How Lack of Sleep Affects Our Brain

  • Jul 26, 2021
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How Lack of Sleep Affects Our Brain

The pace of life that we lead today, increasingly faster, ends up generating a great level of stress. When to this are added the worries and anxiety derived from problems that we cannot solve, one of the most common consequences of all this is usually the inability to fall asleep and sleep the eight hours that, at least, the experts advise that we should dedicate to this activity to stay in perfect condition of health.

But lack of sleep does not have an effect only on a physical level, but because our brain is also affected by it, we also notice it on a mental and emotional level. This happens because it is during this period when our mind rests, so the effects of lack of Sleep is more intense when we spend more time without allowing our brain to rest enough hours. But exactly How does lack of sleep affect the brain?

Irritability It is the first sign in case of lack of sleep, although the degree of it will also depend on our personality, if we are calm or nervous and our age. Lack of sleep produces exhaustion in the nervous system, and this means that our tolerance threshold is lower.

We can also feel disoriented, while finding it very difficult to maintain attention and concentration. But, without a doubt, the most serious consequence is that, when we do not sleep enough, certain regions of the cerebral cortex compensate for the lack of sleep "turning off" even though we are awake, as if taking a nap, and this blackout can greatly affect our performance intellectual.

It is these “blackouts” that lead us to experience lapses of attention, the impossibility of making an objective judgment about a situation, and the tendency to make more mistakes that when we have slept the necessary hours, which translates into a greater number of accidents, especially when we carry out activities that require alertness such as driving.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

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