What are the effects of sleep deprivation? In 1965 a 17 year old high school student stayed awake for 11 days to see what would happen through lack of sleep.

On the second day his eyes stopped focusing and he lost the ability to identify objects by touch. On the third day he was moody and uncoordinated. At the end of the experiment he was struggling to concentrate, had trouble with short term memory and started hallucinating. He did recover but for others it can cause problems.

When we don’t get enough sleep it can cause hormonal imbalance, illness and in extreme cases death. We are only beginning to understand why we need to sleep but we do know it is essential. Adults need 7-8 hours of sleep a night. Adolescents need around 10 hours sleep.

The non-REM sleep is when our DNA is repaired and when our bodies replenish themselves for the day ahead.

When we lose sleep, learning, memory mood and reaction time are affected. Sleeplessness may also cause inflammation, hallucinations and high blood pressure. It has been linked to diabetes and obesity.

Check out this very interesting video to see why we must have enough sleep in order to stay healthy and focused.