What happens if you don't sleep for a long time? Stay up all night and survive the day? Easily

If a person is deprived of sleep for 7 days, then starting from the 5th day there is a high risk of dying from lack of sleep - for example, from a heart attack due to hallucinations. This is how a person works - we need to recuperate after a day's work. During sleep, the subconscious is actively involved in the work, the information accumulated during the day is processed. The muscles of the body rest, the internal organs are calmly busy with their functioning, the consciousness is turned off. Why is it so important to go to bed at the right time, get enough sleep, and never deprive yourself of sleep for a long time? This is easy to understand if you follow what happens to a person suffering from insomnia for various reasons. The consequences are dire...

1st day
1 day without sleep is not much. Surely you will remember a situation when you did not have to go to bed for a whole day. Fatigue, poor memory and concentration, wandering attention, headache, indigestion - this is what is usually observed after a sleepless night. Memory and attention cannot function normally due to the fact that neocortex did not recover overnight. All systems in the body are connected, and therefore other organs react to lack of sleep. For health, 1 day cannot cause significant damage, but well-being is unpleasant.

2nd–3rd day
Violated not only attention, but also coordination of movements. frontal lobes of the brain they cannot work normally without proper rest, so you can forget about creative thinking. A person left without sleep for 3 days is in a state of nervous exhaustion. There may be a nervous tic, panic attacks. Appetite will increase, because in stress, the body will release a large amount of the hormone cortisol, which contributes to the unrestrained eating of food. I want fried, salty, spicy, and this despite the fact that the digestive system works poorly and haphazardly. Falling asleep, oddly enough, is very difficult - again due to overwork of the nervous system.

4th–5th day
Hallucinations are bound to come. A person will speak incoherently, poorly understand what is happening to him, solving the simplest problems will become unbearable for him. At the same time, irritability and anger will increase in proportion to the time spent without sleep. Parietal and prefrontal cortex will refuse to work, that's why all this is happening.

6th–7th day
American student Randy Gardner did not sleep for 11 days. Already on the 7th day, he behaved extremely strangely, experiencing the strongest hallucinations and showing symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. The tremor of the limbs, the inability to think sensibly and the strongest paranoia are what he had to endure for the sake of a scientific experiment.

Among the causes of insomnia are nervous and muscular strain, pain syndrome and indigestion. Stuffiness, bright light, uncomfortable bed - that's what makes it difficult to fall asleep. Insomnia itself is considered the cause of many diseases, doctors say: if you want to recover, first get rid of insomnia. But it happens that a person does not sleep for several days on his own initiative - this may be due to work. In doing so, you must be aware of the consequences of failure in the normal mode of life. It is recommended to sleep at night, and not during the day, because in complete darkness the human body produces hormone melatonin. Melatonin prolongs youth, improves brain function, and protects a person from cancer. Sleep is a medicine that everyone needs.

A third of our entire life goes to sleep, provided that we get enough sleep. However, in modern times, few of us spend enough time sleeping. Many mistakenly think that prolonged wakefulness gives many opportunities: more time for work, entertainment, outdoor activities. And some, just for fun, want to know how long you can live without sleep. But systematically replacing sleep time with other personal matters, you can face very unpleasant consequences. What happens if you don't sleep for a long time? This will be discussed in this article.

Why does a person need sleep?

An exact answer to this question has not yet been found. However, scientists have presented facts confirming that sleep is extremely important for humans. At this time, the work of all organs and systems of the body slows down. Even the heart rate slows down, which makes it possible for the heart muscle to relax. During sleep, cell regeneration occurs most actively. It has been established that during this period there is an ordering of emotions and memories received during wakefulness.

The brain does not sleep!

In is the center that controls the biological clock. When the time for sleep comes, this center is triggered, and consciousness begins to gradually turn off. First of all, there is a slowdown in the work of neurons that are responsible for the phase of deep sleep. Along with the disconnection of consciousness, the transmission pathways from the sense organs (vision, hearing, smell) are disconnected. All mental processes are regulated by a special mode of interaction and functioning of certain groups of neurons. Thus, when the period of sleep comes, the human brain begins to work in a different mode. Moreover, the intensity of these processes is different at different stages of sleep. So sleep is a fairly active and important process.

Why can't a person sleep?

It happens that a person has no sleep not of his own free will. Sometimes it is impossible to force yourself to fall asleep for hours, or there is an awakening in the middle of the night, and wakefulness lasts until morning. This insomnia is the most common sleep disorder. What provokes such a phenomenon? A person cannot fall asleep for various reasons, the main ones are as follows:

• emotional overstrain;

  information overload;

  increased excitability;

  lack of self-esteem;

  physiological problems.

All causes are interconnected, one may be the result of another, sometimes a person may be disturbed by several of the above phenomena at once. Such conditions, lasting for a long time, can provoke a complete lack of sleep. And this threatens with irreversible consequences. Up to death.

Lack of sleep: consequences

On average, for good health and ability to work, a person needs to sleep at least 7-8 hours a day. Of course, there are people for whom 3 hours is enough, but this is an exception. So what happens if you don't sleep?

After spending one sleepless night, a person develops fatigue, concentration and memory decrease.

2-3 sleepless nights threaten to worsen the concentration of vision, speech, nausea and a nervous tic may appear.

After 4-5 nights without sleep, increased irritability and hallucinations appear.

If a person does not sleep for 6-8 nights, then gaps in memory appear, trembling in the limbs, speech slows down.

What happens if you don't sleep for 11 nights in a row? In this case, a person becomes numb and indifferent to everything, fragmented thinking develops. Ultimately, death may occur.

Chronic sleep deprivation is no less dangerous

A systematic lack of sleep adversely affects a person’s memory. There is an accelerated aging of the body, the heart rests less and wears out faster. Disorders of the nervous system are observed, and after 5-10 years of chronic lack of sleep, it becomes more difficult for a person to fall asleep. In addition, immunity is reduced. Due to the low duration of sleep, T-lymphocytes are not produced in sufficient quantities, with the help of which the body resists viruses and bacteria. It has also been found that people who experience a constant lack of sleep become more irritable.



How long can you live without sleep? Interesting Facts

To get an answer to this question, many experiments were carried out, both by scientists and just curious enthusiasts. Below are the most amazing facts.

To date, the officially recognized record is wakefulness for 19 days. That is how much time the American Robert McDonalds spent without sleep.

Also, an amazing record was set by schoolboy Randy Gardner, who was able to stay awake for 11 days.

After suffering from a fever, Tai Ngoc from Vietnam has not slept for 38 years.

Vietnamese Nguyen Van Kha has not slept for 27 years. According to him, it all started on the same day, after he, having closed his eyes, felt a strong And, he clearly saw the image of fire. He hasn't slept since.

Farmer Eustace Burnett from England has not slept for 56 years. One night he just couldn't sleep. Since then, instead of sleeping, he solves crossword puzzles every night.

Yakov Tsiperovich is a man with phenomenal abilities, the cause of which is the clinical death he experienced. After that, he does not sleep, his body temperature does not rise above 33.5 ºС, and his body does not age at all.

Ukrainian Fyodor Nesterchuk has been awake for about 20 years and reads books at night.

So, how many days can a person live without sleep? An unequivocal answer has not yet been found. Someone may not sleep for 5 days, someone for 19, and for someone, staying awake for 20 years does not affect their health in any way. Here everything is individual and depends on gender, age, physical condition of the body and many more factors. Without sleep, the average person can live from 7 to 14 days, provided that he leads an inactive lifestyle.



The benefits of daytime sleep

Daytime sleep in the most positive way affects the well-being of a person. If for some reason a night's sleep was short, then an afternoon nap will help improve well-being. Scientists have found that just 26 minutes of daytime sleep significantly increase the ability to work and mindfulness. This effect can last up to 10 hours. Scientific studies have shown that napping just 2 times a week reduces the chances of developing coronary heart disease by 12%. If you devote time to daytime sleep 3 times a week, then the risk of this pathology is reduced by 37%.

Benefits of short naps:



Note to car enthusiasts

With a prolonged lack of sleep, the driver's condition is equated to alcohol intoxication. If the driver did not sleep for 17-19 hours, his condition is similar to the state when the blood alcohol level is 0.5 ppm. 21 hours of being awake equates to an alcohol level of 0.8 ppm. This condition gives the right to recognize the driver as drunk.

From this article, you learned about what will happen if you do not sleep for several days. You shouldn't experiment. Take care of your health, despite the lack of free time, try to get enough sleep every day and have a good rest. The time spent on it will definitely pay off with a vengeance. You will always be cheerful, cheerful and healthy.

Biologists have managed to prove that sleep plays an equally important role for the survival and functioning of the body as nutrition. The fast pace of life sometimes dictates a person the need to stay awake at night. Let's try to figure out how to survive in conditions of lack of sleep with minimal health consequences.

The development of science and technology has reduced the duration of sleep in all countries over the past half century by one to two hours. Somnologists emphasize that it is associated with the risk of acute vascular events, coronary syndrome, cerebrovascular diseases, overweight, impaired tissue sensitivity to insulin, and immune suppression.

It's important to know! The lack of proper rest has a particularly negative impact on adolescents.

The American National Sleep Foundation (USA) recommends the following age norms for recuperation:

The optimal mode of sleep and wakefulness is individual and depends not only on the period of life. During pregnancy, illness, intense intellectual stress and physical work, the body needs extra hours of sleep.

Waking during the day

The process of sleep is inextricably linked to circadian rhythms. Despite the dependence on the alternation of heavenly bodies, the need to limit life at night is dictated by endogenous needs.

It's important to know! Jetlag (an internal alarm clock that doesn't match the circadian rhythm) is just as bad as insomnia.

Possible reasons

Sleep disorders are associated with many chronic diseases. Mental disorders and stressful situations can cause insomnia. Certain professional activities are associated with the need to stay awake around the clock. Let's try to figure out if a person is forced to stay awake for a day, what are the consequences for health?

Conscious sleep deprivation

History knows many examples of conscious. Refusal can be voluntary (experiment), forced (production necessity, family circumstances), forced (torture).

By type, they are distinguished:

• partial;
• total;
• deprivation of the stage of REM sleep.

With partial - the time of immersion in sleep is reduced to several hours. Deprivation of the stage of paradoxical sleep is caused in laboratories using special equipment.

There is an erroneous opinion among students that on the eve of the exam it is possible, sacrificing sleep, to work hard, invigorating the body with tonic drinks.

It makes no sense to do this for the following reasons:

Such an "intensive" method of studying the subject will not help to get an excellent mark, and the consequences of lack of sleep will negatively affect health. It is much more effective to exercise all year round, but it is normal to get enough sleep during the session. The main thing to remember is that with sufficient sleep, the ability of the brain to qualitatively absorb information increases.

Forced state caused by insomnia

Insomnia can be due to somatic and psychogenic causes. Symptoms such as intoxication, pain, hormonal imbalances, depression interfere with the ability to sleep peacefully. The best treatment is to treat the underlying disease.

Attention! A particularly dangerous disorder is considered to be (FFI) - a genetic pathology that leads to death, one of the leading signs of which is sleep disturbance.

Insomnia is a side effect of several medications:

• Nootropil is a psycho- and nootropic agent.
• "Theophylline" - a drug to relieve an attack of bronchial asthma.
• "Prednisolone" is a hormone of the adrenal cortex.
• "L-thyroxine" is an analogue of thyroid products.
• "Zidovudine" - launches antiviral protection, including, affects the causative agent of human immunodeficiency.
• "Caffeine" - a psychostimulant, is prescribed for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

In addition, the combination of certain chemicals with alcohol causes excitation of the nervous system. Therefore, you should never self-medicate.

Feelings of a person who does not sleep the whole day

Scientists have proven that if you do not sleep for a day, the body will be able to compensate for the lack of rest and restore working capacity. But the sleepless night does not go unnoticed. A person feels tired, cannot concentrate, becomes distracted and irritable. Sometimes people complain of migraine, flickering "flies" in the field of vision, thirst, increased appetite, sweating. Why is this happening?

Consequences for the body of one sleepless night

In a dream, there is a restructuring of physiological processes, a change in hormonal levels, thermoregulation, and metabolism.

A detailed examination of a person who did not sleep the night, the following is noted:

• dry skin and mucous membranes;
• decrease in pain sensitivity;
• increased chilliness;
• minor incoordination;
• changes in heart rate and blood pressure;
• hypoglycemia.

Lack of sleep inhibits the regenerative function and non-specific immunity, reduces resistance to stressful situations. If you get enough sleep after one sleepless night, the negative manifestations will go away.

Recommendations for those who are going to be awake at night

A shift schedule, illness of a close relative, travel are circumstances that force you to sacrifice sleep. You can not resort to the help of psychostimulants, dietary supplements without first consulting a doctor! If nighttime wakefulness is required, it is important to minimize the adverse effects of sleep deprivation.

Some useful tips explaining how to get through the day without sleep:

• get enough sleep beforehand;
• take care of the artificial lighting of the office at night;
• drink enough fluids;
• limit the use of energy drinks and coffee;
• organize two or three nightly snacks from healthy foods;
• if possible, during the period of night wakefulness, arrange moderate physical workouts;
• take a shower or wash with cool water.

Even the brightest lighting will not “deceive” the internal clock, but will somewhat “reduce” the production of individual hormones. A fluorescent lamp, a computer monitor turned on, even a regular flashlight will help you get through the night easier.

At the time of gymnastic exercises, microcirculation in the tissues increases, which also improves overall well-being. It is important to prevent dehydration and provide the body with energy. Experts recommend green tea as a drink, and yogurt, lean meat, cheese, dried fruits are well suited for food.

Life without sleep: is it possible?

The Internet is full of reports about the treatment of insomnia. There are sites where people share their impressions of how great they are holding on, awake for two, three or more days. Randy Gardner, an American schoolboy who got into the Guinness Book of Records, who was able to stay awake for eleven days, is described with enthusiasm.

Techniques are laid out on how to be able to stay alert, depriving yourself of sleep. Historical figures are indicated that limit their sleep. When asked whether it is harmful not to sleep for a day, the answer is unequivocal - a lack of proper sleep can cause irreparable harm to health. For some reason, the authors of such publications do not finish talking a little.

It should be remembered:

• Depression can be cured with insomnia only in a hospital, under the close supervision of doctors. A wide variety of examinations are scheduled.
• Randy Gardner's health during the experiment was supervised by Dr. Stanford University William K. Dement and Lieutenant Colonel John D. Ross. There was a severe decline in Randy's mental abilities at the time of the study. Representatives of the Guinness Book of Records later stopped registering such "achievements", realizing how dangerous they are.
• Experts of various specialties, after reading sites for the exchange of experiences of deprivation, agree that the vast majority of users of such resources urgently need the help of experienced psychologists and psychotherapists.

The media gives examples of people who have lost the ability to sleep. This condition is called colitis. With a detailed examination of the phenomenon, it turns out that a person has a phase of slow sleep. Subjectively, he is awake, but the electroencephalogram captures the electrical potentials of the brain, characteristic of the paradoxical phase.

Conclusion

Scientists are concerned about the problem of chronic lack of sleep in the population of all age categories. The process of sleep is not compensated by anything other than full sleep. It is a companion of both mental and physical health. It is necessary to adhere to the regime of sleep and wakefulness, because the quality and duration of life depends on it.

Hello dear blog readers! Our senses are most active during the day, we cannot see in the dark, and our skin needs daylight to make it easier for the body to produce vitamins, so the question: “Is it harmful to stay up at night?”, I think, is rhetorical. Therefore, let's look together at all the dangers that insomnia or a nocturnal lifestyle leads to.

The influence of melatonin

I already told you, and that if he is still awake at 2 a.m., this can eventually lead to depression and a loss of “taste of life”. All due to the fact that it is at this time that our body produces melatonin, a hormone that regulates our sleep. That is, if there is a lack of it, and people who lead a nocturnal lifestyle have a significant lack, it is likely that insomnia, nightmares will appear, and the dream itself will be superficial, during which the body's resources will not be replenished.

Have you noticed that after a sleepless night it takes several days to recover? Move on. During a deep, full sleep, our nervous system finally rests, the brain processes the information that has been received during the day, and the work of all organs and systems of our body is normalized. What happens if you bring down the natural biorhythm? You simply deprive yourself of the opportunity to lead a healthy, active life and feel young and vigorous. Melatonin generally plays almost the main role in our body, since:

• Regulates the activity of the thyroid gland;
• Has a stimulating effect in the sexual sphere;
• Suspends the aging process;
• Regulates pressure, the work of brain cells, as well as digestion;
• Helps to adapt when changing time zones;
• Has antioxidant properties.

Research

Scientists, in order to avoid death, did not complete the experiment, so they did not give a clear answer on how many people can do without sleep, if only because they could not exclude during the experiment such breaks for the brain as superficial short-term sleep.

On the first day, the subjects felt lethargic, on the second day they became distracted and aggressive. On the third day, hallucinations were already appearing, on the fourth, they looked incredibly exhausted and exhausted.

The maximum period without proper rest is 5 days, then the experiments were stopped due to the threat of death, since already on the third day brain cells begin to die.

Effects

It is believed that if a person cannot fall asleep at least three times a week, this indicates the presence of insomnia. And if he sleeps less than 6 hours, or with interruptions, for example, in connection with work, where there is a rotational regime, then chronic sleep deprivation may well develop. This state is equivalent to the one that a person feels if he does not sleep for two days, that is, lethargy and aggressiveness. And if you read my article, in order to become more kind and gentle, maybe it's not about character, but just need to rest more?

Do you know how much a person should sleep? On average, from 6 to 8 hours, there are cases when 5 hours is enough, but such people are very rare.

So, the consequences of non-compliance with sleep :

• Immunity decreases, and as a result, there is a risk of various infections that lymphocytes cannot fight back.
• Stress resistance is at a minimum, so not only the body will suffer, but also relationships with loved ones and at work. Irritable people are usually shunned, and this is a significant obstacle to achieving their goals.
• The risk of developing cancer is growing.
• Metabolism is disturbed, so people who lack sleep or insomnia are more prone to obesity.
• There is a risk of developing a disease such as diabetes mellitus.
• Due to the lack of a normal amount of melatonin, hypertension occurs, that is, the pressure rises.
• There are problems with blood vessels and the heart, the risk of getting a stroke or cardiac arrest increases significantly.
• Impotence or decreased arousal.
• Due to the impact on the psyche and the development of depression, suicidal tendencies may well appear.
• A person ages prematurely because the skin becomes lethargic, as does his well-being. Hair can fade, sometimes even begin to fall out, and the eyes will watery and redden.
• Due to the increase in cortisol, and this is a stress hormone, the renewal of brain cells is suspended.

Among other consequences, there is a huge risk of getting into an accident, because the state of sleep deprivation is very similar to the state that alcohol causes.

1. If you find that you have insomnia or lack of sleep, you should not start taking sleeping pills on your own. You can only harm yourself, or become addictive, after which you will have to constantly increase the doses, since without pills it will be completely unrealistic to fall asleep on your own. That is why you should definitely see a specialist who will prescribe a competent and safe treatment.
2. If this happens, and part of the night you could not rest, be sure to set aside at least half an hour during the day to take a nap. This will at least give a little vigor and increase efficiency.
3. Take a warm bath in the evening or drink a glass of warm milk. I talked about this and about what types of insomnia exist.
4. Before you get behind the wheel, be sure to listen to your well-being, and if you feel that you need to rest, look for solutions, maybe someone else can drive the car, or there is an opportunity to postpone the trip, after all, you are risking not only your life , but also those around them.

Conclusion

That's all for today, dear readers! As you can see, the consequences are enormous damage to health, so do not test yourself for strength, and rest as much as you need to feel good. Good luck and take care of yourself!

On weekends, especially in summer, many people not only do not get enough sleep, but almost do not sleep, leaving for a sleepless two-day entertainment marathon. And let's find out how our body reacts to such bullying and what will happen if we don't sleep for a week.

First day

If a person does not sleep for a day, then this will not cause any serious consequences for his health, however, a long period of wakefulness will lead to a failure of the circadian cycle, which is determined by the setting of a person's biological clock.

Scientists believe that approximately 20,000 neurons in the hypothalamus are responsible for the biological rhythms of the body. This is the so-called suprachiasmatic nucleus.

Circadian rhythms are synchronized with the 24-hour light cycle of day and night and are associated with brain activity and metabolism, so even a daily delay in sleep will lead to a slight disruption in the body's systems.

If a person does not sleep for a day, then, firstly, he will feel tired, and secondly, he may have problems with memory and attention. This is due to a violation of the functions of the neocortex, which is responsible for memory and learning abilities.

Second-third days

If a person does not go to bed for two or three days, then in addition to fatigue and memory problems, he will have a violation of coordination in movements, serious problems with concentration of thoughts and concentration of vision will begin to arise. Due to the exhaustion of the nervous system, a nervous tic may appear.

Due to a disruption in the work of the frontal lobe of the brain, a person will begin to lose the ability to think creatively and focus on the task, his speech will become monotonous, clichéd.

In addition to "brain" complications, a person's digestive system will also begin to "rebel". This is due to the fact that a long period of wakefulness activates the protective evolutionary mechanism "fight or flight" in the body.

A person will increase the production of leptin and increase appetite (with an addiction to salty and fatty foods), the body, in response to a stressful situation, will start the function of storing fats and producing hormones responsible for insomnia. Oddly enough, it will not be easy for a person to fall asleep during this period, even if he wants to.

Fourth-fifth day

On the fourth or fifth day without sleep, a person may begin to experience hallucinations, he will become extremely irritable. After five days without sleep, the work of the main parts of the brain will slow down in a person, neural activity will be extremely weak.

Serious violations will be observed in the parietal zone, which is responsible for logic and mathematical abilities, so solving even the simplest arithmetic problems will be an impossible task for a person.

Due to disturbances in the temporal lobe, which is responsible for speech abilities, a person’s speech will become even more incoherent than on the third day without sleep.

The hallucinations already mentioned will begin to occur due to a malfunction in the prefrontal cortex of the brain.

Sixth to seventh days

On the sixth or seventh day without sleep, a person will not be much like himself at the beginning of this sleepless marathon. His behavior will be extremely strange, hallucinations will be both visual and auditory.

The official record holder for insomnia, American student Randy Gardner (did not sleep for 254 hours, 11 days), on the sixth day without sleep, developed syndromes typical of Alzheimer's disease, had severe hallucinations and paranoia appeared.

He mistook a road sign for a person and believed that the radio station host wanted to kill him.

Gardner had a strong tremor of the limbs, he could not speak coherently, solving simple problems baffled him - he simply forgot what he had just been told and what the task was.

By the seventh day without sleep, the body will experience serious stress of all body systems, brain neurons will be inactive, the heart muscle will be worn out, immunity will almost cease to resist viruses and bacteria due to the passivity of T-lymphocytes, the liver will experience enormous stress.

In general, such experiments with health are extremely dangerous.

Why is it dangerous to work at night and how to protect yourself from it? Councils of the psychotherapist.

Life coach and psychotherapist Natalya Stilson talked about why night work is not at all a salvation and a heavenly vacancy for a person from the owl squad, but a powerful blow to the body.

What is the night shift for us? One night shift can be compared to an 8 hour jet lag. That is, working one night is like flying by plane through 8 time zones.

Imagine how difficult such conditions are for the body. A number of our genes (and quite a few) are responsible for various rhythmic processes. For example, the processes of cell division, sleep-wake, digestion, synthesis, hormone release, and so on. After we switch to night mode (or fly to the place), the work of 97% of these genes deteriorates significantly. This failure of all processes is needed by the body in order to rebuild in a new way, but such a reboot is extremely difficult. All physiological processes are sharply slowed down. But after the flight, a person usually returns to the usual mode, and work on the night shift goes on and on. Naturally, this affects health.

Working night shifts increases the risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, and even breast cancer.

Causes of breast cancer

During sleep disturbance with regular night shifts, the level of melatonin, the hormone responsible for the onset of sleep, decreases. This substance also has an antitumor effect (protects against cancer). There are 3 hypotheses explaining the action of melatonin:

1. A decrease in melatonin increases the concentration of female sex hormones in the blood. There is a constant stimulation of breast cells to divide, which can cause malignant degeneration.
2. Melatonin itself has cancer-preventing properties. It blocks the biochemical pathways in the body that are used for constant uncontrolled cell division.
3. The secretion of melatonin is closely related to the secretion of the p53 protein, the main defender of our body against tumors. Less melatonin - less p53, more chances for a cancer cell to survive and multiply.

Causes of type 2 diabetes

Women who work night shifts for 10-19 years in a row increase their risk of diabetes by 40%. And those who have been engaged in such work for more than 20 years - by 60%.
The likely cause is a violation of insulin secretion and a deterioration in its effect on body tissues. Cells starving from a lack of energy cease to respond adequately to it and take glucose from the blood. This is due to a violation of the release of hormones responsible for appetite. The hormone ghrelin, which increases appetite, appears in the blood in greater quantities than leptin, the satiety hormone. As a result, at night you want to have a snack, and this is not a physiological time for eating.
Another hypothesis suggests that a decrease in glucose tolerance (cell resistance to insulin) is associated with a violation of the microbial composition of the intestinal contents (dysbiosis) during jet lag. After a jet lag, the intestinal flora is restored in a couple of weeks, but this is not available for people with night shifts.

Of course, working at night also leads to vitamin D deficiency, because late birds spend little time in the sun. And this is another factor in the development of obesity, as well as impaired immunity, depression and dementia.

Go stupid in the night

Perhaps most disturbingly, night shifts exacerbate the phenomena of cognitive decline. That is, they lead to a deterioration in memory and intelligence. The more a person works in this mode, the more pronounced the changes. Night workers are 6.5 years ahead of peer day workers in memory and intelligence decline. After leaving work after 10 years, it is still possible to restore lost abilities, so for 5 years. And then, this is if the employee is not affected by other factors that worsen mental health.

Several articles have cited a study showing that aircraft attendants who experience chronic jet lag show a reduction in the frontal lobe. This is not surprising, since a chronically sleep-deprived person begins to lose their neurons. After several sleepless nights, the level of a protein in the brain rises, which protects nerve cells from destruction and helps them recover. But if insomnia becomes chronic, then the chances of recovery are reduced. It is not known how pronounced this process is in humans, but mice in the experiment lost up to 25% of neurons in the locus coeruleus (responsible for the physiological response to stress).

Conclusion - night work is unambiguously unhealthy. If there is no way to refuse it, then it is better to at least leave it before your experience is 10 years old.

Protective measures

What if you still have to work at night? The main idea of ​​protective measures is to maintain, if possible, the alternation of sleep and wakefulness, so as not to expose the body to unnecessary stress. After a sleepless night, sleep should be followed by a prescribed 6-8 hours of sleep.

In addition, it is useful:

1. Don't work hard after the night shift. The clock has struck - home.
2. Take a nap during your shift if possible. This reduces the overall stress of forced wakefulness.
3. If you can’t take a nap, then be sure to take breaks during which you try to move more.
4. Avoid constant chewing of any nuts, chips, sweets and the like. Snacking will further de-align the system associated with satiety and hunger.
5. Do not drink alcohol.
6. As for coffee-containing drinks, experts differ. Some believe that drinking them is necessary to maintain the level of wakefulness, others argue that after them you only want to sleep more. But this is different for everyone. There are those for whom coffee is no worse than sleeping pills.
7. After you have left the workplace after the shift, it is advisable to put on dark glasses so as not to wake yourself up with sunlight. Under its influence, the amount of melatonin decreases and drowsiness decreases. At home, go to bed with curtained windows. Don't drink caffeinated drinks before bed. Avoid alcohol, even if it makes you fall asleep.

And now a young man who, as he claims, did not sleep for 5 nights, shares his feelings: