Taking Sleep for Granted

Humans will spend half of their lives sleeping, which is why sleep is essential to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Prolonged positive effects can be seen in individuals who have healthy sleep habits. The benefits include keeping people up and energized throughout the day, as well as allowing their brains and muscles to further mature and grow. This is why healthcare professionals urge the use of healthy sleep habits. The possible risk when one does not sleep enough can be detrimental, as poor executive functions, increased suicidal thoughts, and a multitude of physiological effects have all been side effects of a lack of sleep.

So what exactly happens when someone does not sleep enough? Well, humans function through executive functions, which allow for decision-making and planning throughout the day. According to “Sleep as a Protective Factor”, “acutely shortened sleep or habitually lower sleep continuity are linked with poorer executive functions.” This means that sleeping less will make functioning throughout the day increasingly harder. Whether or not these issues persist in cognitive processes later in life is still unknown. However, academically speaking, this is not just a short-term issue. In children and adolescents, prolonged periods of less-than-average sleep can lead to lower academic performances in school, which stays on their record and will affect where they are placed the following year.

Studies have also found that youths tend to have increased suicidal thoughts in the presence of sleep problems. These range from sleep disorders to simple sleep disturbances in day-to-day life. As mentioned earlier, these disturbances and lack of sleep were found to decrease one's executive functions. It was also found that emotional regulations are affected, which according to “Early Childhood Sleep Problems,” “because early childhood is also an era of rapid neurodevelopment, sleep problems in this era may have lasting effects on the developmental trajectory of executive functioning and emotional regulation.” Socioemotional functioning and critical skills are also included in the affected mental processes. That is why deficits in these areas are potential factors for suicidal thoughts during and later in life; because one's ability to function mentally is greatly inhibited.

Finally, sleep deprivation has led to many negative physiological effects. The listed effects in the article “Sleep deprivation: Neural Regulation and Consequences” include memory lapse, increased risk of diabetes, seizures, and so much more. The list goes on and on, including many minor and major disorders that can arise from a simple loss of sleep. This proves to be an extreme concern for individual health. The surveys conducted for this article also “revealed a correlation between sleep deficiency and elevated aggression.” This proves to not only be a danger towards the sleep-deprived individual but also to others in contact, as the fluctuating moods could cause the person to become unstable and dangerous. This can also lead to relationship issues, as many loved ones -spouses, friends, and family- will remove the negative individual from their lives. In the event that this doesn’t happen; both parties may become agitated and worsen their already unhealthy situation.

Unhealthy sleep habits such as sleep deprivation can cause a multitude of issues not only for the person but those who surround them. Lack of sleep can cause issues in one's judgment as well as their ability to function in day-to-day life. These deficiencies then cause depression and anxiety in one's life. Devasting outcomes such as suicide and aggression can result from all of this. That is why sleep is essential to stay on top of. Many push sleep aside for the sake of finishing school projects or scrolling through social media, however, the risks almost always outweigh the positives.