If you have been consistent in your exercises and disciplined in your eating but poor in your sleeping habits, your healthy living path remains incomplete.
Sleep is of necessity in ensuring the wholeness of your mind and body so, depriving yourself of adequate sleep will be detrimental to your health. The recommended hours of sufficient sleep is a minimum of 7 to 9 hours for those within the ages of 18 and 64.
When you do not have enough sleep, it can have endangering effects on you, short-term or long-term, and the longer the deprivation, the more grievous the consequences.
So, each time you are on the verge of working all night or staying extra hours before the TV at night, remind yourself of these effects and get some sleep. Below are some of the disadvantages you put yourself in by not having enough sleep:
- Weakened immune system:
While you sleep, your body produces substances like antibodies and cytokines that it uses to fight disease-causing organisms like bacteria and viruses. Inadequate sleep causes a limit in the availability of these substances and puts you at risk of falling sick and having a slow recovery.
- Low productivity:
If you ever notice your daily activities when you sleep late or stay awake all night, you would find that accomplishing tasks tend to be slower. It is so because insufficient sleep leaves your brain exhausted limiting its ability to perform its duties. The end product of this is a decrease in your productivity level for the day.
- Lower sex drive:
This effect is most common among males. Not having enough sleep reduces the amount of testosterone produced and this would reduce the drive for sex.
- Weight gain:
When you lack enough sleep, you place yourself at the risk of gaining weight and becoming obese in the long run. The release of the enzyme that tells you when you are filled is reduced while that which stirs hunger is increased. You tend to eat more than your body requires as a result of this.