Effects of Sleep Loss - Part 2
In addition to psychosocial stressors, lifestyle factors also play a role. For instance, changes in lifestyle factors such as transitioning from being employed full-time to becoming a part-time worker or a student transitioning to full-time employment requiring early-morning schedule changes can affect our sleep. Furthermore, we have to consider the full-time worker who works daily from 9:00 to 5:00 and retires and has to adjust her schedule to new and differing activities (such as playing golf once a week or fixing things around the house). This transition in lifestyle or daily activities can be stressful because it can be unfamiliar. Sleep disturbance may occur when schedules change, especially in the case of individuals retiring, because these individuals often do not have activities to occupy their day and instead may fill their day with resting or taking naps, and these behaviors affect nighttime sleep.
One of the most basic sensations of sleep loss is a profound sense of sleepiness. We know that sleep is necessary for our bodily systems to work efficiently. Too little sleep makes us feel cloudy, inattentive, uninterested, and irritable, and we may experience difficulty with concentration. It also leads to impaired memory and physical performance. You do not have to experience complete sleep deprivation to feel the significant effects of sleep loss on psychological and physical well-being. Partial sleep loss may take the effect of occasionally losing a good night’s sleep. Having frequent awakenings during the night may also result in experiencing the effects of partial sleep loss that detrimentally affects our quality of life.
Partial sleep loss
If we abbreviate our nighttime sleep, resulting in insufficient sleep, we experience partial sleep loss with the consequence of prolonging a chronic state of sleep loss. This chronic state of sleep loss can have serious penalties on cognitive and physical functioning. In addition to the quality of life decrements, there are also a number public health and safety accidents that occur due to loss of alertness and sustained attention. Sustained attention is absolutely necessary when operating heavy industrial machinery or participating in complicated procedures involving dangerous machinery, such as construction machine operation. All are quite dangerous for the partially sleep-deprived individual because it places that person and others at risk. Self-report measures completed in a census fashion demonstrate that a larger percentage of individuals with compromised sleep also report health problems. A greater percentage of these individuals are involved in accidents at work or also report experiencing employment difficulties. Although there is no clear cause and effect, we know that these individuals report a greater incidence of sleep problems compared to a control group.
Category: Disorders, Health Conditions, Science
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