You may not think that these symptoms are related to lack of sleep →

Many people know that "you will yawn if you don't get enough sleep - yawning means you are sleepy - if you are sleepy, you need to make up for the sleep." But you may not know that in addition to "yawning", there are many other manifestations of lack of sleep.

According to the data of most people, if your sleep time is less than 6 hours, you should be careful about whether you are suffering from "sleep deprivation".

The following four possible symptoms seem to have nothing to do with sleep, and can easily be attributed to "ageing," "being a bit irritable lately," "cold weather makes me greedy," etc. If it happens only once or twice, don't worry too much. But if the following obvious abnormalities continue to occur, pay attention: This may be an alarm from the body, reminding you that you are seriously lacking sleep.

Craving more high-fat, high-sugar foods

I believe many people are familiar with the experience of binge eating late at night: when staying up late, we always want to eat high-oil, high-sugar, and high-fat foods such as potato chips, chocolate, and fried chicken.

Many people would not take it seriously and would joke about it as "craving for food", but studies have found that lack of sleep can also make people want to eat more "junk" snacks.

In a survey of more than 3,000 adults at the University of Arizona, 66% of those who lack sleep showed a tendency to be greedy. During the night, the need for food intake is stronger.

Another study from the University of California, Berkeley, also found through brain magnetic resonance imaging that compared with good sleep, lack of sleep can seriously damage the activity of the brain's frontal lobe, making the brain's reward system more reactive to high-calorie, high-fat foods.

This is also related to "getting fat": if you reduce your sleep time by one hour a day, you will gain two pounds. This may not be an exaggeration.

This may be because lack of sleep affects the secretion of leptin and ghrelin, and the combat effectiveness of leptin, which is responsible for "stopping eating", is greatly reduced, while the attack power of ghrelin, which "urges you to eat like crazy", increases sharply. This forms a domino chain of insufficient sleep, the easier it is for the brain to be hijacked, the stronger the desire to eat junk food, and the easier it is to gain weight.

Difficulty concentrating

Feeling like the brain is becoming "dumb"

A colleague who has been up all night for several days and didn't get a good night's sleep on the weekend has a vacant look in his eyes, has difficulty concentrating, and his soul seems to be floating above his brain... You call his name several times before he responds. It may be that he doesn't get enough full sleep.

A study published in a Nature journal showed that lack of sleep can significantly lead to slow reaction times and reduce attention, memory and executive function.

This may be due to sleep deprivation, which causes the hippocampus to shrink. The hippocampus is responsible for memory formation and consolidation, and lack of sleep is like a low-battery mobile phone that has not been charged in time, causing the system to become stuck or even crash.

The activity of the prefrontal cortex will also be restricted, just like running at a lower frequency, and your decision-making ability and attention will be greatly reduced.

Restless

Everyone seems to be looking for trouble

There is some scientific basis for the term "morning grumpiness". Studies have found that when we are sleep deprived, our brains are more likely to interpret other people's expressions negatively.

It is a "neutral face" with no expression and no emotion, but in the eyes of people who have not slept enough, it will be interpreted as "threatening". Two groups of people who have not slept for a night and those who have slept for 8 hours were asked to look at the same set of photos. The results showed that those who did not get enough sleep gave much lower scores to the attractiveness and credibility of the people in the photos than those who got enough sleep.

That is to say, when you are sleep deprived, you may be more sensitive to the other person's words and deeds, less likely to trust the other person, and more hostile to others. This may be because severe lack of sleep affects the activity of the amygdala in the brain.

Many studies have shown that even a lack of sleep for one night can make the brain's amygdala abnormally active, making it more likely to have intense negative emotions such as anxiety, fear, and anger.

Slow response

Reduced alertness while driving

A study published in the Journal of Sleep Research shows that lack of sleep can significantly prolong reaction time and increase the risk of traffic accidents and work accidents.

For people who are severely sleep deprived, driving is almost equivalent to drunk driving. The reaction time of not sleeping for 24 consecutive hours is equivalent to a blood alcohol concentration of 0.1%, that is, 100mg/100mL. (Note: According to my country's standards, driving under the influence is considered drunk if it exceeds 80mg/100mL.)

This is a shocking set of data. Within 24 hours, compared with drivers who sleep for the recommended 7 hours or more, the risk of a crash for drivers who lack sleep soars: for 5 to 6 hours of sleep, the risk of a crash increases by 1.9 times; for less than 4 hours of sleep, the risk of a crash increases by 11.5 times.

Don't ever think that willpower alone can overcome your body's reactions. Lack of sleep can seriously reduce your brain's alertness and slow down your information processing speed, especially in scenarios that require quick reactions, such as driving.

If we are in a state of severe sleep deprivation for a long time, it will harm our health, not to mention having a flexible and clear brain.

For the sake of our health, it is time to pay more attention to the signals sent by the body, and let it stop, rest well and get a good sleep when it is exhausted.