Tricia McDuffee

English

March 29, 2020

Sleep Deprivation and it’s Effects on the Body and Mind

By Tricia McDuffee

Studies show that adults should get seven to eight hours of sleep, but that most don’t get

that much. (Kripke, 2004). 30 to 40% of people don’t get that, so that’s a good number of people

who are considered sleep deprived. I was wondering how this effects the body and mind other

than what we already know. For instance, how if effects the memory and your heart health. I also

wondered about its effects on mental health like anxiety considering I have anxiety and I don’t

get more then maybe five or six hours of sleep. Sleep deprivation can cause many debilitating

health problems in adults, specifically heart problems and mental health disorders. While the

effects are not known widely, if we put this information out there put together, we can bring

awareness to how debilitating sleep deprivation can be.

Sleep can affect many basic areas of our lives such as memory. One of the books I found

Sleep Deprivation: Global Prevalence, Dangers and Impacts on Cognitive Performance talks

about different effects of sleep deprivation has on people’s cognitive performance. The authors

put a lot of information into about the different studies that have been done on this and the

figures that have come from these are very interesting. One of the studies that they talk about

showed that “volunteers who had the opportunity to take a nap for 90 minutes after memory
training had a better performance than volunteers who did not take a nap.” (Studte, Bridger and

Mecklinger). That goes into what people have heard about that if you get enough sleep it helps

them remember things easier. We’re always told that in school, or just in life, that if you get

enough sleep that you will remember formulas or other information like tasks at work better.

This shows that there is a reason we are told this.

There are more serious side effects of lack of sleep that affect the body physically as well

as mentally. Another chapter of this book Sleep Deprivation: Global Prevalence, Dangers and

Impacts on Cognitive Performance talks about the effects on the muscles and your body response

to stimuli, one of those being stress. If you don’t have enough sleep your body can’t handle the

stress well. This happens in three stages, the first one being Alarm the second one being

resistance and the final and the third one being exhaustion. The first part of it if you’re stressed it

can make your sleep schedule hard. Since your body will produce stimulates which will then

travel into the blood stream. Then then makes it to the brain and have your mind race with the

“what if’s” of what’s going to happen. The second part of it is resistance, which is their body

adapting to the stressor. The body starts to produce and release different hormones called

Corticotrophin and arginine vasopressin (Neto, Lucio dos Santos, Silveira campos, damaso and

Antunes). This goes into the blood stream and starts to produce and release glucocorticoids that

increase the energy substrate and that makes a negative single that will reduce the stress and it

will normalize with sleep. (Neto, Lucio dos Santos, Silveria Campos Damaso and Antunes.)

Figure 1.

As well as just affecting the mind and body, lack of sleep can start to deteriorate your

health. The next chapter of the book Sleep Deprivation: Global Prevalence, Dangers and

Impacts on Cognitive Performance talks about how it effects the heart and immune system.
When you don’t get enough sleep, your body doesn’t have time to recharge and you have the

negative effects that can come in the form of fatigue and different eating habits as well. It can

also bring about health issues that were already there or even diabetes. The authors use different

studies that have shown you can reduce these effects with the help of melatonin, and a

nutritionist has made getting sleep or the effects reduced. When the body doesn’t get the sleep it

needs, it can make the heart rate increase and can lead to atrial fibrillation. That’s just one thing

that can happen the other is sleep apnea, which is where the air way is restricted, and you can’t

get the oxygen to the brain that you need. People who snore are sometimes tested to see if they

have this since snoring is a sign of this but it’s not always the case. I’ve had this test done and it

showed that I wasn’t getting enough oxygen to my brain. With the help of this test showing and

taking my health more seriously, I have been feeling better and losing weight. “A study done at

the university of Colorado showed that when you get only 5 hours of sleep you can add up to 2

pounds to your weight.” (The sleep doctor, Sleep deprivation and weight.). When there isn’t

enough sleep the hormone levels will change and can cause you to crave foods high in fat and

sugar.

The central nervous system is one of the most important systems in your body and it can

be affected by not getting enough sleep. When you sleep your brain begins to store memories of

the new things that you had learned that day. People may begin to see that they can’t remember

things, or they struggle to learn new things, which is another sign of sleep deprivation.

(Healthline Watson and Cherney). Psychological risks that can come with sleep deprivation are

anxiety, and depression, but not always. This website article The Effects of Sleep Deprivation on

Your Body also touches on the immune system and how when you sleep your immune system

releases cytokines which help fight infections. It also talks about the Endocrine system which
produces the hormones that your body needs. When the body doesn’t get enough sleep, it can

interrupt the growth hormone production which can lessen the muscle mass and hinder the ability

to repair tissues and cells. (Healthline, Watson and Cherney).

The negative effects sleep deprivation has on the body can cause people to perform

poorly in important aspects of their lives. A research article I found “Does Sleep Deprivation Alter

Virtual Reality-Based Robotic Surgical Skills?”  had a study done with hospital surgeons found that

medical activities that require more than 80 hours per week have shown that there is significantly

attention to detail failures. (Cumpanas, Ferician, Lajcu, Duja, Bardan and Lazar). The beginning

of the article goes into detail about how surgeons’ hours are long and how sometimes they have

lengthy surgeries that they must do on that shift. The article also talks about the how the

regulations differ from country to country. The authors decided to do a study two different

groups of residents who volunteered, 20 altogether. One was a sleep deprivation group and the

other one wasn’t. They were tasked with different surgeries on a robot simulator, Peg Board

level one, which was the easiest task, Energy Dissection level two, which is an intermediate task

and the last one being a Suture Sponge level three, which is the hardest task.

There have been many tests in which scientists have tried to show how the amount of

sleep an adult gets relates to how they are about to preform in their daily lives. The Ped Board

level one is requires the subjects by using two needle drivers, to place highlighted rings onto

highlighted pegs on the floor. The Second exercise Energy Dissection level 2 requires the

participants to cauterize small vessels at two points by using bipolar energy and then to precisely

cut between the points, and the last exercise the Suture Sponge asks them to pass a curved needle

through specific dots on a sponge from different angles, using the backhand or forehand

technique. (Cumpanas, Ferician, Laicu, Duja, Bardan, and Lazar). Before their shifts and after
their shifts they were asked to complete the exercises, they were asked how much sleep they got

during the shift. When the results came out there wasn’t any too much difference in the pre or

post for the first exercise for the non-sleep deprivation group, but as the exercised got more

difficult and required more dexterity, the results started to become different between the pre and

post shifts. There were 20 participants, 16 were male and four females. They rang in age from

27-35 years of age. (Cumpanas, Ferician, Laicu, Duja, Bardan, and Lazar). The most hours of

sleep they got were four hours and the shortest amount of time of sleep was one hour and a half.

The results from the exercises showed some big differences in the sleep deprivation group from

the pre to post shifts. Not really in the time but in the motions that it takes. This ties into the next

article I found to help explain how it effects your mind.

Aside from the physical tasks, there are also many tests that record how the lack of sleep

effects your mental skills. Another article “Effects of Sleep Deprivation on Executive Functioning,

Cognitive Abilities, Metacognitive Confidence, and Decision Making.”  I found is about another study

of the effects of sleep deprivation but this time it’s one your decision-making skills and other

executive functioning skills. They took thirteen Australian Army personnel who volunteered to

participate in the study. (Adiman, Jackson, and Kleitman). They were all male and they range in

service from two and seven in a half year. There were three tests that they had them do. Running

letters test, Medical decision-making test and the last one being a NASA Task Load Index,

which is a self-report tool that was administered immediately following the last test. (Adiman,

Jackson, and Kleitman).

The Running letters test prompts the recall of the last letters of the words that are shown.

At the end they are given a list of possible letters and they need to choose the order in which they

were shown. The medical decision-making test is a short-term memory ability metacognitive
confidence and patterns of decision behavior. The participants have three minutes to memorize

nine symptoms can be used to make a diagnosis. They had sixteen patients that would show

these symptoms and once they decide what the condition could be, they will then decide on

which antivirus will work. Week one they had their normal sleep schedule, while week two was

when they did the sleep deprivation test. They were given at half-hour intervals. It showed that

there was a change in the results from the first week.

The actions that we can take to make this widely know is that most colleges have

information about the issues and studies. However, they leave it up the students to find and read

it on their own or have the readings there just sitting around. The colleges could make sure that

the students understand what no getting enough sleep can do. If they put this in their welcoming

pockets and make sure that they understand the information, maybe college students would alter

their sleep patterns. Workplaces also need to have this information as part of their welcome

package to new hires or at least make sure their employees are getting enough rest. So, if we had

this put out for people to find the information in a nice page or site, that breaks down what

happens it may cut down on how little hours people sleep.

Japan has a problem with this since their workers will fall asleep anywhere. The

companies will work them long hours and when they are on their way home will fall asleep on

trains, buses, and even the streets. Figure 2. There is a debate on how they deal with these long

works hours by going out and having a drink with co-workers. While this is very common, it’s

also detrimental to their health.

Sleep deprivation has a big impact on your health and body. From heart to brain there is

some type of effect that will happen from not getting enough. We should look at this and see that

sleep is important and make sure that we can get the amount that they say we should. What this
research has shown is that people do need to get more then five or six hours of sleep. With the

effects that happen when people are deprived of sleep is staggering. It can lead to debilitating

health problems like heart issues. And how you respond to different stressors or situations can

really be different with enough sleep. So, for a healthier life sleep is important to get since it

helps regulate your body and its functions.

Figure 1
Figure 2
Works Cited
Cherney, Stephanie Watson and Kristeen. The Effects of Sleep Deprivation on Your Body. 19 April 2019.

09 March 2020.

"Effects of sleep deprivation on executive functioning, cognitive." Applied cognitive Psychology (2018).

TitleWiley Online Library. 22 May 2018. 09 March 2020.

Your guied to better sleep. 05 April 2018. 12 April 2020.

Cumpanas, Alin Adrian, et al. “Does Sleep Deprivation Alter Virtual Reality-Based Robotic Surgical

Skills?” Video surgery & Other Miniinvasive Techniques / Wideochirurgia i Inne Techniki Malo Inwazyjne,

vol. 15, no. 1, Jan. 2020, pp. 97–105. EBSCOhost, doi:10.5114/wiitm.2019.90565Aidman, Eugene, et al.

Author Unknown. Sleep Deprivation: Global Prevalence, Dangers and Impacts on Cognitive

Performance. Nova Science Publishers, Inc, 2017. EBSCOhost,
search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=1453454&site=eds-live

Cherney, Stephanie Watson and Kristeen. The Effects of Sleep Deprivation on Your Body. 19 April 2019.

09 March 2020.

TitleWiley Online Library. 22 May 2018. 09 March 2020.

Business Insider. 04 April 2019. 22 April 2020.