How does the lack of sleep affect our health?.

How does the lack of sleep affect our health?

        It has been said by many people, articles and recognized sources that sleep is an important resource for people, without it we may have encountered ourselves with some illnesses and emotional problems. Despite this, it can be argued that sleep is not a significant resource nor even important. However, it is a essential part our life, and we should devote more time to it, but why?

Firstly, when we do not sleep our body physiologically experiments a reaction which is similar to the resistance of insulin. Therefore, a study made by the University of Yale stated that decrasing the hours of sleep (less than 6 hours)  may increase the possibilities of suffering from diabetes (illness chronic condition in which the organism has an absence of the capacity of producing enough insulin to process the sugar in our bodies) . Furthermore, it does affect the metabolism of our body due to the fact that if we experience fatigue our organism will require carbohydrates and it goes without saying that if we do not utilize this energy, it will transform into grease since it awakes a night appetite and the hormone ghrelin (hormone produce by the adipocytes) which function is to regulate the weight. Moreover, if the increase of appetite is combine with the reduction of activity, needless to say that the impacto of the sleep is crucial in the relation weight-health. An investigation carried out by the University of Standford revealed that the corporal mass index (BMI) is 3,6% higher in the persons whose hours of sleep are lower than 6 hours. On the other hand it may pose several heart problems increasing the systolic arterial pressure until 120 (the normal range is near 90) stated the University of Wisconsin-Madison (E.E.U.U). As a consequence, the person could develop some colorectal polyps which could transform into malignant polyps with the pass of time, informed the University of Harvard.

        Notwithstanding, the worst effects occurs in our nervous system which impact is reflected in the behaivor, learning and concentration, being the most extreme cases when it begins to manifest illneses such as temporary insanity, nystagmus (illness that consists in the movement which can be horizontal, vertical, rotatory, oblique or a combination of those moves and that is usually related with some brain disfunctions). One hour of sleep, for instance, could decrease in almost a 30% the concentratiton the following day, which plays a far-reaching role in more than one thousand accidents, claimed The Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Likewise, the consequences are not just registered in adult people, it can also be found in children whose ages are between 6 and 12 years old, stated the Unversity of Essex (England) since children whose schedule of sleep is less than 8 hours often experience a deficit of concentration, the one who decreases in a 40% the capacity of it. This also has a strapping repercussion in the academic perfomance as well as their mood, causing, in some cases, mania (mental disorder that consists in an abnormal elevation of the mood) and which takes part in one of the phases of the bipolar disorder, due to the fact that, when the nervous system is affected, the neurotransmitters (biomolecules that transmits information from one neuron to other one and which regulate the emotions) are too. Children can also suffer from the consequences of the lack of sleep because it provokes the decrease of the hormone related with the growth which is realesed in the night during the sleep, but it does not also helps in the process of growth, at the same time it repairs damaged cells and tissues in adults and infants. By the other way, the sequences submitted can also be observed in the brain as is shown and grounded in a research carried out by the University of Duke (E.E.U.U.) which states that adults older than 55 years old whose hours of sleep are less than 7 will have experimented a considerable decline in the brain mass by the age of 70 as well as the reduction of serotonin (monoamine synthesized in the neurons of the nervous system), whose role as a neurotransmitter is absolutely imperative.

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