I know it's only the beginning of October and we’ve been in school for around two months now but I believe many of us are already feeling the same way, utterly exhausted. We’re all thinking the same thing, when will this torture end? I also know that many of us are already stressed and staying up late to finish homework. Many are not just staying up late to finish homework, but also to study for tests. If you're anything like me, you go to bed after finishing homework then wake up extra early to study for tests.
The thing is we could be doing more damage by staying up late and/or waking up early to study and finish homework. I believe we all know the amount of sleep we need is eight hours and I also think we all know that we need those eight hours to function properly. Getting less than seven hours of sleep regularly does some horrible things to our bodies, things I don’t think any of us thought were possible.
Sleep deprivation on a regular basis could lead to high blood pressure. For those who don’t know, high blood pressure can damage your arteries making them less elastic which could lead to heart disease.
Sleep deprivation could also lead to diabetes. This is very surprising to many because it makes people wonder how sleep could be connected to our blood sugar levels. Well sleep deprivation, even for just a night, could increase our bodies insulin resistance which in turn raises our blood sugar levels.
I understand I’m throwing a lot of medical talk at you but we need to understand what happens to our bodies without proper sleep. We need to understand the damage we are doing to our bodies when we don’t get the proper amount of sleep, even for just one night.