What does sleep deprivation look like?

Many people do not realize that they lack sleep. Do you think that the moment your head hits the pillow you fall asleep is normal? Do you think you should want to take a nap during your lunch break or as soon as you get home from work? Are you easily frustrated or angry? These are all signs of lack of sleep.

It is even more difficult to determine the lack of sleep in children. Many children act differently from adults when they are chronically tired. The problem is that the symptoms of sleep deprivation and sleep apnea in children look a lot like ADHD. Children will become agitated and have difficulty concentrating. They become very active during the day rather than tired.

Sleep apnea looks different too. They will snore or breathe with their mouths open. They may have some interruptions during sleep, but not always. They can go round and round a lot. However, sleep deprivation is often due to the fact that, as parents, we don’t send our children to bed early enough. They can also wake up too early. Children need longer hours of sleep and if you keep them awake too late, they will miss important periods of sleep that allow them to produce growth hormone and consolidate their memories.

In adults, lack of sleep manifests as both long-term and short-term memory problems because your brain cannot process memories. It can also prevent the brain from getting to the time it needs to clean up waste. This can affect memory and contribute to morning headaches.

You may experience other symptoms such as fatigue and drowsiness, headaches, and snacking. I am aware that snacking sounds like a strange symptom, however, when our brain is tired many times we misinterpret the signal as hunger and we make poor decisions that will cause us to snack.

We all have our own symptoms. This is not an exhaustive list of symptoms, but it gives you a place to start considering what in your life is caused by sleep and is it worth it for your health to give up 1 or 2 hours of sleep at night?