Sleep Deprivation: An Overlooked Killer
By Jackson Knudson
For many of us, especially those neck-deep in academic or professional commitments, a consistent eight hours of sleep each night is a foreign luxury. From simple stress to meeting the deadlines of a list of tasks that never seems to shrink, the reasons for sleep deprivation vary widely, but the result is always the same, and rarely good. With how common sleep deprivation is now, awareness is key. This blog will be tackling the bare essentials of sleep deprivation, some trends associated with it, and how to combat it should you be willing to.
Sleep deprivation is, as you might expect, a fairly common issue in the modern age. More and more people report a less-than-ideal sleeping schedule each year, but many do not seem to grasp the severity of the issue in terms of statistics. Andreea Seicean, the author of the book
Sleeping and Breathing, revealed the following statistic: “In the US population, sleep duration has decreased by 1 to 2 hours over the past 40 years with the proportion of teenagers sleeping fewer than 7 hours per night doubling between 1960 and 2001.” (Andreea Seicean et al., 2007). As the excerpt states, sleep deprivation is becoming more and more common by the year. Part of this may stem from the misconception that decreased sleeping hours do nothing more than make you a bit sleepy in the morning, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. For example, the endeavor of “pulling an all-nighter", so to speak, comes with a nasty set of physical and mental consequences. The act of staying up all night leads to increased levels of stress, impaired memory, and even a weakened immune system (Rudy, 2024). As many who have burned the midnight oil before can attest, the following day tends to be hazy, with a sort of “fog” clouding your thoughts and judgement, as well as a feeling of increased stress (Verywell, 2021). As tempting as it may feel to treat the earliest hours of the morning as extra time to use for efficiency’s sake, in the end, you are effectively trading your physical health to meet deadlines, and there are always better solutions.
Though sleep deprivation may be a physiological issue for some, many partake in it willingly as a means to get things done, or to have alone time. As much as it may pain many of us to admit it, we are often our own worst enemy when it comes to sleep. Procrastination, poor nighttime eating habits, overthinking, there are a vareity of reasons why a person might opt to spend the night awake and alert. But as stated before, there are better, healthier alternatives. Even if you’ve been dreading it, it’s always better to finish that pesky project before the sun goes down if at all possible, and while that bottle of coke may be alluring, a glass of water would suit you far better once evening has set in. Even more social reasons have solutions. Those seeking alone time at night may find a healthier habit in taking secluded walks if their living situation allows it, or by reserving quiet rooms in a local library. Regardless of the justification, there are always alternatives, you just need to be willing to find them.
References
Rudy, M. (2024, February 10). Sleep deprivation dangers: How pulling an all-nighter affects your physical and mental health. Fox News; Fox News. https://www.foxnews.com/health/sleepdeprivation-dangers-pulling-all-nighter-affects-physical-mental-health
Andreea Seicean, Redline, S., Sinziana Seicean, H. Lester Kirchner, Gao, Y., Sekine, M., Zhu, X., & Storfer-Isser, A. (2007). Association between short sleeping hours and overweight in adolescents: results from a US Suburban High School survey. Sleep and Breathing, 11(4), 285–293. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11325-007-0108-z
https://www.facebook.com/verywell. (2021). What Is Brain Fog? Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-brain-fog-5195298