Consistent Sleep Deprivation Affects Your Health in Huge Ways
Dr. Jeremy McConnell, experienced, skilled, licensed, and board-certified in sleep, family, and obesity medicine, directs the Florida Sleep Specialists in Bradenton & Sarasota, FL. A health concern our doctor frequently addresses is sleep disorders such as sleep deprivation.
Today, sleep disorders run as rampant in America as our obesity crisis. If you suffer from sleep deprivation, you need to know that it will take a severe toll on your health if it is not corrected quickly. We want to discuss the short and long-term effects of sleep deprivation on your overall physical, emotional, and mental health.
Short & Long Term Effects of Sleep Deprivation
Florida Sleep Specialists in Bradenton & Sarasota, FL, explains that sleep deprivation and insomnia differ. Sleep Deprivation means not getting enough good quality sleep over many nights. Insomnia happens when you try to sleep and cannot.
Everyone, at some point in their life, experiences sleep deprivation due to specific circumstances. However, it is when you continue to allow sleep deprivation it becomes serious.
Short-Term Effects of Sleep Deprivation
Those instances in life where sleep deprivation affects everyone impact your life temporarily. You experience,
- Daytime drowsiness, especially when driving, causes risk to you and other drivers
- Forgetfulness
- Inability to focus and easily distracted
- Decreased alertness
- Decreased work performance
- Possible confusion
- Stress in relationships
Long-Term Effects of Sleep Deprivation
Long-term sleep deprivation starts to affect your generalized health, worsens health conditions already present, and creates new health issues.
When you do not get enough sleep consistently, it changes how you feel and act. People and things tend to get on your last nerve. Your whole psyche can be like a ticking time bomb. Feeling like this can increase your blood pressure and cause hypertension, a severe risk for strokes and heart attacks.
Some people who suffer from a consistent lack of sleep may run to food for comfort, thus gaining excess pounds and developing obesity issues. Obesity tends to lead to diabetes or depression due to self-esteem issues and anxiety.
Sleep deprivation can cause memory and cognitive impairment; you may experience faulty brain function. Sleep deprivation affects the immune system, making it difficult to recover from infections, or you may experience more illnesses.
Young people who want to start a family may struggle to conceive, and sleep deprivation opens the doors for psychiatric disorders like anxiety and depression.
Sleep Deprived? Call Us Today
Call Dr. McConnell today at Florida Sleep Specialists in Bradenton & Sarasota, FL, for your consultation for sleep deprivation. Don't go another night without the sleep you need to meet the next day's challenge.
Bradenton - (941) 792-8383
Sarasota - (941) 827-0701