Cutting back on sleep may seem like a great change in your life and you are reaping in the benefits. You simply enjoy staying up. However, Corrie Pikul at The Huffington Post encourages you to change your mind about your bedtime procrastination. What you think has a positive impact on your life is actually putting you at risk.
You getting so much more work done: Of course your boss is ecstatic that you are willing to come in early and stay late. You simply don’t see the harm in your seemingly superhuman abilities. Studies have shown that sleep loss doesn’t appear to affect logic and reasoning, but your creativity, memory, complex planning, coordination and psychomotor skills are taking a hit. Your risk of endangering yourself and others while driving to and from the office also increase, what good is hard work if you may not be around to benefit from it?
You feel 200% more energized after a night without sleep: You are confident, enthusiastic and life is beautiful. However, you are seeing the world through false glasses. Your amygdala, the place in the brain where emotional processing occurs, is responding to stimuli more intensely so you feel happy, but as soon as a negative event takes place such as traffic, a missed deadline, or miscommunication, that mood will get dark very fast.
Your mornings are more bearable: Studies have recognized the mood boosting effects that staying up all night has on people who are clinically depressed. The short-lived effects are due to adenosine, a sleep-inducing chemical that changes brain chemistry. As you fall asleep, those false feelings will disappear.
You have so much energy at night: It’s easy to think that late night surge of energy is a sign that you weren’t as sleepy as you thought at 5pm since it is 9:45pm and you could get a workout in. Not allowing your body to rest properly decreases your life span and weakens your immune system, as your increase serious health risks such as dementia and cardiovascular disease.
Consistently skipping out on sleep is never a good idea. Collect 7-9 hours of high-quality sleep without excuses to set yourself up for success!
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