“There is only one thing people like that is good for them; a good night’s sleep”

- Edgar Watson Howe

Sleep deprivation is not like torture - it is a form of torture, a tactic favored by the KGB and the Japanese in PoW camps in World War Two. The British Army was also accused of using sleep deprivation to extract information from suspected IRA members in 1971.

“It is such a standard form of torture that basically everybody has used it at one time or another,” says Andrew Hogg, of the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture.

Going without sleep is intensely stressful, with unpredictable short and long-term effects. People lose the ability to act and think coherently.

Yet today more people say they’re sleeping less than six hours than did so in 1998, according to NSF. Sixteen percent of adults say they sleep less than six hours a night on weekdays, up from 12% seven years ago. Ten percent now report getting less than six hours on weekends compared with 8% in 1998.

“Sleep has such a total effect on people’s lives,” NSF Chief Executive Richard Gelula said. “You have the good sleepers who are happy and feeling comfortable, and the other half who are kind of dragged down.”

About half of adults are at risk for sleep disorders, he said. “It’s a very unmanaged issue in our society.”

People are waking up earlier and earlier, and it’s not just an elite group getting out on the road before or near dawn. These aren’t necessarily executive lifestyles people are living. It’s a whole variety of situations, from the middle class to single parents and people working multiple jobs who are really stretched to make ends meet.

But what happens when you fit loads into your life… except for sleep? What happens if you hardly get any? What’s the long-term damage?

1. Untamed heart.

Four hours’ sleep a night for a month decreases thyrotropin secretion (a hormone that regulates the thyroid gland) increasing levels of cortisol, which breaks down carbs, protein and fat to mobilise stored energy reserves. But it acts like a joyriding yob in the process, crashing into anything that gets in its way, causing stress, high blood pressure and heartache. Whack an ASBO on this troublemaker with a nap.

2. Bloody hell.

Too many “youthful” nights on the town can have you looking like a pensioner and your blood acting like one. It starts forgetting how to do the basics, like metabolising glucose, occasionally to the same level as people with type 2 diabetes. When it does remember, it dithers, taking up to 40% longer to complete a task like regulating blood sugar. Avoid caffeine after 4pm to ensure that your claret remains sweet and young, rather than turning sour and vinegary.

3. Heads, you lose.

Sleep is as vital to your brain as Viagra is to Hugh Hefner. Sleep regenerates the neurons (nerve cells) in the cerebral cortex (the “grey matter”), where you’ll find the temporal lobe that, unlike the useless lump under your ear, is responsible for processing language. This is why you turn into a monosyllabic caveman when sleep deprived. You also miss out on the new synaptic connections (nerve pathways) made while kipping; essential for creative thinking and originality, without which you become as dynamic as Vicky Pollard.

4. Less than handy.

In a study published in the British journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine, researchers in Australia and New Zealand report that sleep deprivation can have some of the same hazardous effects as being drunk.

Getting less than 6 hours a night can affect coordination, reaction time and judgment, they said, posing “a very serious risk.”

So, in terms of coordination, skipping the snooze is like hitting the booze. Having less than six hours’ sleep on a single night impairs motor skills such as reaction times, not to mention reverse parking. Staying awake for 17-19 hours affects your behind-the-wheel skills more than having a blood alcohol level of 0.5% – the legal limit. Got loads on at work? Sort out a late-working rota with colleagues.

5. Fright eyes.

Baby’s wailing left you with panda eyes? That look is due to the changing water content in the skin around them, so the red blood cells beneath are more visible. It also makes them feel dry and itchy. Not getting 40 winks makes you look like you’ve gone four rounds with Lennox Lewis. Aid sleep with some white noise from a whirring household fan.

6. Growing pains.

Your toddler’s nocturnal needs can have major consequences on your leptin and grehlin levels, the hormones that encrypt eating information. While leptin – which regulates appetite and tells the brain how much body energy is available – goes AWOL, grehlin – responsible for hunger – speads its tubbyist propaganda. It’s not long before you gain weight. Time to take up kip fit.

Many people argue that they get by just fine on very little sleep. However, research shows that only a tiny fraction of people can truly function well on less than 7 hours sleep per night. Dinges estimates that, over the long haul, perhaps 1 person in a thousand can function effectively on six or fewer hours of sleep per night. Many people who operate on chronic sleep debts end up napping during the day or fighting through long periods of sleepiness in the afternoon.

Moreover, people who chronically fail to get enough sleep may actually be cutting their lives short. A lack of sleep taxes the immune system, and may even lead to disease and premature aging. To make all of this worse, most people who are sleep deprived do not even realize it. If you get sleepy during long meetings or long drives, chances are you are chronically sleep deprived.

So, stop the torture, and get some good sleep!

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