Sleep Deprivation: The Consequences Of Five Sleepless Nights

Sleep is essential for our physical and mental well-being. Sleep deprivation can have serious consequences, and the longer a person goes without sleep, the more severe these consequences become. After 5 days without sleep, an individual may experience a range of physical and mental health issues, including changes in mood, mental fog, a weakened immune system, increased risk of high blood pressure and heart disease, poor coordination, and vision problems.

After 24 hours: impaired coordination, memory, and judgement

After 24 hours without sleep, you will likely experience impaired coordination, memory, and judgment. Your risk of errors and accidents in everyday tasks will increase. You may experience microsleeps, which are very short periods of sleep-like activity. Your ability to concentrate will be affected, and you will have trouble focusing. Your cognition and thinking will be impaired, and you may experience short-term memory loss and brain fog. Your performance at work or school will likely decrease, and you will have increased problems with social cues.

Your visual perception may also be altered, and you may experience changes in the shape of objects. You may also experience increased sleepiness and fatigue, as well as challenges with properly perceiving the length of time. Your ability to think creatively will be reduced, and you may experience illusions, such as misidentifying common objects or sounds.

After 36 hours: physical health is impacted

After 36 hours without sleep, your physical health will be impacted. You will experience extreme fatigue, impaired motor skills, reaction time, and coordination. Your judgment and decision-making abilities will be severely compromised, and you may be more prone to risky behaviours.

At this point, your body will be pumping cortisol into your bloodstream, raising your heart rate and blood pressure to keep you alert. The continued stress can increase feelings of anxiety and mood swings. You will likely feel sluggish and experience delayed reaction time, foggy memory, and an inability to concentrate, learn new information, and process social cues.

Your health will now be at risk. High levels of inflammatory markers in the bloodstream can eventually lead to cardiovascular disease and high blood pressure. During a typical healthy night of sleep, blood pressure drops by around 10 to 20 per cent. However, if sleep is chronically interrupted or absent, remaining at an elevated blood pressure may be a risk factor for hypertension.

After 48 hours: microsleeps and disorientation

After 48 hours of no sleep, you will likely experience microsleeps and temporal disorientation. Microsleeps are very short periods of sleep that can be measured in seconds rather than minutes or hours. During a microsleep episode, a person might nod off or keep their eyes open and appear awake, but their brain is not processing external information as it usually does. Microsleeps are often identified by a person briefly closing their eyes or experiencing lapses in attention. They can happen to anyone but are most likely to occur after sleep deprivation. Therefore, people with sleep disorders, such as shift work disorder or obstructive sleep apnea, often experience microsleeps. However, even those without sleep disorders can experience microsleep after a single night of no sleep.

Microsleeps can have serious consequences, especially when they occur during activities that require concentration, such as driving or operating heavy machinery. During a microsleep episode, a person loses conscious control of their performance, and their reaction time is reduced. This can increase the risk of accidents, making it extremely dangerous if operating a vehicle or machinery.

In addition to microsleeps, after 48 hours of no sleep, you will also likely experience temporal disorientation, or difficulty perceiving time. This can further impair your ability to function safely and effectively, especially when performing tasks that require precise timing or quick reactions.

After 72 hours: major cognitive deficits and hallucinations

After 72 hours of sleep deprivation, individuals may experience hallucinations and delusions, which are symptoms similar to acute psychosis.

Hallucinations

Complex visual hallucinations, such as seeing fully formed images, may occur. Auditory hallucinations, such as thinking you hear a dog barking, may also be experienced. These hallucinations can be mistaken for veridical perceptions, and individuals have little control over them.

Delusions

Delusions, or false beliefs, may also occur. For example, an individual may think that someone has sent them on a secret mission or that someone is plotting against them.

Other Cognitive Deficits

In addition to hallucinations and delusions, other cognitive deficits may be present after 72 hours of sleep deprivation. These include:

• Mood changes, such as aggression, anger, hostility, apathy, anxiety, and depression
• Disordered thoughts, confusion, and bizarre behavior, such as jumbled thoughts and difficulties forming thoughts and sentences
• Dissociation and depersonalization, such as feeling detached from oneself and others
• Distortions in the sense of time, such as feeling that time is passing slowly

After 96 hours: severe psychosis

After 96 hours without sleep, you will likely be experiencing severe psychosis. Your perception of reality will be severely distorted, resembling acute psychosis. Your urge for sleep will also feel unbearable.

The symptoms of severe psychosis will go away once you get enough sleep, but it can take days or even weeks for them to completely disappear.

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