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This is what happens to your body when you go just one night without sleep
Planning an all-nighter this party season?
Alongside feeling rotten the next day, it turns out there are a whole host of extra issues caused by being awake for too long that may make you reconsider.
According to experts who spoke to the Daily Mail, just one night without sleep starts a ‘ripple effect’ of chaos in our bodies, becoming more dangerous as the hours go by.
After 18 hours awake (the equivalent of waking up at 8am and going to bed at 2am the following day) blood pressure begins to rise and the heart has to work harder to do its job.
In those with underlying cardiac conditions, this could increase the likelihood of a heart attack or stroke.
Additionally, the 18-hour mark sees falling testosterone, energy levels and immune defences, with natural ‘fighter’ cells that combat bacteria and viruses becoming less effective.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention claims staying up for 24 hours is akin drinking four glasses of wine or beer – which may be why you feel hangover-like effects of tiredness even if you’ve avoided alcohol.
Once you’ve been awake for this long, you’ll have reduced reaction times, slurred speech and slowed thinking, as well as irritability, increased stress, impaired concentration and food cravings.
Studies have shown that sleep deprived teenagers ate 210 more calories the next day for every hour of shut-eye lost, while tired people are more likely to spend money on junk food.
By 36 hours without rest, you may start to experience brief periods of involuntary sleep lasting up to 30 seconds known as microsleeps. This is your body’s way of trying to give your brain the vital time it needs to restore itself.
Other symptoms include impaired performance, memory and decision-making, high heart rate and blood pressure, and a slowed metabolism.
These bouts of microsleep will worsen as you reach two days awake, and you’ll also notice heightened stress, depersonalisation, anxiety and irritability.
At the 48-hour point, you could start to hallucinate, due to increasingly severe impairment of the brain’s amygdala and prefrontal cortex.
These mental effects continue to escalate up to 96 hours of sleep deprivation, at which point the risk of psychosis surges.
Although many of these symptoms can be resolved by going to sleep, in rare cases chronic and prolonged insomnia can be fatal. If you’re struggling to sleep on a regular basis, it’s important tovisit your GP.
Dr Emer MacSweeney, a neuroradiologist and CEO at Re:Cognition Health, a cognitive care clinic, told DailyMail.com: ‘Sleep deprivation has been linked [to]myriad health issues and diseases. Sleep is essential for supporting cognition… memory, language, speech, planning and many other skills.
‘Sleep deprivation has far-reaching consequences on the body.’
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- https://www.msn.com/en-au/health/medical/this-is-what-happens-to-your-body-when-you-go-just-one-night-without-sleep/ar-AA1l1M3r?ocid=00000000
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