At the end of a very rough day at work or school, we all look forward to going home to reward ourselves with a night of peaceful and comfortable sleep. However, sleeping, when it is supposed to make us feel relaxed, is now turning into one of the major problems an adult has to face. This is usually caused by stress, illness, a sudden shift in travel, and other little issues in your regular routine.
Trouble sleeping is unavoidable, but there are sleep deprivation effects we should always keep in our mind as a warning. In addition, once this occurs on a regular basis, you might face other health problems and even worsen your sleep disorder status. Not having the quality of sleep that our body needs can affect our day-to-day tasks not only at home but also in school or the workplace since not being able to sleep properly at night can lead to inefficiency in the morning. This is because one of the sleep deprivation effects includes being exhausted or sleepy during the day.
At some point, you ask yourself why you experience troubles in your sleep time when you are already exhausted the morning before that. Unfortunately, it adds more exhaustion on your end, and it can quickly seep out the energy that is left in you. What is worse about sleep problems is that it is sometimes causing a person on the road to accidentally sleep while driving, and it creates an accident in the end. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, drowsy driving caused over 72,000 car crashes that led to 44,000 injuries and 800 deaths back in 2013. However, these numbers are still not the real total number of car crash victims since 6,000 deadly crashes have been caused by drivers who accidentally fall asleep each year.
Aside from the social problem above, sleep problems can also cause personal issues like permanent damage to your physical health, sudden weight gain, and memory problems. For example, those people have deprivation effects of gaining weight than those who sleep better since they tend to binge-eat more to ease drowsiness and sleepiness. As for memory problems, lack of sleep can prevent a person from focusing and learning efficiently. It also exacerbates the symptoms of mental health problems such as anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder.
While you can track your sleeping patterns while studying the sleep deprivation effects, it is essential for you to do self-help or see a sleep specialist to find out more about your situation. But for now, you can follow the tips below that can surely help you to finally have a good rest and sleep at night.
- Expose yourself to bright lights during the day
- Reduce or eliminate blue light exposure
- Say ‘No’ to caffeine hours before your sleep time
- Improve your bedroom environment
- Eat healthily
- Consult a doctor for a sleep disorder diagnosis
Expose yourself to bright lights during the day
According to a study conducted by Sleep Health, sleep deprivation effects can be reduced once a person exposes himself/herself to the morning light. This is because our body has something called a “circadian” clock that is critical in maintaining one’s sleeping pattern healthy. Once your lifestyle affects your body’s natural clock, it can cause circadian rhythm problems and disorders.
There are three types of circadian rhythm disorders you should know:
- Circadian rhythm sleep disorder, jet lag type (jet lag disorder)
- Circadian rhythm sleep disorder, shift work type (shift work disorder)
- Circadian rhythm sleep disorder, altered sleep phase types
No matter what sleep position you do, once your circadian rhythm changes, it will also improve your sleeping pattern as your body clock become misaligned. Though there are three types of it, there are internal and external things that can affect each of the types, as well. Once these sleep deprivation effects occur, it can cause insomnia and excessive sleepiness. A person will also be at high risk of getting cardiovascular and metabolism-related diseases.
So in order to maintain the excellent status of your body’s circadian rhythm, make sure you always take time to roam around in the morning if your workplace is too dark or does not have enough light to keep you up during the day. You can take a break outside, or go out to roam around the park. As long as you let your body know what daytime and night time is, then you are all good.
Reduce or eliminate blue light exposure
Engaging yourself in more screen time at night can risk you getting exposed to blue light, and it also affects your sleep quality just like how not getting enough daylight affects you, as well.
To explain more, blue light makes our sleep disruptive since it directly affects our body’s sleep hormone called melatonin. This hormone is the one responsible for convincing your body that you are sleepy, and having enough of this hormone is the key to preventing sleep deprivation effects from occurring. Regardless of your sleep position, if you keep on allowing blue light to keep you awake at night, you are freely giving it a chance to have an effect on your sleep cycle since blue light has all access to your brain.
If you cannot help but use your gadgets at night, you can change its display setting and set the warmer display for your eyes. If you fail to do so, you will not only compromise your sleep but your overall health as well. This is because blue light exposure can cause strained eyes — the state wherein our eyes become sore and dry, making our vision cloudy and blurry. Aside from that physical discomfort, it can also damage your retina permanently by creating macular degeneration that can even lead to permanent blindness.
It has been recommended for a person to put their gadgets and devices away at least two hours before going to bed to prevent the blue light from creating sleep deprivation effects. Using devices with smaller screens can also help a little as they produce lesser blue light, or you may opt to continue using what you have, but make sure to see and look at it at a further distance. Some eyeglasses also have blue-light-blocking protection that can help you safeguard your vision.
Say ‘No’ to caffeine hours before your sleep time
This can be bad news for coffee lovers, but they need to sacrifice their cup of coffee, or they could end up suffering from sleep deprivation effects.
To give you a background, caffeine is widely known for its ability to promote alertness among its consumers. It fights the production of adenosine, your body’s hormone that is responsible for bringing sleepiness. So far, caffeine causes the most apparent effect as, though you keep your sleep hygiene alright, consuming it six hours before your bedtime can trigger sleep deprivation effects. Some people also take coffee as their energy drink. However, it can eventually lead to a set of headaches, bad moods, and low energy levels. If you cannot help it, you should limit your intake to at least three to four cups of coffee s day since a cup already contains around 100 mg of caffeine in it. This can also help you have better sleep hygiene since you will not get the taste of it before you sleep.
Improve your bedroom environment
Keeping your room ideal to be slept on also play a vital role in preventing sleep deprivation effects from occurring. No one wants to sleep in a not-so-ideal environment, especially when we want to sleep as peacefully as possible.
The ideal sleep environment varies among people, but it should be aligned to what sleep position is the best in your opinion. There are a lot of factors you should consider for you to achieve your ideal sleeping environment. That includes your clothes, the temperature, and the overall environment itself.
But the best environment for everyone is to find a cool, quiet, and dark room. Turning your fan on can also keep your room fresh all night long while giving you white noise that can keep you asleep by “masking” the sounds that can occur in the middle of the night. You should have an hour of the wind-down period, that way you can comfortably lie down on your bed and do the sleep position that you want.
Instead of using your gadgets, you can opt to read books as it can also make you sleepy as you read. Keep your bed clean and comfortable so you can no longer think of what sleep position is the best since you can move freely now. You can also take a relaxing shower to keep your sleep hygiene ideal before jumping on your bed.
Eat healthily
It is as simple as “healthy eating, healthy sleeping.” Eating healthy foods not only before going to bed can help you sack better with your preferred sleep position at night. The type of foods you eat has a massive effect on your sleep which can lead to a better morning wake. In order to attain that, there are a lot of points you should consider when choosing the right food that can help you get away from sleep deprivation effects.
First, you should choose the right diet for you to avoid heartburn at night. You can read “5 Healthy Diet Tips That Can Boost Your Immunity During Coronavirus Outbreak,” which can help you with a little background of the healthiest diet you can follow. Eating fruits and vegetables that are low-protein and rich in Vitamin B can do the job. This is because B vitamins can regulate your melatonin and set your sleep cycle in the right position.
For people who have higher weights than normal, losing weight is the key to better sleep since obesity causes sleep problems like sleep apnea, insomnia, and restlessness.
You should keep in mind that in order to have uninterrupted sleep, you should improve your diet by adding any of the following:
Almonds – these have sleep-regulating hormone, melatonin, and the mineral magnesium
Turkey – in order to relieve your tiredness, consuming foods with high levels of protein and tryptophan can help you out
Kiwi – serotonin, and antioxidants can help your sleep cycle, both of which can be found in kiwi
White rice – this type of rice has a high glycemic index which also contributes to promoting and having better sleep
Milk – when you drink this with melatonin and exercise, it can improve the sleep quality most especially in adults
Consult a doctor for a sleep disorder diagnosis
The best way to stop all the sleep deprivation effects is to visit your general practitioner or medical consultant. Sleep studies are the most recommended way of giving yourself healthy and better sleep. Your doctor might order you to undergo polysomnography, a type of sleep study that discovers the underlying causes of your deprivation. They can also detect and diagnose sleep problems like nighttime behaviors (sleep talking, sleepwalking, and REM sleep behavior disorder). In general, sleep studies can also help you get the correct diagnosis, whether you have diseases like restless leg syndrome or sleep apnea.
If you are advised to do this, the test will be a dome in a room that is made ideal for the test. You will then be monitored all night long by a sleep medicine technologist before you can sit down and have a talk with a sleep medicine specialist.
You will also be required to bring your own pillow, pajamas, and other stuff to make the test run smoothly and effectively.
After the test, it can also detect whether it has been untreated for so long that you might have caught chronic diseases like heart disease, stroke, depression, and diabetes. Though there will always be physical and visible sleep deprivation effects, no one should overlook the sleep problems so they can get an early diagnosis and eventually be treated.
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