The Results of Sleep Deprivation

Whether you are a new mom or dad up all night with the baby or a university student cramming for finals, or simply a non-sleeper, you are probably suffering from sleep deprivation. The symptoms start off small, just a lot of yawning and wishing you could go back to bed, but chronic sleep deprivation can be a serious issue.

Your basic brain functions actually change when you don't get enough sleep. For example, when you speak, certain areas of your brain are used. However, if you are sleep deprived, these areas don't function correctly and other areas of the brain have to compensate. Obviously, this is not an ideal scenario since these areas were never meant to handle speech.

After just 36 hours of being awake, most people are as altered as a drunk driver. The statistics are still out on how many car accidents are caused by lack of sleep, since it is harder to measure than blood alcohol levels.

While driving and operating heavy machinery are very dangerous when you are suffering from sleep deprivation, there are many other small side effects as well. For example, studies have shown that those who don't get enough sleep do poorer on tests and retain less information, whether at work or school.

The general grogginess that comes with chronic sleep deprivation which is faced by parents and shift workers in particular, may seem fairly harmless, but it can cause stupid accidents. If you are nodding off while your child is playing at the park, or staring glassy-eyed at the wall while he is bathing, it can be quite easy for something to happen. Household accidents are more common among new parents as well, such as cutting fingers while chopping vegetables and burns on the kitchen stove. We just don't have the mental faculties to concentrate on what we are doing after a certain point.

Simple lack of sleep is not the only cause of sleep deprivation. It can also be caused by the constant breaking up of the regular sleep cycle. If you never complete a full sleep cycle (which takes 45-90 minutes in an adult), you don't get the full benefits of sleeping and will wake up after 8 hours of broken sleep, feeling like you never rested at all.

The result of not sleeping is that your brain function slows down. With lower brain function comes more frequent accidents. To keep everyone safer, it is better to find a way to sleep.