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The Emotional, Physical and Mental Effects of Sleep Depravation

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Is sleep important? The answer is yes, more important than imaginable. However, not everyone needs the same amount. The amount of sleep needed depends on the age of the person. Infants typically need approximately 16 hours a day while teenagers need approximately nine hours on average. Most adults need about seven to eight hours (“Brain Basics: Understanding Sleep”). How much sleep someone gets is very important. Not getting enough sleep can result in many dysfunctions throughout the day. Loss of sleep causes mental, emotional, and physical affects but there are ways to prevent these affects. Even though the number of hours differs for different people, the mental and emotional affects damage all. Lack of sleep effects the brain’s …show more content…

Not enough sleep causes physical issues. Remaining healthy is hard when sleep is not a priority. Sleep is a determining factor to weight gain. Sleep is just as important as exercise and eating healthy. People are more prone to gain weight with little sleep. The hormone, leptin, alerts the brain when it is full and the leptin levels will be lower when there is sleep deprivation (“Sleep Disease Risk”). In other words, overeating is more likely to happen and the outcome will be weight gain. Obesity is not the only health risk associated with lack of sleep. The immune system also gets attacked. The immune system will not be as strong when the rest of the body does not have enough rest (“Brain Basics: Understanding Sleep”). Other health risks result from a low immune system. “People who have irregular sleep patterns or schedules that do not allow for adequate rest on a regular basis have a higher mortality rate than those who get enough sleep on a regular basis” (“10 Dangerous Side Effects”). This means that not getting enough sleep causes grave effects on the body. More health risks are diabetes, stroke, heart disease, heart failure, heart attack, irregular heartbeat, and high blood pressure (“10 Dangerous Side Effects). The physical effects are just as important as the mental and emotional affects, but there are ways to prevent these terrible consequences. Since sleep is key to one’s health,

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