Are you very sleepy but can’t sleep? There are many people who have extensive difficulties sleeping and in this PsychologyFor article we will not only see some of them, but we will also answer the question of what happens if you don’t sleep one night or if you have any of these sleeping problems. We will see the necessary hours of sleep depending on age, the types of sleep disorders that can cause you to not sleep and the 10 main consequences of lack of sleep.
Do you know how many hours you should sleep? The optimal time you need to rest for your body and mind to function? To have a healthy life we must sleep certain hours a day. Depending on age, and taking into account that it is an approximation, we should sleep the following number of hours:
0-3 months: 14-17 hours
4-11 months: 12-15 hours
1-2 years: 11-14 hours
3-5 years: 10-13 hours
6-13 years: 9-11 hours.
14-17 years: 8-10 hours
18-64 years: 7-9 hours
More than 65 years: 7-8 hours.
Types of sleep disorders
Why don’t you sleep the indicated hours? One of the causes is suffering from a sleep disorder. There are multiple disorders related to sleep, the best known being insomnia, which we will address later. However, there are many other problems that usually go unnoticed. Among them, we find:
Insomnia and its types.
Respiratory disorders: primary central apnea, Cheyne Stokes breathing pattern, obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, central alveolar hypoventilation and congenital alveolar hypoventilation.
Hypersomnia: narcolepsy with cataplexy, recurrent hypersomnia, idiopathic hypersomnia with prolonged sleep, idiopathic hypersomnia without prolonged sleep, behaviorally induced insufficient sleep, and other types of hypersomnia.
Circadian rhythm disturbances: delayed sleep phase syndrome, advanced sleep phase syndrome, irregular sleep-wake rhythm, free sleep-wake rhythm, Jet Lagnight worker disturbance, and circadian rhythm disturbances due to a medical process.
Parasomnias: confusional awakening, sleepwalking, night terrors, REM sleep behavior disorder, isolated sleep paralysis, nightmares…
abnormal movements: restless legs syndrome, periodic leg movements, night cramps, bruxism, rhythmic movements during sleep.
Isolated symptoms: snoring, somniloquia, sleep myoclonias, benign myoclonias in childhood…
Types of insomnia
Do you want to sleep but you can’t? Why can’t you sleep at night? You may have insomnia. Below we will see its types, causes and manifestations:
Acute insomnia. The duration is less than three months and occurs when a stressful event has occurred that prevents the person from sleeping due to the state of worry, sadness or anger in which it can be found.
Psychophysiological insomnia. Difficulty falling asleep or waking up easily due to high mental activity having many difficulties in reducing said hyperactivity. The person, however, may fall asleep when they do not intend to do so and are performing monotonous or quiet tasks that make them drowsy.
paradoxical insomnia. The person reports suffering from insomnia and barely sleeping. However, such symptoms are not seen in sleep studies.
Idiopathic insomnia. Chronic insomnia of which the origin and reason for its maintenance are unknown. It appears since childhood or adolescence.
Insomnia due to mental disorders. Insomnia that lasts at least a month and arises from another disorder. In this article we talk about insomnia due to anxiety.
Insomnia due to poor sleep hygiene. Insomnia caused by bad habits of the person such as excessive caffeine intake, naps, being very active in the hours before going to sleep, heavy meals, using the bed for other activities that are not related to rest (watching television, read…).
Insomnia due to drugs or toxins: as a side effect to them.
Insomnia due to medical problems: as a symptom of a problem of organic origin.
The 10 consequences of not sleeping
Next, we will address the most common consequences of not being able to sleep, whether for one reason or another.
1. Daytime fatigue
This is the main consequence of not sleeping. The person feels constantly tired and may even fall asleep at times throughout the day due to their tiredness. In this article we talk about the causes and possible solutions for fatigue.
2. Irritability
Not sleeping causes an irritable state in which the person reacts excessively to the different stimuli that exist throughout the day. That is, they get angry more easily and that angry mood remains throughout the day.
3. Lack of attention
Lack of rest directly affects one of the most basic functions of our brain: attention. People who have not slept well have much more difficulty staying focused on a conversation or activity. This, in turn, can cause memory problems since by not having paid the required attention to a situation, it cannot be stored in our memory.
4. Stress
Lack of sleep is a very common cause of stress. In addition to a feeling of stress on a psychological level, its consequences can also develop on a physical level (heart problems, tension, among others). In this article we explain how to reduce stress.
5. Depression
Among the consequences of not sleeping we find a worse mood, since the mood is directly influenced by rest. It is common to feel more depressed. Additionally, prolonged insomnia can cause long-term depression. In this article you will find more information about depression.
6. Work problems
One of the effects of lack of sleep is poorer work performance. In addition to making more mistakes at work, the probability of suffering a work accident increases. This can cause serious problems, not only with co-workers, but it can lead to loss of job.
7. Delayed reaction
Another symptom of lack of sleep is slow reaction. It is common that, if you have not rested well, your ability to react to stimuli is affected. This has serious consequences such as traffic accidents.
8. Hallucinations
Lack of sleep can cause a level of exhaustion in the brain that causes it to stop distinguishing reality from fiction. People who are not there may be seen or heard due to the person’s high level of fatigue.
9. Impulsiveness
Another psychological consequence of lack of sleep is impulsivity. Here you can see what impulsivity is in psychology. Due to the inability to reason due to fatigue, decisions become faster, more impulsive, as our brain decides not to spend too much energy making decisions. This impulsivity can lead us to make many mistakes in our daily lives.
10. Metabolism
The body needs energy and, by not obtaining it from rest, as compensation, it accelerates the metabolism in a way that damages it and the food is not metabolized or absorbed properly.
In this article we explain tricks to fall asleep quickly.
This article is merely informative, at PsychologyFor 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.
If you want to read more articles similar to What happens if you don’t sleep we recommend that you enter our Clinical Psychology category.
Bibliography
Gállego Pérez-Larraya, J., Toledo, JB, Urrestarazu, E., & Iriarte, J. (2007). Classification of sleep disorders. in Annals of the Navarra Health System (Vol. 30, pp. 19-36). Government of Navarra. Health Department.
Hidalgo, M. (2016). How much should the child and youth population aged 0-18 sleep? Qcomprehensive pediatrics, 20(7), 432-433.
Leonardo, S. M. (2013). Shift work, sleep deprivation and its clinical and medicolegal consequences. Las Condes Clinic Medical Magazine, 24(3), 443-451.
Merino, M., Álvarez, A., Madrid, J., Martínez, M., Puertas, F. Asencio, A., … García, D. (2016). Healthy sleep: evidence and action guides. Official document of the Spanish Sleep Society. Journal of Neurology, 63(2), 1-27.
Tellez, A. (1988). Sleep apneas and behavioral alterations. Sonoran Journal of Psychology, 2(2), 112-121.
