What happens to your brain, heart, immune system, and performance if you do not sleep?


by

Aditya Bose

Past studies have shown that people who have been sleeping for 6 hours lose their cognitive ability as if they stayed up all night without realizing it. Now, experts explain what happens to your body if you don't sleep at the right time, and what happens as a result.

What Happens to Your Body on No Sleep | Outside Online
https://www.outsideonline.com/2292806/your-body-no-sleep

◆ Brain
Steven Feinsilver, director of sleep medicine at Lenox Hill Hospital and researcher of sleep, explains that the effects of sudden sleep deprivation are particularly relevant to the brain. When 18 hours have passed without going to sleep from the time when you should sleep at night, there will be a time lag in the reaction to things. The delay in response at this time is equal when you are drunk. Also, it becomes difficult to remember things gradually, and even if new information is generated, it will be rebounded because the brain is shut down.

After that, decision-making ability, mathematical processing ability, and spatial recognition ability gradually deteriorate.

After 24 hours, the brain enters panic mode, forcing people to “micro-sleep”. This allows the brain to take a short sleep of 10-20 seconds while the person speaks with open eyes and walks. When in microsleep, people can no longer process what they see. For this reason, for example, when driving, it is easy to lose sight of highway exits or to remember certain 10-second events.


by

Pixabay

When awake for more than 35 hours, the amygdala associated with emotional expression is more likely to respond to negative experiences by 60%. On the other hand, it has also been confirmed that communication with brain parts that control and contextualize emotions is restricted. In other words, the human brain is more responsive and critical to events.

And after 48 hours, hallucinations can be seen. Mr. Feinsilver had been attacked by a sudden and chronic lack of sleep in the weeks before Halloween, and he seemed to have seen the hallucination that 'the pumpkin talks to him.' If a person does not sleep for more than 48 hours, they will experience symptoms similar to mental disorders. It's not clear in 2019 that lack of sleep will lead to death, but many researchers say, `` Abrupt lack of sleep deprives the brain of the ability to perform life-sustaining processes, and as a result He believes that the system will collapse.

Although it is not known why the brain is dysfunctional, it is thought to be related to what is called “Substance S”. Extreme exercise causes the muscles to accumulate lactic acid, causing muscle pain and eventually making it difficult to move. Sleep is thought to have a role in removing harmful “substance S” that accumulates in the brain, and just as muscle pain occurs, substance S continues to accumulate in the blood if it does not sleep.

Although this area has not been concluded at the research stage, it is said to be a “light” for treatment in the areas of Alzheimer and brain disease.

It turns out that sleep has a function to remove brain waste, light for treatment of brain diseases-GIGAZINE



◆ Heart


by

Pixabay

So, what is affected by the lack of sleep in other parts of the brain? First, blood pressure increases throughout the day. Normally, a person's blood pressure drops during sleep, but when they are deprived of sleep, the blood pressure continues to rise because there is no timing to go down. This will greatly increase the risk of heart attacks / strokes and long-term heart disease. Studies conducted in the past show that if daylight saving time begins and sleep time decreases by 1 hour, the rate of heart attacks increases by 25%, and after daylight saving time increases and sleep time increases by 1 hour, heart attacks decrease by 21%. It is.

◆ Endocrine system
If you do not sleep for more than 18 hours from the time you should sleep at night, your testosterone hormone will be depleted, affecting your energy level. However, testosterone depletion can be restored by sleeping afterwards. Previous studies have shown that testosterone levels are reduced by 10-15% even in young men after less than 5 hours of sleep for a week. If you are a healthy person, testosterone levels go down by 1 to 2% a year, so for testosterone levels, sleep deprivation can be said to age a person for 10 years in a week.

◆ Immune system


by Min An

Also, if you do not sleep, proteins related to inflammation and immune diseases such as interleukin-6 accumulate. Furthermore, it is difficult to make natural killer cells that fight cancer cells and cells infected with viruses because sleep time is lost, and even if there is only one day of sleep deprivation, natural killer cells will decrease by 70%. For this reason, in 2007 the WHO warned that night shift work can be a carcinogen.

◆ Performance
Interestingly, the effect of lack of sleep on exercise performance is more mental than physical. Shona Halson , an associate professor of behavioral and health sciences, said, “There is no change in the physical system when exercising,” even though there is a lack of sleep. It seems difficult. ' As a result, performance can be reduced as a result. Cognitive and emotional elements play a major role in team sports, so it is important to tell athletes that even if they lack sleep, your 20-year training will not disappear.

in Note, Posted by darkhorse_log