Poro 1

Shem Emmanuel G. Poro

Wilzen Du Bermoy
English 11
7 August 2016
Causes of Lack of Sleep
Everyone has at least once in their lives stayed awake throughout an entire night. Usually, being
up all night is a choice of high school or college students–usually, for partying; excessively
responsible workers and workaholics also tend to spend sleepless nights working on their tasks. It
is widely believed that, unlike insomnia (which means a regular lack of sleep), a couple of sleepless
nights now and then cannot do much harm. Unfortunately, this is not true–being awake for 24
hours even once in a long period of time has unpleasant effects on health.
Everyone knows that a night spent without sleep (or having little sleep) can result in fatigue and
bad mood in the morning; many would consider this a small price for a night of fun or productive
labor. However, several sleepless nights can cause more serious mental effects. In particular, your
ability to focus and to make decisions will decrease significantly; having a foggy brain and unclear
thinking, as well as falling asleep mid-day are also among the possible negative effects. However,
in a long-term perspective, the health effects are much worse: proneness to obesity, high blood
pressure, heart diseases, diabetes, and so on.
Actually, fatigue and sleepiness are just the tip of the iceberg. Specifically, experts from Sweden
compared the effects of one-night sleep deprivation to a mild concussion. They conducted a study
in which a group of healthy young men slept 8 hours one night, and then abstained from sleep
another night. The blood samples taken from the men after the sleepless night revealed a 20%
increase of neurochemical markers associated with brain cells damage (compared to the samples
taken after the full rest night). “Dysfunctional sleep has been linked with a range of health
problems, and it looks like that’s because we’re injuring our brain by not getting enough sleep,”
says W. Chris Winter, M.D., medical director of the Martha Jefferson Sleep Medicine Center in
Charlottesville, Virginia.
At the same time, some results of the studies were surprising. According to new research, one night
without sleep can increase the levels of dopamine in the brain–a substance responsible, in
particular, for wakefulness. Scientists believe that by producing more dopamine, the brain tries to
compensate for the negative effects of a sleepless night; still, according to the study, cognitive
deficits caused by sleep deprivation remain significant. “[…] Dopamine may increase after sleep
deprivation as a compensatory response to the effects of increased sleep drive in the brain,” says
David Dinges, PhD, at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

Obviously, abstaining from sleep has no positive effects on the human body. One-night deprivation
of sleep results in fatigue and irritability; several sleepless nights affect one’s ability to concentrate
and make decisions. Swedish experts compared the negative effects of the lack of sleep to a mild
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concussion, and although studies show that the brain tries to compensate the lack of sleep by
producing more dopamine, it is still not enough to compensate the harm dealt. So, no matter what
your reasons are to stay awake for a prolonged time, make sure to have a normal 8 hours sleep.