We live in a fast-paced world, where sleep is viewed as wasted time. Whether it's for finishing schoolwork, scrolling on our phones, or discussing business, sleep is the first thing people sacrifice. It may seem innocent and effective at first, but sleep is one of the things that most strongly dictates our body’s health. We have all heard of the recommended 7-9 hours of sleep a day, but how much damage are you actually doing to your body by limiting your sleep to 6 hours a day?
Our bodies go through 90-minute cycles each time we sleep. In each cycle, three NREM (non-REM) and one REM stage elapse. The most important ones for our health are the third NREM and REM stages. The third NREM stage is when physical repair, such as tissue regeneration, immune system strengthening and growth hormone release happens, and the REM stage is responsible for cognitive functions, for example, memory consolidation, processing emotions and learning.
When you sleep for 6 hours, you can only go through 4 cycles rather than 5-6 cycles if you were sleeping for 7.5-9 hours. This is very problematic in the long-term because we do not let our bodies recover properly. Losing 1-2 sleep cycles a day may not seem like a lot, but it adds up and can cause problems in your everyday life.
The first thing you will notice when lacking sleep is that your performance drops. Since you are not letting your body and brain recover, your cognitive functions worsen rapidly, as well as your immune system and muscle health. This means that activities such as learning new things or memorising information are so much harder to do. Not only that, but for example, when in school, you are not only stressed because you did not retain information for your upcoming test, but also stressed because your hormones, specifically cortisol (the stress hormone), are disturbed as well. This increases your anxiety and irritability, which can have other effects on your well-being. These effects are especially harmful for us, students, because lack of sleep can not only affect our physical health but also drastically affect our academic performance. You may not realise it at that time, but not giving your body and brain enough sleep is one of the most damaging things you could do for yourself, and suddenly, that extra hour or two of scrolling on your phone is not so worth it.
However, the scariest effects are the ones you cannot see. Many people who sleep 6 hours a day claim that it does not affect them because they are “used to it”, but their cognitive performance is still impaired. A study done by Science Direct, where they studied the effects of not receiving the recommended amount of sleep, proves that even if you think that lack of sleep does not affect you, you may still perform similarly to someone who is sleep-deprived. This is extremely dangerous, as you can damage your brain without noticing it. Furthermore, every time you rob your body of sleep, you are doing more harm than you may realise. You are increasing the risk of having a heart attack, depression, anxiety, memory loss, diabetes and other health problems. Your body does not forget, and something called “sleep debt” starts to accumulate when you do not get the recommended 8 hours of sleep. So even if you think that 2 hours less sleep is a small difference, those 2 hours add up to 14 hours of lost sleep a week. Now imagine if this were your standard. Your body would be diminished, and your memory would be lacking.
Even if we do not realise it, sleep dictates how healthy we are, physically and mentally. A small action, such as going to sleep 2 hours later than recommended, has severe impacts on how we function throughout the day. It is important to realise that those 2 hours add up. Living in an online and fast-paced world can affect us, but it does not have to affect our sleep. Next time you are scrolling on your phone late at night or considering going to sleep later “just because”, remember this article and keep the negative impacts in mind.
