Are You Sleep Deprived? 5 Symptoms to Look For

Years ago we dreamed of a day when computers would eliminate many of our problems and work. Instead, computers have amped up our society into a multiplexing world, where we have to accomplish and do too many things at the same time. Our world has become focused on time management, with slot allocations for work, family and, if there’s anything left: sleep. We are, unfortunately, giving less and less time to the latter and this is more than apparent in the morning rush hour. It’s been reported that about one third of those on the road in the morning are sleep deprived. Sleep deprivation causes our brains to function poorly bringing lowered short term memory and lack of focus. The question that you may ask is: are you one of these sleep deprived individuals? Here are five symptoms to look for.

Short on dealing with stress: One of the signs of sleep deprivation is a lowered ability to handle stressful circumstances. The dichotomy on this one is that stress is often the trigger that causes sleep deprivation. Research studies indicate that those who experience a sound sleep during stressful times can handle the stress better and focus on those emotions.

Bad memory: The effects of the sleep deprived are most apparent in their lack of memory. This includes the symptom of forgetfulness. Studies show that REM sleep not only replenishes, but reinforces the retention and formation of emotional memories. This is an especially important message for those students that rely on ‘cramming’ before a test. They are actually undermining the process, because without the proper sleep, they will simply forget.

Lack of concentration: People that are sleep deprived are more likely to have poor performance on tests that require concentration. While that is bad enough, they are also more likely to overestimate their abilities to perform and underestimate the negative effects that the lack of sleep has on their concentrative abilities. Studies show that a person getting five hours of sleep per night will out-perform the individual who got only four hours of sleep.

Getting hungrier: Believe it or not, the signals to eat don’t come from your stomach, but they are brain controlled. Those that are sleep deprived completely destroy the normal balance of hunger vs full hormonal signals and you will want to eat more. Additionally, the longer you are awake the more opportunities you have to consume food. This creates a higher caloric intake and can cause weight gain. Scientific studies have shown that the brain metabolizes sugars in a slower manner when you are experiencing sleep deprivation.

Problems with your vision: Sleep deprived individuals experience one other bad symptom: problems with their vision. This can include seeing things that aren’t really there, blurred vision, poor peripheral vision, seeing things out of the corner of your eyes and visual distortions. Scientists refer to this problem as the brain’s I-function, as the brain begins to literally cut corners for performance due to the lack of regenerative sleep to support the neurons.

Sources: http://health.howstuffworks.com/mental-health/sleep/disorders/10-signs-you-may-be-sleep-deprived.htm

The information supplied in this article is not to be considered as medical advice and is for educational purposes only.