Sleep deprivation is a well-known risk to your physical, mental, and emotional well-being. What makes sleep deprivation so detrimental is that it doesn’t just impact one aspect of your health… it impacts many. When you’re sleep-deprived, you’re not going to react as quickly as you normally would, making driving or other potentially dangerous activities, like using power tools, risky. Your ability to think clearly is also dampened by lack of sleep, which means you will have trouble retaining memories, processing information, and making decisions. As your reaction time and cognition slows, your emotions will be kicked into high gear. This means that arguments with co-workers or your spouse are likely and you’re probably going to be at fault for blowing things out of proportion. But much more than that, sleep deprivation has virtually the same effect on your immune system as physical stress or illness, which may help explain why lack of sleep is tied to an increased risk of numerous chronic diseases.
Night-wakings also lead to reduced vigor and motivation and increased errors on an online performance test. The study attempted to mimic life-like night-wakings, which for the study purposes included making a phone call to participants in the middle of the night directing them to complete a brief computer exercise (at four separate occasions during the night).
It’s a scenario that may not seem unfamiliar to you, especially if you find yourself waking at night frequently. What does this mean for new parents, doctors (mostly residents in training but certain specialties like OB and trauma surgeons on ER call), and the millions of other people who find their sleep regularly interrupted at night (by pets, noise, racing thoughts, light pollution, work obligations, and more)? If you suffer from interrupted sleep, it might be putting your health at risk.
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