Let’s discuss when it’s bedtime: the sleep-deprived person and the impact on health, our lives and our careers. What are some tips for improving sleep? A person spends almost a third of his life sleeping.
How long can a person stay awake?
There is even a world record set. At the end of December 1963, two American teenagers decided to find out how long you can live without sleep and how the lack of sleep affects cognitive abilities and productivity. The idea arose out of the need to come up with a school science project. And on January 8, 1964, one of the young men, 17-year-old Randy Gardner, set a world record without sleep. He was awake for 264 hours and 25 minutes, just over 11 days. For this, he entered the Guinness Book of Records. The results report that at the end of the last day, the boy became paranoid and began to see hallucinations.
When the experiment was completed, Gardner gave an interview in which he described his feelings in detail, and then he was sent to a naval hospital so that doctors could perform an EEG and study his brain waves. After the research, the young man slept for 14 hours, and then resumed his studies at school.
Attempts have been made more than once to find out how long you can live without sleep. But representatives of the Guinness Book of Records refused to register such records, as they can cause serious health problems. Therefore, it is not known exactly how much a person can do without sleep.
How does sleep affect the body?
First of all, sleep is rest for the body, it helps to process and store information. During deep sleep, growth hormone is produced – somatotropic hormone. Sleep develops cognitive abilities, increases stress resistance, concentration of attention, and improves the condition of the immune system.
How much you need to sleep depends on the individual characteristics of a person, but a healthy regime involves 7-8 hours of sleep, in winter the time may increase by several hours. Scientists believe that this duration of sleep can reduce the probability of developing heart failure by 42 percent.
You should not ignore the natural needs of the body. Lack of sleep negatively affects brain function, worsens mood, leads to a decrease in immunity and the effectiveness of vaccination. The risk of developing type 2 diabetes and obesity increases. The risk of developing certain oncological diseases increases. Muscle atrophy may begin.
Specialists from the University of Pennsylvania found out that sleeping less than 6 hours a day leads to dehydration of the body, which causes headaches. The reason is a violation of the production of vasopressin, a hormone that is responsible not only for maintaining fluid in the body, but also participates in the work of the cardiovascular and nervous systems. This lack of it is caused by poor health due to lack of sleep.
Sleep disturbance, which is often suffered by the elderly, is also dangerous. Elderly people who sleep less than 6 hours have an increased risk of developing dementia and other cognitive diseases.
What happens to the body if you don’t sleep for a long time?
Scientists from the University of California believe that serious consequences appear on the seventh day without sleep. But already from the first day you can observe a negative impact on health due to lack of sleep.
- One day without sleep and as a result fatigue, drowsiness, impaired coordination, decreased concentration. A person becomes irritable, his mood often changes. Stress hormones and blood sugar levels rise in the body.
- Two days without sleep: cognitive abilities deteriorate further, fatigue increases, alertness decreases. Micro-dreams can occur – this is when a person falls asleep for a few seconds without realizing it.
- Three days without sleep: mood and behavior become unstable. Cognitive abilities continue to deteriorate. There may be difficulties in communication. Paranoia develops.
- Four days without sleep: absent-mindedness increases, and even simple logical tasks lead to a stupor. Tremors appear in the limbs, lethargy, the appearance deteriorates significantly.
- Five days without sleep: the whole body, all body systems feel very strong stress. Physical and mental disorders can lead to death.
Therefore, the question of how long a person can go without sleep is better to leave rhetorical and not try to find out on your own.
It is important to understand that a person cannot compensate for lack of sleep with tomorrow’s sleep or on the weekend. Lack of sleep accumulates. And for every hour of sleep lost, eight hours of sleep are needed to recover, experts say.