5 Warning Signs of Sleep Deprivation and What to Do About It

Written By: Karla Tafra

Sleep deprivation has been an important topic for quite some time now, as people begin to grasp its gravity and the way it can negatively impact human health and well-being. Even though its symptoms are pretty vague and can easily be linked to a variety of other health conditions, there are some powerful warning signs you should be on the lookout for, especially if you know your sleeping quality has not been the absolute best.

Sleep deprivation is a condition that occurs when you get insufficient sleep on a consistent basis. You might say you’re sleep deprived after one night of poor sleep, but according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, real, chronic sleep deprivation occurs if it frequently happens over a long period of time (at least three months or longer). The data on sleep deprivation is pretty alarming, as it seems that one-third of adult Americans aren’t getting enough sleep on a nightly basis.

Even one poor night of sleep can have noticeable consequences for your day, from your energy levels and fatigue to your cognitive performance and even your mood. When these impacts become chronic, they can seriously increase the risk of developing both, physical and mental health problems.

Sleep deprivation has been linked to a variety of health problems and complications, from diabetes and other metabolic conditions to cardiovascular diseases and even an increased risk of stroke. It’s a serious disorder that shouldn’t be ignored, even when you hear things like “burning the midnight oil” or “you’ll sleep when you’re dead.”

Those phrases have long become too dangerous to live by, especially as their goal always had increased productivity in mind—the complete opposite of what sleep deprivation actually causes.

Causes of sleep deprivation can range from a conscious lack of sleep due to late studying and working hours, binging on TV shows, gaming, or partying, to actual medical conditions like insomnia, sleep apnea, or anxiety disorders, as well as certain medications.

Sleep Disorders

There are a few known sleep disorders that can be the cause of sleep deprivation, and they include:

• Insomnia - defined as an inability to fall or stay asleep, insomnia occurs even when there are no work obligations or other situations preventing them from sleeping as much as they should be. It’s a serious health condition that can have a variety of different causes and can take an army of tools to manage.

• Sleep apnea - characterized as a drop in oxygen supply due to a complete or partial collapse of airways during sleep. It can have a serious impact on overall health and longevity.

Mental Health Disorders

• Anxiety - anxiety disorders can have a severe impact on sleep quality which, in turn, can only aggravate anxiety symptoms.

• Depression - long studying and working hours have shown an increase in depression symptoms amongst students and highly-stressed workers, which only impaired their sleep quality and consistency further, turning yet another sleep-related and mental health disorder into a vicious cycle.

Medications

In addition to the abovementioned causes, certain medications are also known to reduce sleep duration and impair its quality, causing both acute and chronic sleep deprivation over time. They don’t have to impact every individual, but experience shows that most people taking these medications report some sort of sleeping issue throughout the duration of their therapy.

You might hear both of these terms used in the same context, but there is an actual distinction between the two. Sleep deficiency includes sleep deprivation as one of its main reasons, but the list expands even further.

In addition to sleep deprivation, sleep deficiency includes a variety of sleep disorders, night shifts, a lack of certain sleep types (such as REM sleep or deep sleep), sleepwalking, and other medical conditions impacting sleep.

When you know your sleep hasn’t been optimal and you experience some negative symptoms on a daily basis, chances are these two are linked. That’s why, even though the signs of acute sleep deprivation are vague, you might be able to connect the dots. The most common warning signs include:

Chronic Fatigue

Probably the easiest and hardest-to-ignore warning sign of sleep deprivation is chronic fatigue and tiredness. When you’re busy and you have a poor night's sleep, you’ll most likely feel that the next day. Turn that day into two, three, or a week’s worth of sleep deprivation, and you’re walking around like a zombie screaming low battery. Your body is chronically deprived of sleep and in desperate need of recharging its batteries.

This can manifest in your everyday activities, from feeling unmotivated to perform certain tasks and canceling plans and workouts to elevating your risk of injury if you do increase your physical activity while in this state. Additionally, when you’re chronically sleep-deprived, your reaction time slows down, making it easier to get hurt or even endanger someone else (i.e., in traffic).

Trouble Concentrating and Focusing

Another noticeable and debilitating symptom of sleep deprivation is trouble concentrating and focusing on even the simplest tasks. You can feel yourself frequently dozing off, yawning, and struggling to get through the day, which only results in poor productivity and can have a strong and negative impact on your mood.

Without adequate sleep, your brain struggles to function properly as the neurons become burned out, making it hard to perform its usual ways of thinking and deducing. Over time, this can lead to serious brain issues and disorders, increasing the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

Worsened Memory

This warning sign of sleep deprivation isn’t the easiest to notice right away, as it usually presents itself over a period of time. And even then, when you suddenly begin experiencing issues with your memory, your mind usually becomes occupied with darker thoughts, like the onset of dementia or even Alzheimer’s disease. And even though chronic lack of sleep could potentially lead to these severe cognitive disorders, it doesn’t immediately have to be this grim.

Research shows how lack of sleep can increase episodes of memory loss, but it’s inconclusive about how long-term this condition can actually be. That’s why, at the first sign of issues with your memory and your ability to retain information, take a step back and analyze your quality of sleep. It can all start from there.

Irritability

Even your mood can be drastically impacted by a lack of sleep. Have you ever caught yourself being less compassionate, tolerating, and overall easier to become irritated by a person or situation when you’ve had a rough night? Science points out the link between the two, and it even goes so far as to state that a lack of sleep can lead to increased anger and aggression.

Even one week of four to five hours of sleep per night can have a huge impact on one’s stress levels, mood, and short-tempered reactions. Pay attention to your mood swings, and maybe the next time you snap at someone for no special reason, go to sleep at an earlier time.

Weakened Immune System

Probably one of the most dangerous warning signs of long-term sleep deprivation is its negative impact on your immune system. By reducing your sleep hours, you can notably increase your risk of infections and diseases, potentially complicating your health condition and making it hard to properly heal and recover.

Your immune system is your main defense mechanism, and it helps protect you from all sorts of attacks, whether they’re caused by internal inflammation or microbes. When you’re not getting enough sleep, your immune system can’t perform its usual nightly functions, such as repairing cell damage or healing wounds. This action usually involves a slight elevation in the inflammation response in the body as your immune system fights to repair and heal. Furthermore, your immune system performs the same actions even when there’s no specific injury or wound to heal, with the goal of strengthening your adaptive immunity.

When you’re sleep deprived, your immune system doesn’t have the time to perform these actions, leaving you prone to diseases and infections, which can overwhelm your immune cells even more, as they try to heal and recover from the attack. Over time, this can lead to more severe diseases such as diabetes and heart problems, as well as abovementioned neurological damage.

If your sleep deprivation is a result of an overwhelming workload, an intense study course, or your own social desire to go out every night of the week, the good news is that you can turn it around by prioritizing sleep.

• Partying will always be there, and choosing to take it down a notch to focus on rest and recovery won’t impact your social skills.

• Studying through the night might not be necessary if you find a better way to organize your schedule or get tips and tricks from other class members.

• Crazy work situations might have you sacrificing your sleep quality because you think you can’t physically get all of your work done during your waking hours, but at what cost? Find a way to get a good work/life balance, or at least a good work/sleep balance as everyone should be entitled to their eight hours of rest.

Sleep deprivation is slowly becoming a very common issue that people tend to neglect and overlook, completely underestimating its potential severe consequences. Don’t ignore these warning signs and do your best to work on your sleep routines, improve your sleep duration, and enhance its quality.