According to a recent Gallup poll, 40 percent of Americans get less than seven hours of sleep every night. While occasionally not getting enough sleep is all right, chronic sleep deprivation has serious health and cognitive side effects. Below explains four things that result from a lack of sleep.

Sleepless NightsDangerous Drowsiness:

Lack of sleep causes the body to automatically shut down in an attempt to restore the body’s energy and functioning. However, many sleep-deprived people must also commute to work. Feeling sleepy in the morning can actually be dangerous. Lack of sleep causes fatigue and drowsiness, which unnecessary crashes every year. Even worse, often people die every year because of drowsiness. Drowsiness and fatigue are also primary causes of work-related accidents.

Impaired Cognitive Functioning:

Sleep plays a vital role in the brain’s learning, thinking and memory functioning. Lack of sleep decreases alertness and attention. It also suppresses reasoning and concentration. As a result, the sleep deprived individual will struggle to function at home, work and school. Additionally, the lack of cognitive functioning means that people will struggle with problem solving and critical thinking. Finally, lack of sleep also makes it difficult to learn because memories are processed and stored during deep sleep cycles.

Insomnia and Depression:

Long-term lack of sleep may occur because of insomnia, which is directly linked to the development of anxiety and depression. To illustrate, the lack of sleep often exacerbates the symptoms of depression, which in turn make falling and staying asleep more difficult. Insomnia results in fatigue, headaches, low energy and poor social interactions. As a result, people are more likely to lack motivation, perform poorly and make mistakes. Luckily, sleeping on a better mattress (made cheaper with Discountrue coupons) will increase sleep quality.

Major Health Problems:

Lack of sleep also contributes to the development of major health problems. For example, lack of sleep increases the risk of heart failure, heart attack and heart disease. It can even contribute to irregular heartbeats and high blood pressure. This is because when the body sleeps, blood pressure naturally decreases. Additionally, research shows that chronic lack of sleep is connected to coronary artery calcification, which means that calcium deposits build up in the arteries. Therefore, restful sleep is a way to maintain health and wellness.

In the end, lack of sleep is related to many different social, personal and health problems. Lack of sleep is directly related to fatigue related car crashes, impaired cognitive functioning, major health problems and depression.