Sleeping pills & natural sleep aids

Posts Tagged ‘sleep deprivation’

Sleep deprivation is the condition of lack of sleep. It can be chronic or acute and has a negative effect on brain and body in general. The studies have shown that total sleep deprivation leads to death in lab animals, and humans need at least miscosleeps to survive. Sleep deprivation can be imposed upon people, be a result of individual choice or different life circumstances. It’s also widely used for the treatment of psychiatric diseases and sleep disorders. Chronic deprivation of sleep is rather common in everyday life and 99% of the world population experience it in this or that way. Sleep deprivation is also used as a torture to make the criminals confess and as a psychiatric technique – to cure unconscious fears or multiple personality disorder.

The scientifically registered record of life without sleep belongs to Randy Gardner. In 1964 he intentionally stayed awake for 264 hours (the previous record was 260 hours and belonged to Tom Rounds of Honolulu). The researchers conducted by Lt. Cmdr. John J. Ross during the experiment showed that long sleep deprivation causes serous cognitive and behavioral changes. The most evident and dangerous ones are: deficit in attention and deterioration of short-term memory.

Several successful attempts to break the record were made, but Randy Gardner’s one remains the most precious one, as it’s extensively documented by different researchers. By the way, the opinions of the 2 researchers who were involved into the experiments differ a lot: while Lt. Cmdr. John J. Ross pointed out the obvious danger of acute sleep deprivation to health, his colleague William Dement claimed that Gardner’s record and his state of health after it had proved that deprivation of sleep carries no danger to humans’ health.

Sleep deprivation effects include physiological and mental disorders and can result either in minor symptoms or serious mental diseases.

The most common effects of sleep deprivation can be subdivided into:

A. physiological:
1. Headaches
2. Aching muscles
3. Swollen feet
4. Weight loss/gain
5. Loss of appetite or other eating disorders I(inability to control appetite)
6. Blurred vision
7. Loss of hearing
8. Eye bags
9. Blood shot eyes
10. Sensitivity or loss or sensitivity to cold
11. Changes in hormonal levels
12. Hand tremors
13. Hypotaxia
14. Nystagmus
15. Yawning

B. Psychological:
1. Irritability
2. Bad mood
3. Temper tantrums
4. Hallucinations
5. Depression
6. Memory loss
7. Malaise (feeling of psychological discomfort)
8. Symptoms of psychosis and ADHD

As a rule, effects of sleep deprivation represent a combination of both psychological and physiological disorders. The longer a person stays awake, the more serious the effects are. The researches have shown that regular sleep deprivation affects brain and causes the suppressing of growth hormone production and cortisol secretion (a steroid hormone released in response to stress). Attention lapses from chronic sleep deprivation can build up over time and become equal to those of total sleep deprivation, though the people with chronic sleep deprivation feel less impaired than those who don’t sleep at all.

Sleep deprivation has be either a result of freewill choice or be imposed in person by authorities, doctors or life circumstances. Sometimes one is even unaware that they suffer from sleep deprivation and need several more hours of sleep per day. Symptoms of sleep deprivation can coincide with the symptoms of chronic fatigue, depression, overworking, weak immune system, chronic diseases or the consequences of a surgery, injury or medical treatment.

Acute sleep deprivation symptoms are rather serious and are easy to diagnose. A person with acute sleep deprivation looks tired and exhausted, with florid symptoms of hypotaxia. The skin is very pale or “grey” in color, the skin looks dry and wrinkled. In some cases periorbital puffiness is observed. On the initial stage of acute sleep deprivation the person may be over thrilled, the movements are quick, but ill-coordinated, people can repeatedly drop things, the speed of speech is almost doubled and people can speak to themselves. Sleep deprivation symptoms are individual and depends on many factors. On the first stage of acute sleep deprivation the person show extreme aggression, starts shouting without serous reasons. The level of aggression is rather high in some individuals.

On the second stage the person is too exhausted and the body starts to save energy, so the movements and the speech are rather slow, the person looks sleepy and ill. This stage can end with a syncope, seizures, epistaxis, burst of uncontrolled laughter or tears and other harmful consequences.

Sleep deprivation one way or another is common for the greater part of the world population. The state of sleep deprivation is extremely harmful, as it’s a huge stress for the body, which uses sleeping hours to accumulate energy, cleanse itself and repair minor injuries.