Aspergers In Adults

Image via WikipediaSleep deprivation can cause higher levels of psychological distress… even death.

According to a recent report by researchers from the George Institute in Sydney Australia. People who sleep for less than 5 hours a night are 3 times more susceptible of developing mental illness than those who sleep for 8 – 9 hours a night.

Researchers examined the sleeping habits of more than 20,000 teenagers aged between 17 and 24. Findings showed that those who got less than 6 hours sleep a night developed higher levels of psychological distress.

Professor Nick Glozier said that over the last few years young people have spent more time on electronic gadgets, game consoles and the internet instead of sleep. Sleep deprivation can cause serious effects often starting with anxiety and body clock difficulties leading to problems like bi-polar or major depression.
Sleep deprivation can have serious effects on your health in the form of physical and mental impairments.

Inadequate rest impairs our ability to think, handle stress, maintain a healthy immune system and moderate our emotions. In fact, sleep is so important to our overall health that total sleep deprivation has been proven to be fatal: lab rats denied the chance to rest die within two to three weeks.

Dramatic weight changes, especially weight gain, are also common effects of sleep deprivation. Because the amount and quality of the sleep we get affects our hormone levels, namely our levels of leptin and ghrelin, many physiological processes that depend on these hormone levels to function properly, including appetite, are affected by our sleep. Leptin is a hormone that affects our feelings of fullness and satisfaction after a meal, and ghrelin is the hormone that stimulates our appetites. When you suffer from sleep deprivation, your body’s levels of leptin fall and ghrelin levels increase. This means that you end up feeling hungrier without really feeling satisfied by what you eat, causing you to eat more and, consequently, gain weight.