What Happens When You Don't Get Enough Sleep?

In today’s world of organic foods galore, workout classes on every block, green juices, and hot yoga, people tend to forget about one of the simplest, most essential factors to good health - SLEEP.

You can eat all the kale and do all the bootcamp classes in the world, but if you’re not getting an average of 7-8 hours of shut-eye a night, kale and bootcamps will keep you neither healthy nor fit.

Sleep deprivation has numerous physical and emotional side effects - let’s talk about a few of the big ones.

Many studies have shown strong correlations between sleep deprivation and weight gain. A well-known research study showed that children and adults who were sleep deprived were 89% (children) and 55% (adults) more likely to be come obese. (Source)

Do you find that when you’re tired you tend to eat more carelessly? Totally common. One of the main reasons poor sleep is highly correlated with obesity is that when you are sleep deprived, your body has higher levels of ghrelin, an appetite-stimulating hormone, and lower levels of leptin, the appetite-reducing hormone. (Source) So chances are, you will end up consuming more calories on days you’re sleep deprived.

Mentally, poor sleep takes a toll on your brain function. Sleep deprivation can have the same levels of cognitive impairment and reduced motor performance as alcohol intoxication. (Source)

If you have an important meeting, presentation, or test it is essential that you prioritize sleep to minimize mistakes. A study of medical interns showed that the interns who worked longer shifts (24+ hours) made 35.9% more errors than interns who worked shorter shifts and were able to sleep more. (Source)

If you’re feeling blue, it’s even more important that you get proper sleep, as anxiety, depression, and insomnia are greatly linked. A whopping 90% of people with depression say they have poor sleep quality. (Source)

Getting enough sleep also helps maintain your metabolism, stabilize your blood sugar levels, and boost your immune function.

So how much sleep do you need? Everyone has slightly different sleep needs depending on lifestyle and other factors, but as a guideline, the National Sleep Foundation suggests the following for each age group:

Older adults (65+): 7–8 hours

Adults (18–64): 7–9 hours

Teenagers (14–17): 8–10 hours

School-aged children (6–13): 9–11 hours

Preschoolers (3–5): 10–13 hours

Toddlers (1–2): 11–14 hours

Infants (4–11): 12–15 hours

Newborns (0–3): 14–17 hours

(Source)