From hallucinations to death: the consequences of lack of healthy sleep are named

Anyone who has ever had a bad night’s sleep will remember the difficulties they faced the next day, writes the Daily Mail. You feel confused, delusional, emotional and barely able to function. Sometimes the side effects of poor sleep can be similar to a bad hangover, causing nausea and headaches. And to think, all you did was go without sleep. But given the cascade of bad things churning through your brain and body while you lie awake, the feeling of a hangover when you’re sober isn’t surprising.

Speaking to DailyMail.com, experts detailed the intriguing biological processes that happen when we can’t sleep – whether it’s simply staying awake late at night, staying awake for 24 hours, or going for days without sleeping.

Experts describe the chaos as a “ripple effect” – where one fault causes another, followed by another.

Research has long shown that chronic lack of sleep can increase your risk of developing a range of diseases, such as obesity, memory loss, diabetes, heart disease and a reduced immune response, which leaves you vulnerable to infections, writes the Daily Mail.

But now experts have found that just one night without sleep is enough to cause harm, which is to be expected, given that sleep is critical to almost every bodily function, such as regulating hormones, repairing tissue and maintaining a healthy weight.

So where does it start?

According to experts, the effects of sleep deprivation begin to appear after 18 hours of wakefulness. This is the equivalent of going to bed at 2 am if you woke up at 8 am the night before. Eighteen hours without sleep is when your blood pressure will begin to rise, causing your heart to work harder and putting extra strain on the organ.

In people with underlying heart disease, it may increase the chance of a heart attack or stroke. A 2014 study found that heart attacks increased by 25 percent on the Monday after Daylight Saving Time, when clocks move forward and you lose an hour of sleep. Research shows that heart attacks drop by 21 percent on the Monday after clocks are set back.

Staying awake for more than 18 hours also leads to a decrease in testosterone levels, the male sex hormone. Energy levels decrease, as does the immune system’s defenses. In just one week of sleeping less than five hours a night—or staying awake for 19 hours—the young man’s testosterone levels dropped by 10 to 15 percent, compared with the normal rate of one to two percent per year.

Sleep plays an important role in regulating hormones, and when the body does not receive enough of them, it cannot perform its normal functions properly.

It is also around this time that the immune system will begin to produce inflammatory proteins associated with heart disease and chronic disease, and our natural “fighter” cells that fight bacteria and viruses will become less effective.

Dr. Andrey Zinchuk, a specialist in pulmonology, critical care and sleep medicine at Yale University, told YaleMedicine: “I think of every hour of sleep as depositing money into a sleep savings account. If your sleep savings account is depleted or overdrawn, it will have a negative impact on your brain and the way you interact with the world.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, twenty-four hours without sleep has the same effect on the brain as drinking four glasses of wine or beer. This means you may have slower reaction times, slurred speech, and slower thinking. Other symptoms include irritability, increased stress, poor concentration and food cravings.

Dr Carolyn Williams, registered dietitian and author of Meals That Heal, told DailyMail.com that lack of sleep can also impact your ability to make healthy food choices.

A 2015 study found that for every hour teens slept, they ate 210 more calories the next day, mostly from fat and carbohydrates. Teens with inconsistent sleep patterns were also more likely to snack.

Dr. Williams says lack of sleep changes how your brain works, affects the foods you prefer, how the body regulates hormones and how the body processes food, causing you to crave foods you wouldn’t normally consume.

Carolyn Williams added that when you don’t get enough quality sleep, your brain’s reward center is activated more by food, and a recent study found that tired people responded more to unhealthy foods and were willing to spend more money on them than on healthy alternatives.

After 36 hours without sleep, any symptoms you were experiencing will get worse. You may also experience microsomnia, short periods of involuntary sleep lasting up to 30 seconds.

During microsleep, you appear awake and your eyes are open, but your brain “switches off,” writes the Daily Mail.

Research has shown that brain activity slows down, making it difficult for you to process information. Without sleep, the brain struggles to cope without having the time it needs to heal itself, leading to extreme stress and decreased performance. With 36 hours of wakefulness, different parts of the brain have difficulty communicating with each other. This means that memory, learning, decision making and reacting all become difficult. Additionally, your blood pressure and heart rate will increase, your metabolism will slow, and your heart will be forced to work harder.

Another 12 hours without sleep will take you to what is considered extreme sleep deprivation.

It is likely that the frequency of microsleeps is increasing. After 48 hours of being awake, you may experience hallucinations and increased stress, depersonalization, anxiety and increased irritability.

The brain’s amygdala, which helps regulate mood and memory, and the prefrontal cortex, which controls executive functions and impulse control, are severely impaired.

Dr. Scott Lyons, a licensed psychologist, told DailyMail.com that targeting the amygdala makes people 60 percent more likely to respond in situations of stress or discomfort.

After 72 hours without sleep, the brain has difficulty coping with fatigue, which can lead to hallucinations, delusions and impaired thinking.

At 96 hours of sleep deprivation, the risk of psychosis increases. This is when you experience an altered perception of reality and may suffer from intense hallucinations as well as severe mood swings. Sleep deprivation psychosis usually goes away once you get enough sleep. However, excessive repeated sleep deprivation can be fatal.

Extreme fatigue is a major factor in motor vehicle accidents as well as fatal workplace errors.

Jessica Tapia, a 29-year-old mother of five children aged 10 years to three weeks, told DailyMail.com she slept about four to five hours a night for the better part of a decade. She is often “irritable and very grumpy” and sometimes suffers from dizziness, brain fog and problems making decisions, her husband said.

Ms Tapia, owner of a digital marketing agency, said: “Sleep deprivation is such a real thing and it can drive you crazy. Some mornings I wake up and feel so dizzy I can’t move… and my husband would have to take “Our son and feed him. The worst thing is that I feel that one day I will simply no longer realize what is happening.”

In addition to physical issues that can cause sleep problems, a person’s mental health also plays a big role in the quality of sleep.

Dr Lyons tells DailyMail.com about mood disorders such as bipolar disorder, depression or generalized anxiety disorder, which can disrupt a person’s sleep patterns. Poor sleep can also worsen mental health problems.

In these cases, it may be helpful to seek psychological therapy.

Sleep experts recommend going to bed earlier, avoiding caffeine in the afternoon, lowering the bedroom temperature and cutting out electronics just before bed as ways to improve sleep health.