. And if the reason isn’t the lack of time or the stress of the week, it may already be Insomnia, “The Dreaded”, that keeps you tossing and turning on your mattress. This is unhealthy. You need enough sleep—not just sometimes—every goodness-given time you can! Or else these happen:
You drive through the office door
Yes, you can’t identify where the road ends and the sidewalk starts anymore—that and you can’t concentrate on the breaks. Losing even one and a half hours for a night’s sleep slims a good 32% of your energy and alertness, studies say. If that’s only for a night, imagine how much more it has removed from the number of nights you haven’t slept well. Or better yet, imagine how little you’re left with today. That’s basically why you’ve just recreated a scene from “Casino Royale”!
You can’t remember where you live
What’s my address again? When’s my birthday? It smells: am I actually cooking or is it the TV? From now on, these are the questions that define your days. Because you haven’t slept at least a good eight hours for a while, your brain’s ability to function is significantly reduced. The body needs rest to recharge, and the brain is the most important part of the body, remember? You can’t? Then just remember that it’s a part of the body, so that it needs rest, too. Still can’t? Exactly. Go to sleep!
You likely own the hospital
With the body unable to heal, your immune system is most likely at its worst state. That’s easily an invitation for the flu, diabetes, and obesity. And since you also have little control over your limbs, you have a bigger chance of leading yourself to injury than anybody else who hugs his pillow every night. See where these all lead? Yep, to the hospital. Since you’re confined most of the month, you can very well call it an investment—if not a vacation home.
You’re on your way to crazy
Suddenly seeing a leprechaun on the next cubicle? Think the van that drove by was a whale? Yes you’re in Wonderland, your own Wonderland! So please put your hands together for classic hallucination! It really makes you feel like you just finished a joint as big as your arm, doesn’t it? Makes you want to eat a bed too, I bet. Well why don’t you? That may only be what you need to overcome the hallucinations before it leads you further into Crazy—you can also say Zombie if you count the eye bags and sleep-lust.
Your life is flat out miserable
Sorry to break it to you, pal, but that’s it. And not just because you haven’t slept enough and well last night—you haven’t been getting the right every night! Check for yourself: how long has it been since you’ve had a dream? That’s your life now, bud. Now turn it around.
Sleep keeps you going every day. So depriving yourself of it is not a good habit, and mustn’t be acceptable at all. Okay, it’s not your fault, but still, stop being ridiculous and at least try harder to get yourself to bed, and into snoring—or else. Consider yourself warned.
