The Health and Personal Consequences of Sleep Deprivation 

Sleep can be referred to be a state of rest where there is reduced muscle activity and a decrease in interaction with the environment. Sleep is associated with health because the more rested a person is, the better they operate or perform Sleep deprivation is defined as the lack of adequate or enough sleep. Sleep deprivation has become common in today’s society mostly because sleep is not taken as a priority. Situations have caused people to deny themselves of sleep. The lack of sleep has a negative influence on our health as well as our day to day lives because it decreased our performance.

Sleep is a very significant action that is always performed by every human. The purpose of sleep to one’s health is that it helps improve and rebuild the organ systems, especially the muscles, immune systems, and hormones. An average person needs about 7 to 9 hours of sleep to function better. Obstructing yourself from sleep brings consequences that affect health. Sleep denial can make a person moody, sensitive and very cranky or irritable. It also causes a problem with our reasoning and concentration skills, memory issues and a weak immune system. There is also a risk of having high blood pressure when a person is continuously deprived of sleep. Situations like stress, illness, irregular hours, work, depression, caffeine, and pain have deprived people of sleep because these situations take the thought of sleep from a person’s mind or the person is just not able to sleep. Healthcare professionals top the chart of sleep disruption majorly because of the rotating shift work that they engaged in.

College students are also known to be sleep deprived because of their study pattern or work engagement. This is because there is usually a lot to do and there is always this feeling of not enough time. As a college student that is trying to juggle academics, work, as well as social life, it leaves me to little or no time for adequate sleep mostly because I am always engaged in accomplishing a lot in one day. This has actually caused a lot of stress and has left me to completely rely on caffeine to boost my alertness and concentration skills. Continuous sleep deprivation leads to memory loss which could actually prevent a person from performing a task.

Sleep is a necessity and is advised to not be sacrificed or neglected. In order to prevent any of these health issues, a person should have good time management skills. This would help in creating a schedule that would not interfere with a person’s sleep pattern

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