Sleep is an integral part of our lives. It allows the body to recuperate and heal itself. The recommended amount of sleep for adults is between 7 to 8 hours per night. Sleep deprivation happens when you sleep less than that. This can lead to drastic health issues. Let's take a look at the five stages of sleep deprivation.
Stage 1: After 24 Hours
Missing 24 hours of sleep could have some negative consequences on your health. Fatigue and lack of energy will occur. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) equates 24-hour sleep deprivation to a 0.10 percent blood alcohol concentration. This exceeds the legal limit for driving. Failure to sleep for 24 hours can lead to drowsiness, short temper, food cravings, and lack of concentration, to mention just a couple.
Stage 2: After 36 Hours
After 36 hours without sleep, intense fatigue sets in and you'll feel a more urgent need to sleep. This leads to microsleeps whereby you nod off for 30 seconds without being aware of it. The lack of unity of various brain parts results in miscommunication that negatively affects your performance. As a result, impaired memory hinders you from decoding new information. Therefore, your decision-making is severely affected negatively, which results in making mistakes.
Stage 3: After 48 Hours
At this point, you have reached extreme sleep deprivation. Staying awake becomes more difficult, and microsleeps caused by fatigue happen more frequently. To make matters worse, you begin to hallucinate, and depersonalization occurs. Furthermore, anxiety and stress begin to affect your mind.
Stage 4: Awake For 72 Hours
Your desire to sleep increases and long microsleeps become the order of the day. Furthermore, hallucinations start to happen often and are complicated. This outs itself in delusions, depersonalization, and not thinking clearly.
Stage 5: Awake For 96 Hours or More
This is a fatal stage where your interpretation of reality becomes distorted at a higher level. This situation is known as deprivation psychosis.