2023-06-06 10:00:00
Professor Matthew Walker, a world-renowned neuroscientist and sleep expert, compared sleep to a life support device and expressed chronic sleep deprivation as ‘self-euthanasia’. In fact, sleep deprivation is a panacea that greatly increases the risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and obesity. Learn more regarding the diseases that can be caused by lack of sleep.
Lack of sleep is called ‘self-euthanasia’ㅣSource: Getty Imagebank
diabetes
According to researchers from Hokkaido University in Japan, those who averaged less than 5 hours of sleep per night had a five-fold higher risk of diabetes compared to those who slept 7 hours. Another study found that as sleep deprivation becomes chronic, the risk of developing diabetes doubles, and if you suffer from such chronic sleep deprivation for less than 4 years, the risk of diabetes increases by 14%, 4 to 8 years by 38%, and more than 8 years by 51%.
Lack of sleep increases the risk of diabetes because lack of sleep inhibits fat metabolism and increases free fatty acids in the blood. Free fatty acids are fat components that are released into the blood following fat cells are broken down, and are used as energy sources for muscles or other metabolism. If the concentration of this free fatty acid is too high, it can cause type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and immune disease.
In addition, lack of sleep reduces the function of an organ called the adrenal gland and increases the secretion of cortisol, a stress hormone produced by the adrenal gland. High levels of cortisol in the blood can suppress insulin secretion, boost blood sugar levels, and increase the risk of diabetes.
cardiovascular disease
Lack of sleep activates the sympathetic nervous system and increases blood pressure at night. In addition, if this condition persists, blood pressure is maintained in a continuously high state, and salt retention in the body increases, which may lead to hypertension. Hypertension is a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases such as heart failure, myocardial infarction, and cerebral hemorrhage.
It is even more dangerous if you have a lack of sleep due to sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is one of the sleep disorders, and refers to a disease in which breathing is stopped for more than 10 seconds during sleep or hypoventilation occurs five or more times an hour. When sleep apnea symptoms appear, the oxygen level in the blood becomes insufficient. This causes problems with blood circulation and oxygen supply in the body. At this time, the heart beats too fast or too slow to send blood to every corner of the body, which can lead to arrhythmias. In addition, according to domestic and foreign studies, sleep apnea is a risk factor that can cause or worsen diseases such as angina pectoris, myocardial infarction, and heart failure.
It also causes problems with brain function. When cerebral blood vessels constrict due to lack of oxygen due to sleep apnea, cerebral blood flow changes and the function of intravascular cells, which play an important role in blood vessel elasticity and hemostasis, deteriorates. This leads to an increase in intracranial pressure, which can increase the risk of acute cerebral infarction and transient cerebral ischemia.
obesity
There is a high risk of gaining weight due to hormonal changes. Lack of sleep increases the secretion of the hormone ghrelin, which stimulates appetite and makes you feel hungry, and decreases the secretion of the hormone leptin, which suppresses appetite. In other words, signals that make you feel full are reduced, and signals that make you feel hungry are secreted, making it difficult to control your appetite. The problem doesn’t stop there. If you do not get enough sleep, your activity level will decrease due to fatigue and dizziness the next day.
Cortisol also has a profound effect on weight gain. When cortisol secretion increases due to lack of sleep, our bodies stimulate appetite to keep blood sugar levels high. At this time, our body strongly wants carbohydrates, which can mainly raise blood sugar quickly. This is why you think of sweet foods when you are stressed. If you can’t stand it and consume too much carbohydrates, you may develop insulin resistance as well as leptin resistance, which can lead to weight gain. In particular, it is known that the higher the cortisol level, the higher the risk of abdominal obesity.
cancer, growth retardation
In addition, lack of sleep has various adverse effects on our body. According to one study, if you sleep less than 4 hours a day, the function of natural killer cells, which are immune cells that fight cancer cells, drops below 70%, increasing the risk of various cancers such as colon cancer, prostate cancer, and breast cancer.
In addition, chronic sleep deprivation during adolescence is a major culprit in stunting growth. 75% of human growth hormone is secreted during sleep, especially during deep sleep. Therefore, when the absolute sleep time is insufficient, the secretion of growth hormone is also naturally reduced, which can cause problems with normal height growth. In addition to this, lack of sleep adversely affects the hippocampus area of the brain associated with memory and learning ability, causing problems in various ways, such as lowering concentration and reducing academic efficiency.
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