What happens to your body if you don’t sleep enough?
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The importance of sleep cannot be denied, as a good night’s sleep can set you up for a positive and productive day.
Sleep is one of the most important things we can do for our bodies, along with exercise and a fully balanced and nutritionally complete diet – it’s critical to ensuring we stay healthy and happy.
And now Hormone doctor Dr. Martin Kinsella has revealed how lack of rest can affect the endocrine system in a number of ways.
He told FEMAIL: ‘The endocrine system is a system of glands that produce the hormones that allow cells to communicate with each other. They are responsible for virtually every cell, organ, and function in the body.
While a hormonal imbalance may be to blame for a lack of sleep, not sleeping can also cause hormones to become unbalanced.
Expert Dr. Kinsella has revealed how lack of rest can affect the endocrine system in various ways.
Dr. Kinsella continued: “Studies have shown that people who sleep less than seven hours a day tend to gain more weight and have a higher risk of becoming obese than those who sleep seven hours.”
While one of two nights of interrupted or shorter sleep will leave you tired, irritable, and hungry, it’s unlikely to cause further problems.
But D.r Kinsella has explained exactly what prolonged sleep deprivation can lead to:
1. STRESS LEVELS CAN RISE
Dr. Kinsella explained that lack of sleep causes cortisol levels to rise.
He said: “When you sleep, your cortisol levels will go down because of sleep, so when you don’t get enough sleep, your cortisol levels go up.”
Cortisol is the stress hormone and therefore chronically elevated cortisol levels are very bad for the body and will put it into a catabolic state.
2. MUSCLES CAN BREAK
“Cortisol also breaks down muscle tissue, which causes the body to use glucose and amino acids that make up muscle,” Dr. Kinsella explained.
Amino acids are the building blocks of muscle tissue, making it harder for the body to build muscle when they are broken down.
We also use cortisol to reduce inflammation, so when you have chronically elevated cortisol, you could be in an inflammatory state.
3. YOUR MOOD LOWERS
Think about how a bad night’s sleep or not getting enough sleep can make you feel bad and irritable the next day.
The expert explained: “Elevated cortisol levels can have an effect on the brain, causing changes in neurotransmitters in the brain, so you can have imbalances in serotonin, the happy brain hormones.”
“So you can start having poor mental health,” according to the hormone doctor.
Also, it can work both ways, sleep loss can affect your mood, and your mood can affect how much and how well you sleep.
4. YOUR LIBIDO DECREASES
Dr. Kinsella explained that when you get high cortisol levels in the body, it can start to lower other anabolic hormones like your testosterone and DHEA level.
Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) is a hormone that your body naturally produces in the adrenal gland.
DHEA helps make other hormones, including testosterone and estrogen.
Natural DHEA levels peak in early adulthood and then slowly decline as you age.
High cortisol levels can throw your adrenal glands out of balance and decrease the amount of topterone that is produced, which reduces libido.
5. HUNGER LEVELS MAY RISE
According to the expert, lack of sleep also reduces leptin levels, which affects appetite.
Leptin suppresses your appetite and lets your body know when it’s time to stop eating, so when you don’t sleep, you’ll often feel more hungry.
Similarly, ghrelin, produced in the stomach, is another hormone affected by sleep or lack thereof.
When leptin levels drop from lack of sleep, ghrelin levels rise, and this also makes you feel hungrier, since the hormone’s job is to tell your brain that you’re hungry.
6. YOU CAN SUFFER HAIR LOSS
Lack of sleep can also affect the thyroid glands, increasing TSH (thyroid-stimulating hormone, according to Dr. Kinsella), which slows metabolism and can cause an underactive thyroid.
An underactive thyroid is when the thyroid gland (a small gland in the neck) does not make enough hormones.
Symptoms of this can include fatigue, feeling cold, hair loss, weight gain, and depression.