A Darker side to Sleep Deprivation

I know a good amount of you reading this are sleep deprived, and I also know you probably won't change that bad habit regardless if you can't or won't. 

Studies have found that your sleep deprivation not only affects your personal bubble, but the world around you. Fatigue wears on your face in the following ways: dull skin, dark circles, and an overall crestfallen aura. As we know, we all make our judgements regardless of seeking judgement free spaces, and facial recognition can highly affect our perceptions of trustworthiness and other significant attributes. 

Not only do others perceive us differently on little sleep, but our own sleep deprived minds betray our own eyes. Findings show that sleep deprivation compromises how we see facial expressions of others around us, and are more likely to mistake positive or neutral expressions for hostile and aggressive ones. Putting these facts together, it makes sense how crankiness is transferred so easily. 

While these mistaken observations for mood and impaired social cues aren't very detrimental to our health, sleep debt IS. 

Sleep has restorative functions and contrary to popular belief, isn't a waste of time. During this crucial time, your memories are being transcribed and stored, brain debris are taken away, muscles release their long held tension, etc. When you miss out on sleep, of course the basic consequences like fatigue, impaired memory and focus, and building that destructive habit are widely known- but sleep debt is irreversible the more you accumulate. 

FOUR days to recover from ONE lost hour of sleep...

Like financial debt, interest gets charged on top of your balance, taking even more time to pay it off unless it follows you to death. Sleep debt shortens life expectancy and increases risk of different diseases. 

Ah and if you're wondering why it is that you suddenly sleep 8 hours and feel dead, that's your sleep debt saying the joke's on you!

Sleep debt visualized 

While sleep as a whole is imperative for a healthy lifestyle, deep sleep is needed for restorative functions to happen effectively. Deep sleep, or REM, is the fifth sleeping stage and regarded as most important and complex. This stage occurs every 90 minutes and is typically the stage in which you dream vividly and get to fully relax as your brain instructs a temporary paralysis on your muscles to prevent enacting your dreams. 

YOU NEED SLEEP and no, sleep is not "for the weak". 

Go take your 20 minute power naps, reset your messed up circadian rhythm, and pay off that sleep debt! 

How much sleep debt do you think you have? Comment down below, sleep well and stay safe!