A girl looks at herself in the mirror, the fragile skin under her eyes darkening and red vines fading into patches above the white around her eyeball. There is a painful throbbing in her head; unfortunately, it is only too familiar. She even knows the vice behind her condition- sleep deprivation. However, the harm does not end superficially; it trails deep into her–and everyone’s mental health before deteriorating it. With today’s generation’s lifestyle, an 8-hour rest is almost a privilege. Sleep deprivation is prevalent across the working class in the world and along with it, so are mental disorders. Lack of medically recommended hours of sleep in a person can lead to a decline in normal brain activity and fuels mental disorders such as anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation.
Sleep deprivation results in a decline in everyday brain functions such as problem-solving, memory formation, and decision-making. Neurons, when we sleep, clear toxins from our brain by pushing fluid out of the brain. Lack of rest hinders this process which affects our neurological functioning. The American Chemical Society stated in a study, where they observed the effects of sleep deprivation on mice, that the “lack of sleep leads to neurological damage in the hippocampus, a part of the brain involved in learning and memory” (“How sleep deprivation can harm the brain”). The damage to the hippocampus was a concrete observation in the study which shows how harmful not getting enough sleep can be to a person’s cognitive skills, something that is used in everyday tasks and also, to improve quality of life. And it’s not just the lack of sleep; poor sleep is just as damaging to a person’s cognitive capabilities. It has been found that poor sleep leads to a kind of drowsiness that is similar to feeling drunk, a condition where cognitive symptoms range from amnesia, and mental confusion to unresponsiveness (“Fatigue, alcohol and performance impairment”). This dire consequence on the cognitive capabilities of the brain demonstrates the gravity of sleep deprivation. It confirms how important sleep is to a person’s daily functioning and if not taken care of, can drastically affect a person’s quality of life by impairing brain activity. Moreover, this is not the only harm that lack of sleep does to the brain; emotions have quite the same effect.
Along with intellective impairment, sleep deprivation also causes mental distress and mood disorders like depression, and even leads to suicidal thoughts. Insufficient sleep also means less slow-wave sleep, the third stage of sleep where the brain goes into a state of deep rest and is characterized by reduced muscle activity and, as suggested by the name, slow brain waves. The lack of this stage of sleep has been observed to “leave you more vulnerable to depression in the future — months or even years from now” and further “[shortens] the amount of restorative slow-wave sleep a person gets each night”(“Depression and Sleep: Understanding the Connection”). This negative feedback loop is a toxic cycle that repeats, drowning a person in a clinical pool of depression. This pattern is not easy to break but, with a few mindful sleeping techniques, it can be slowly changed. With depression, suicidal ideation is another unfortunate symptom of poor sleep. In a study from Stanford University School of Medicine, researchers discovered that “sleep disturbances can warn of worsening suicidal thoughts in young adults, independent of the severity of an individual’s depression” (“Sleep disturbances predict increased risk for suicidal symptoms”). Suicidal ideation, growing worse, independent of the level of depression in a person shows how lack of sleep directly correlates to a dwindling will to live. This symptom is disastrous for a population and it all roots back to something as simple as poor sleep; therefore exemplifying the weight of the importance of a good night’s sleep.
In a nutshell, a person’s cognitive skills decline, and, their tendency to get suicidal thoughts or face a mood disorder like depression increases as a result of sleep deprivation. Besides making you drowsy, it directly affects a person’s decision-making capabilities, memory-forming skills, etc. Moreover, it is a vice to a person’s mental health as the symptoms of sleep deprivation include a severe mental disorder and depression, and plummets the quality of a person’s life as suicidal thoughts become more and more common in their mind. These consequences only amplify the importance of medically-recommended hours of sleep. Moreover, these are only some of the worst effects on mental health from sleep deprivation, and as science progresses in society, it is only reasonable to think that more studies will prove these effects and may even discover worse impacts on mental health.
Work Cited
Erin Digitale. “Sleep Disturbances Predict Increased Risk for Suicidal Symptoms, Study Finds.” News Center, 28 June 2017,
med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2017/06/sleep-disturbances-predict-increased risk-for-suicidal-symptoms.html.
John Hopkins Medicine. “Depression and Sleep: Understanding the Connection.” Www.hopkinsmedicine.org, 8 Jan. 2024,
www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/depression-and-slee p-understanding-the-connection#:~:text=Poor%20sleep%20may%20create%20 difficulties. Accessed 31 Aug. 2024.
Dawson, D., Reid, K. Fatigue, alcohol and performance impairment. Nature 388, 235 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/40775
American Chemical Society. “How Sleep Deprivation Can Harm the Brain.” American Chemical Society, 6 Sept. 2023,
www.acs.org/pressroom/presspacs/2023/september/how-sleep-deprivation-can harm-brain.html. Accessed 31 Aug. 2024.
Comments