Chronic Sleep Deprivation Makes Your Emotions Run Wild

Maybe you don’t believe this. But sleep has become a luxury that not everyone can enjoy. Emotional problems are usually first reflected in sleep. In the same way, chronic sleep deprivation poses all kinds of risks. It also makes all kinds of problems worse. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the average adult should sleep between seven and eight hours each night. In this way he obtains the optimal amount of rest, both physically and mentally. The effects of sleep deprivation can be very serious.

The WHO warns especially for one of these effects. Even if you spend just one night without sleep, it can still result in a loss of brain tissue.

When you don’t get enough sleep or you don’t sleep deeply enough, your nerves are literally tense. It is normal to be very irritable or extremely sensitive to any kind of stimulus. Many studies on this topic have demonstrated these effects.

Chronic sleep deprivation creates a hurricane of emotions

Tel Aviv University recently conducted a study that was later published in the Journal of Neuroscience. This study showed that people who don’t get enough sleep see everyday life in a different way.

Eighteen adults participated in the study. They got  one test after a good night’s sleep and another test after a night of no sleep. The test consisted of showing a series of images. Some images were ’emotionally positive’ (eg a teddy bear). Other images were ’emotionally negative’ (a mutilated body) and a third group was neutral (tools, a chair, etc.).

All participants were monitored with EEGs. That allowed to observe their brain activity. The researchers came to the following conclusion. When the participants hadn’t slept, their brains were actually unable to distinguish between the images in an emotional way. Their reactions to the positive, negative, and neutral images were in fact the same. According to the researchers, this all points to a lack of emotional control.

Irrational, primitive behaviors

Another study from the University of California, Berkeley, found that a loss of two or more hours of sleep severely affects the prefrontal cortex. This part of the brain controls emotions. The result is actually that sleep deprivation leads to more irrational primitive responses.

Matthew Walker was the leader of the investigation. He pointed out that “sleep deprivation shatters the brain mechanisms that control core aspects of our mental health.” He added that sleep repairs our emotional circuits and helps us cope better with everyday challenges.

Walker also said that while most people believe that sleep deprivation leads to dullness and passivity, the opposite actually happens. People who don’t get enough sleep don’t become more passive. But sixty percent of them tend to act more reactively. In other words, they become more violent and lose control.

The price of chronic sleep deprivation

Chronic sleep deprivation also causes other problems. Your emotional balance is undermined. In addition, your ability to respond to stimuli decreases. This means that you have a higher risk of accidents if you do not sleep well. It has also been found that your thinking patterns are altered by sleep deprivation.  You have a much harder time processing information and making decisions. One study found that medical errors in health professions increased by 400 percent when people worked twenty-four-hour days. It was also concluded that people who sleep less than necessary can develop memory problems.

The brain is not the only thing seriously affected by chronic sleep deprivation. Because when you don’t get enough sleep, the risk that you will develop diseases also increases.  This is because sleep deprivation affects the immune system. There is also data showing that sleep deprivation has an impact on the development of diabetes, cancer and obesity.

Now that you know all this, it’s worth checking to see if you’re getting enough sleep. Sleep is a valuable thing that everyone should care for and cherish. It is without a doubt one of the great pillars of mental health.