Health Effects Of Lack Of Sleep ??

[kekosurfer]

Does anyone know what the long term effects of lack of sleep does to your body beyond the normal feeling of being tired ?

Please Advise.

Thanks,
Kekosurfer

[bookwrm63]

Sure..click on the yellow light bulb at the top of page and read different articles available. In particular:

cpaptalk-articles/sleep-apnea-prevalenc ... enemy.html

This article by drbandage has been mentioned alot lately and is a great resource on SA and it's negative effects.

Mary

[ZZZzzz]

For ME....

Severe muscles aches and pains
Severe insomnia
Severe depression
Rising blood pressure and rising blood sugar
-Bev

[sharon1965]

my experience has been: fibroymyalgia, irritability, muscle weakness, brain fog, memory loss, headaches, sudden rapid weight gain, lethargy, sluggishness, lack of motivation and a husband who's happy to be on midnights

[sharon1965]

oh, and i forgot to mention: my RT was telling me about a talk she attended by a sleep doc who said that as few as 18-21 apneas per hour had the same effect on the tissue, muscles and organs as smoking a pack of cigarettes/day (minus the chemical damage, of course)

[vdol52]

Lowered immune functioning
Irritability
Depression
Cognitive impairment

LONGER TERM AFFECTS:
High cortisol levels
Stroke
Heart Disease

Not a very pretty picture is it!!

[SleepGuy]

Does anyone know what the long term effects of lack of sleep does to your body beyond the normal feeling of being tired ?

Please Advise.

Thanks,
Kekosurfer

If you're talking about lack of sleep caused by something other than sleep apnea the list is going to be different than apnea-caused sleep issues.

Apnea not only disrupts sleep cycles but even more damaging is that it places the body in an oxygen-deprived state. There is no stronger singal to the body than lack of oxygen and all heck breaks loose. The brain gets first dibs, the other parts of the body do without oxygen. The Sympathetic Nervous System kicks in and releases all kinds of panic hormones. Untreated sleep apnea will kill you sooner or later. Because of the lack of oxygen it actually causes heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, stroke, depression, etc.

OSA is much more than a sleep disorder. If you have symptoms, take the Berlin Questionnaire, fill it out, and go see your doctor. A link is on the article that Bookworm posted.

[sleepyjane]

great question..I would like to know this too. See this links for some interesting reading that covers this http://www.helpguide.org/life/sleep_apn ... pnea_types

and this below I pasted and copied from a person whose husband needed a sleep study and husband didn't want to spend the money to try to convince him that it was a cost effective expense and why.

So here is what I experienced in my about 25 years of sleep deprivation (just found out once again pressure is not high enough, I am mouth breathing, using a too long tube, and just found out I have periodic limb movement disorder so I still have all the symptoms of sleep deprivation, I also read that partial sleep deprivation is worse than total.


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these are the symptoms I have experienced in the at least ten years I suspect till it was diagnosed and the last 15 years on cpap (that I just found out is too low and was just diagnosed with periodic limb movement disorder), so I am essentially suffering the effects of sleep deprivation.

Weigh this against the cost.

1.25 years of severe clinical depression with 15 years of treatment with antidepressant drugs which caused suicidal ideation for nearly every day of the 15 years.

So much suffering and here but for God's grace as came very close to suicide three times. Later found out the SSRI antidepressant drugs were causing the suicidal feelings, ideation, and impulses and exacerbating my depression. Also found out these drugs cause permanent brain damage. If I was in treatment or my treatment worked, I suspect much of this could have been prevented (see book "toxic Psychiatry for more info on dangers of psychiatric drugs)

2. rages and irritability hurting self and others

3. sleep apnea mimics ADD (which I thought I had..just a week ago found this out both from reading and doctor that untreated sleep apnea mimics ADD

4. worry/ panic attacks/ extremely emotional causing much distress and buying me much criticism from others which hurts

5. blood pressure problems

6. metabolic syndrome / blood sugar problems/ earliest stages of diabetes--all linked with untreated/ undertreated sleep apnea. My mom is on dialysis and going rapidly downhill suffering greatly..most of her fellow patients are there because of diabetes..if he get that he could lose his eyesight, a limb, and mess up his kidneys, etc. Untreated sleep apnea is correlated.

7. obesity and all the problems that causes in social and physical and emotional ways. Sleep technicians told me last week his brother finally got his pressure right and lost 70 lbs doing nothing but sleeping better with its energy/

8. total exhaustion at all times/ never feel refreshed upon awakening...always and I mean always fatigued..

9. severe tooth-grinding (and the dental problems that causes--can loosen teeth etc)

10. Decline in intelligence. Every day without treatment, you are killing brain cells. I had a Mensa IQ and graduated with A 3.9 GPA after 5 1/2 years of college. I seem to have difficulty learning now and my kids tell me I am getting dumber and can't seem to comprehend things anymore. I see a serious decline in my IQ.

11. Severe memory loss...sometimes I go to the movies and 5 minutes later, can't remember anything about the movie or the name of it. 15 years ago, I memorized for one class 100 pages of notes word for word, so this is a big decline

12. lack of motivation

13..I think there is other stuff this has caused. Who knows if these things will reverse even if I could get thing (sleep problems) fixed which in 15 years I have not despite compliance with doctors.

This is priceless....preventing this kind of suffering and problems. To retain one's IQ, memory, emotional stability, to not become diabetic or have a heart attack..is worth the money.

If we cannot spend it on our health or the health of our families, what is more important. Ask him how he will feel if his kids have to deal with his death and the resultant reduction of income and their lifestyle.

Ask him what it would mean to his family to have him happy, not irritable, and how this will help their development and their future kids someday if they have this legacy rather than a grouchy dad always tired. This is a gift to himself and his family that have more benefits than almost anything money could buy.

If he is retaining his intelligence, he can keep providing or maybe have the energy to work a 2nd job for a while. If he loves you, himself, and his kids..hopefully, he will see the real benefits to his life and reaching out to all your lives.

You can help by finding ways to cut costs and sacrifice so you can better afford it. Although it often seems you can't there are always ways to spend less if one is motivated enough or sacrifices. If he sees you are willing to put your money where your mouth is by doing everything possible to get this to happen, he may give up some of his great worry about making ends meet and see the light that this is a good investment more so than some of the things we buy.

I hope he can see this. If he had lived through the suffering I have in the last 25 years..he would see the it is worth it to [prevent this...if I could have prevented this with the cost of a sleep study (and treatment that worked for me), it would have been more than worth it..what if I had killed myself due to the depression and its treatment resulting from sleep deprivation nightly. I was getting almost no rem or stage three or four sleep..maybe he is too. If not for the sleep study, I would have never known I also had periodic limb movement disorder that is also causing sleep deprivation. I hope you can convince him. Good luck!



I am interested to know what others say as I just found out in the last two weeks three of the things I have are associated with sleep apnea/sleep deprivation and I have been diagnosed 165 years. We are always learning.

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[bethlori]

I have terrible memory loss, headaches, weight gain, lethargy, sluggishness, lack of motivation and high cortisol level which leads to belly fat, oh and depression