Science Journal

Horrible Truth I Learned about Sleep Deprivation

Most people underestimate the wonderful benefits of sleeping at the right amount of time, 7 hours at least. They perceived it as a waste of time and believed that there is plenty of time sleeping when they meet their deathbed. So they pushed their body to the limit without knowing that they are slowly decreasing their lifespan by damaging their health. And sadly, one of my college classmates are one of them. He is a core tech engineer of a certain IT company and their schedule was inconsistent. Their schedule shifts frequently thus affecting the circadian rhythm of the employees, depriving them of sleep. This classmate of mine saw no importance of sleep so when his friend called to play basketball he joined, instead of resting his exhausted body. After playing perhaps intensely, they went to a computer shop to play computer games. Suddenly, he clutched his shirt on his chest and a big thud heard from falling from his seat. His friends tried everything to revive him but failed. At a very young age, he died of a heart attack.

So, in his funeral my other classmates especially his friends wept heavily on his sudden disappearance. They expressed their griefs in our online group chat and also shared their future plans with him. It was really tragic. No one yet fully understands what causes his heart attack so I investigate further how sleep deprivation which I theorized be the cause of his sudden heart attack.

And it truly is. Sleep deprivation affects the heart rate of the person. It increases the blood pressure which defines Hypertension that can induce strokes, heart attacks, heart failure, kidney damage, and any other organ damage. A study found that people who sleep at six hours have higher blood pressure than normal sleepers. Lack of sleep alters the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS), a network of nerves and ganglia that controls involuntary physiologic actions such as circulation, respiration, thermoregulation, neuroendocrine secretion, and gastrointestinal and genitourinary functions. It controls all organs except voluntarily controlled striated or skeletal muscle. It adjusts these involuntary organs to its usual activities based on what signals the Central Nervous System (brain and spinal cord) is picking up. Autonomic Nervous System is divided into 3 parts: Sympathetic, Parasympathetic and Enteric. But let us mainly focus on the 2 vital system: Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Nervous System. Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) prepares the organism for some stressful event. Its main role is to do the "fight-or-flight" response. Whereas, Parasympathetic is the "rest and digest" response. It governs digestive and secretory function. These 2 divisions receive input about the states of individual organs and the whole body through autonomic visceral afferent neurons.

So damaging ANS adversely affect vital functions including circulation and respiration. Since sympathetic is part of the ANS, when sleep deprived the activation of Sympathetic Nervous System increases leading to pupil dilation, profuse sweat, a rapid heart rate that could eventually lead to hypertension. When blood pressure increased as a result of rising norepinephrine (stress hormone/ neurotransmitter) production level, the heart got strained thus incapable of pumping normally.

So no wonder this young classmate of mine died of heart attack due to a lack of sleep and stress gained from his work. I never thought that sleep deprivation can lead to an unexpected demise regardless of your age, race, and sex. So, we must habitually allow our energy-limited body to rejuvenate fully by sleeping well. We should not ignore the inexplicable body pains and act like a machine that can work 24/7. We should give what our body wants to make us stay healthy and live longer in this cruel world.