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Through My Eyes

Through My Eyes

Author: Kasia Yoko
Date: 2014-08-08
My recent state of mind scared me stiff. Out of nowhere my moods have turned a sad shade of grey and nothing, absolutely nothing felt right. What scared me most was when I opened up to my friend; I really did not like what came out of me. I was literally packing my S#&t and flying south.

Since my mom and dad have left me in charge of their business interests while they took their annual leave things have gone pear shaped. The two cell phones, the idiotic enquiries and the endless interruptions, lets just say I am not best suited for the hospitality industry.

So realising that I was not coping I Skyped my dad and after an hour of pouring my heart out to him, he stopped me in mid sentence and asked, ?How are your sleep patterns? This is when the penny dropped, in the last couple of months I have been getting less than four hours sleep a night and I guess this is what was causing me to become hypersensitive and overemotional.

Early the next morning I was woken with a ping from my phone informing me that I have an unread personal email. It came from my dad. He sent me some terrifying stats when it comes to sleep deprivation, which I would love to share with you.

According to researchers sleep deprivation is as bad as alcohol consumption in how it affects our reflexes and critical thinking ability. It makes us dangerous drivers and bad decision makers.

Not getting enough sleep is a double whammy on the chemicals in your body. Leptin levels drop when you don't get enough sleep. Leptin is responsible for making you feel full. Conversely lack of sleep increases your levels of ghrelin, which signals your appetite. So you get hungrier and you don?t feel full when you eat.

On top of that, sleep affects the function of your prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that deals with processing inhibitions. So not only are you hungry and insatiable, but you?re far more likely to make bad choices and eat junk food. And it starts early. A recent study shows teens that get fewer than eight hours of sleep per night have an average BMI of 3.8 to 4.7% higher than their counterparts who get regular sleep.

Lack of sleep puts you at risk not only for obesity, but also for heart disease, heart attacks, hypertension, and diabetes. A lack of sleep has been shown to lead to or worsen type 2 diabetes. It can also increase your risk for colon cancer.

If you're lucky and avoid a fatal disease, you might just go crazy - sufferers of sleep apnea have been shown to be twice as likely to develop dementia as they age. Recent Alzheimers, research also suggests it is during our sleep that our bodies clean up any ?plaque? in our brains. A build-up of this plaque is related to the onset of Alzheimer?s. A lack of sleep, therefore, could put you at a higher risk for developing the disease.

According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, University of Chicago scientists found sleep deprived research subjects suffered a decrease in testosterone levels the equivalent of aging 10 to 15 years. Low testosterone can not only effect your sex life, but your energy level and ability to concentrate. For younger men proper testosterone levels also play an important role in forming strength, muscle mass, and bone mass needed for the rest of their lives.

A recent study conducted at Michigan State University analysed a newly discovered type of memory formed during our sleep. This sleep memory ability varies from person to person, but in general allows people to wake up with better memories than when they went to sleep.

Another UC Berkeley study looked at this type of memory and suggested it has to do with our brain processing ?sleep spindles?. During our non-REM sleep our brains take facts stored in our hippocampus, processes them, and relocates them to our prefrontal cortex. This frees up space in our hippocampus to take in new information when we wake. The UC Berkeley researchers also believe napping during the day refreshes your spindles. So basically, every time you sleep, you make space to get smarter.

Ok so with that I hope you take a step back and pay attention to your sleep patterns and make sure you get at least eight hours. Sweet dreams.