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UMB Health What Happens When You Lack Sleep

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What Happens When You Lack Sleep

Sleep is important to our body to function normally so the opposite is also true: lack of sleep will be harmful to our health. How harmful? Here are just a few things that could happen if the quality of sleep you get is less than ideal all the time.

Cognitive impairment

A lack of sleep can cause the brain to poorly remember everything you jammed up in there and could lead to disastrous results such as a failed exam or forgetting your lines during a performance! Being sleepless can lead to less than ideal brain functions and could cause you to have problems in responding to events due to lack of alertness, concentration, reasoning, and reduced ability to solve problems.

Increased risk of accidents

Drinking and driving is bad but driving while you lack sleep can be worse. Drowsiness can lead to a much slower reaction when it comes to preventing accidents specially accidents related to driving. In fact the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says around 100,000 auto crashes and 1,550 crash-related deaths is the result of driver fatigue and weariness each year.

Serious health implications

Sleep disorders or regular loss of sleep can put you at risk for:
- Diabetes
- Stroke
- High blood pressure
- Cardiovascular diseases
- Weakened immune response
- Uncontrolled weight gain
- Depression