Sleep is a state where the musculoskeletal system relaxes, and the nervous system stays inactive for a quite some time; it could last from minutes to hours mostly at night. Melatonin and serotonin are the hormones that control the body’s internal clock. The two hormones regulate the pineal gland which is responsible for the day and night sleep cycles. Melatonin is produced upon darkness signals whereas light stimulates serotonin production. Sleep occurs in a cyclic pattern where there is the rapid eye movement cycle and the non-rapid eye movement cycle according to the electroencephalograms. Rapid eye movement sleep is also known as active sleep. It is characterized with; powerful alpha waves, rapid eye movements, vivid dreams and relaxed muscles of the leg and arms. On the other hand, non-rapid eye movement sleep also called deep sleep is associated with; slower brain waves that are delta and gamma waves, closed eyes, there are no dreams, and it is challenging to wake the person up. According to the National Sleep Foundation (NSF), 2015 every age group has different sleep duration; that is much sleep requirement in younger ones and young adults whereas the reduced sleep among the old. This paper aims to discuss sleep deprivation, the various causes, effects of sleep deprivation, signs, and symptoms of sleep deprived the individual, diagnosis, prevention, and management of the disorder.
Sleep deprivation is a condition where one does not get sufficient, or the set required sleep an individual should get to be alert upon waking up. In an electroencephalogram recording, sleep deprived individual shows increased seizures this is because there are no changes in the brain waves thus the EEG records alpha waves indicating brain wakefulness state, unlike the standard one that records slow and synchronized delta brain waves.
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There are many causes of sleep deprivation; some can be controlled others while others require pharmacological intervention. For instance; some individuals consider sleeping as a waste of time thus opt to pursue businesses to make money; others study to achieve academic goals, others for entertainment purposes. The intentionality to deprive an individual sleep is often in young adults. However, there are unintentional causes of sleep deprivation. These include; demanding working shifts especially in medics, unvaried sleep patterns in the cases of lactating mothers, demanding jobs thus requiring one to wake up early and many times medical conditions like sleep apnea, chronic illnesses like cancer, depression and hormonal imbalance among others. Substance abuse also causes sleep deprivation. The intakes of substances that contain nicotine for example cigarettes, caffeine-containing substances such as tea, chocolate, coffee or even the consumption of Catha edulis deprive an individual’s sleep; this is because they are stimulants.
Many signs and symptoms characterize a sleep-deprived individual. The most evident sign of a sleep-deprived individual is the irritability levels. Deprivation of sleep weakens the brains ability to regulate the amygdala which is the brain part responsible for emotions thus the individual many times is moody and easily angered or irritated. Moreover, the individual has poor concentration span as well as memory due to the temporary impairment of the prefrontal cortex. There is the release of norepinephrine in these cases resulting in sympathetic effects to the body. These individuals show intolerance, forgetfulness, pessimism, bad moods, clumsiness, low self-esteem, anxiety, reduced sex drive and poor performance at assigned duties (Ferrara et al., 2015).
Sleep is essential for the normal functioning of the body. Sleep regulates the mood, the functioning of hormones, body weight, metabolism of the body, the immune system, and synthesis of various hormones and the general wakefulness of the organization among other functions (Ohayon et al. 2017). Sleep deprivation has a lot of negative impacts on the body. First and foremost, sleep deprivation increases the risks of diabetes type two in these individuals. Leptin and ghrelin are hormones that regulate satiety levels of the body as well as regulate insulin production. The two hormones concentration levels are affected by sleep. Leptin binds to its receptors on the arc of the hypothalamus to monitor glucose levels of the body. Increased plasma glucose concentrations result in the conversion to fat deposits thus increasing body weight irrespective of the total body water. Therefore, an individual is prone to obesity as well as diabetes type two. Similarly, there is the production of cortisol which aids in the increased body weight. Fat deposits may clog in the heart and blood vessels growing cases of atherosclerosis, and thus an individual has uncontrolled high blood pressure and other cardiovascular conditions.
Moreover, sleep deprivation reduces the immune system strength of an individual; this is because of reduction in the production of cytokines, which are responsible for the defense mechanism of the body. Thus the individual becomes immune-compromised hence susceptible to many infections. In addition to that, there are cases of infertility whenever an individual has prolonged sleep deprivation. Testosterone is a hormone in males that is sleep-regulated and responsible for fertility in men. Therefore, reduction in its production reduces fertility cases in men. More so failure to thrive is a common effect of sleep deprivation; this is because of decreased secretion of growth hormone. Sleep deprivation also leads to fatigue, excessive sleepiness during the day as well as anxiety (Hirshkowitz et al., 2015).
Many people in busy economy states are sleep deprived. Therefore to identify if one is sleep deprived, one needs to perform some tests to diagnose them. The first thing an individual should do is to keep a sleep log. In the sleep log, one should record sleep patterns including snoring and limb-jerking during sleep as well as alertness upon waking up. Specialists conduct diagnosis using a polysomnogram to study the sleep patterns.
Sleep deprivation becomes a concern only when an individual completely fails to get any sleep. In this case, a specialist is sought to give the best advice on how to curb the condition. In many cases, therapy is either non-pharmacological or pharmacological. Pharmacologically, a specialist may administer over the counter drugs for instance first generation histamine receptor one antagonists due to their sedative effects or prescription-only drugs like benzodiazepines hypnotics a good example is methyl pentynol or other cases melatonin receptor antagonist. However, these patients develop addiction and dependence over time. Thus caution on the dosing regimen is vital. Non pharmacological measures include; setting a routine on the sleep partners and strictly adhering to it, advising the patients to involve in various relaxation methods like meditation and one-point focus techniques, listening to audios that enhance sleep, cognitive behavioral therapy, avoiding eating three hours before getting to bed, engaging regularly in physical exercise, switching off lights and devices that generate light, as well as other electronic devices, getting to bed when fatigued, as well as reading in case one’s attempt to sleep fails. Whenever a deprivation is due to the accumulation of sleep debt, it is advisable that the individual pays off the sleep debt by getting additional hours of sleep to offset the accumulated sleep debt (Fullagar et al., 2015). Therefore, it is advisable to get enough sleep to avoid metabolic complications, fatigue mood swings as well as increase performance.
References
Ferrara, M., Bottasso, A., Tempesta, D., Carrieri, M., De Gennaro, L., & Ponti, G. (2015). Gender differences in sleep deprivation effects on risk and inequality aversion: evidence from an economic experiment. PloS one , 10 (3), e0120029.
Fullagar, H. H., Skorski, S., Duffield, R., Hammes, D., Coutts, A. J., & Meyer, T. (2015). Sleep and athletic performance: the effects of sleep loss on exercise performance, and physiological and cognitive responses to exercise. Sports medicine , 45 (2), 161-186.
Hirshkowitz, M., Whiton, K., Albert, S. M., Alessi, C., Bruni, O., DonCarlos, L., & Neubauer, D. N. (2015). National Sleep Foundation’s sleep time duration recommendations: methodology and results summary. Sleep Health , 1 (1), 40-43.
Ohayon, M., Wickwire, E. M., Hirshkowitz, M., Albert, S. M., Avidan, A., Daly, F. J., ... & Hazen, N. (2017). National Sleep Foundation's sleep quality recommendations: first report. Sleep Health , 3 (1), 6-19.
