Investigating the Core Reasons for Lack of Sleep and Overall Impact

This essay examines the multifaceted reasons behind lack of sleep, also known as sleep deprivation, and its extensive impacts on an individual's health and well-being. It identifies key factors such as depression, fatigue, hormone imbalance, and lack of motivation as primary contributors to sleep loss. The essay elaborates on how depression can lead to feelings of sadness and loss of interest, affecting both emotional and physical health, while fatigue results in tiredness, headaches, and muscle weakness. Furthermore, hormonal imbalances, particularly during menopause, and a lack of motivation can disrupt sleep patterns. The essay also discusses the impact of sleep deprivation on weight management, highlighting its influence on leptin and ghrelin hormones, insulin levels, and blood pressure, ultimately emphasizing the critical role of adequate sleep in maintaining overall health and preventing various diseases. Desklib offers a platform for students to access similar solved assignments and study resources.

Running Head: Academic Essay
Academic Essay

Academic Essay
Reason for lack of sleep and its impacts
Sleep plays a great role in the physical health of an individual. If an individual is not
taking proper sleep then, it can give impact on the health and causes many diseases like an
increase in the risk of heart disease and also high blood pressure. As stated in the statement of
sleep health foundation that 33 to 45 percent of people sleep either poorly or not long enough
(Voderholzer et al., 2012).
So, there are many reasons that will be analyzed in this paper. The reasons for lack of
sleep and its likely impacts will be discussed in this essay. In this paper the thesis statement is
reason for lack of sleep and it overall impact on an individual. Lack of sleep can also be known
as sleep deprivation which takes place when a person is not able to get a sufficient sleep in a day.
(Source: Remcenter, 2018).
There are many reasons which are related to lack of sleep. It is seen that there are many
symptoms related to sleep loss. The symptoms which are related to lack of sleep are depressed
mood or depression, fatigue, lack of motivation, hormone imbalance and other chronic illness.
One of the reasons basic reason related to lack of sleep is depression. Due to depression,
people are not able to sleep in a proper manner. Depression is a common and medical illness that
gives negative impact on the feelings and on health (Alnaji, Law & Scott, 2016). It causes
feelings of sadness and also a loss in conducting the activities in which they enjoy. Due to
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Academic Essay
depression, people are not able to enjoy anything in their surroundings. It can affect both
emotional and physical problems and can minimize the ability of a person to perform the
function at home and work (Micic et al., 2015).
Due to lack of sleep energy loss take place and also many people lose their weight just
due to the depression. They face difficulty in thinking and also in making decisions. The
depression in an individual can cause due to lack of sleep and it can also give impact on the
regular activities conducted on a routine basis. They are not able to conduct the activities in a
direction. It also gives negative impact on the mind of an individual. The person is affected by
the mental abilities and also affects the emotional state of an individual (Arble et al., 2015).
Next symptom is related to fatigue which is one of the reasons for lack of sleep. It is a
feeling of tiredness and also it requires need just because of lack of energy. This problem can
take place due to overwork, tension and poor sleep. It is seen that fatigue can give impact on
physical, mental and emotional symptoms. It can cause a severe headache, weakness in muscles
and also causes dizziness.
When a person is not able to sleep well then the negative impact is seen in health. It is
seen that when the person is not able to sleep for four nights then it can be seen that it enhances
the objective sleepiness but there is no effect on the level related with cortisol in evening or in
morning. The effect which is analyzed can be just because of the compensation mechanisms at
the time of sleeping.
Lack of sleep can also be seen at the time of hormone imbalance. When hormones of the
individual are not balanced then it can because of lack of sleep. It is seen that hormonal changes
can give negative impact on the vicious cycle and also when the level of hormone changes at the
time of menstrual cycle, menopause and during and after pregnancy. It is seen that during
menopause the ovaries of women decreases which produces estrogen and enhances sleep-
promoting hormone. This causes a headache and the individual is not able to conduct the
activities by being active towards the work (Kim, Jeong & Hong, 2015).
Lack of sleep can also be due to lack of motivation. If an individual is not confidence and
motivated towards their task or the activities conducted then it can cause lack of sleep. A person
is not able to sleep in a proper way and think same situations again and again which took place
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Academic Essay
during a course of time. Lack of motivation can give impact on the behavior of the individual.
An individual get frustrated and negative thoughts arises which give negative impact on the other
activities conducted by him or her. It is important for a person to be motivated so that routine
activity can be conducted in a right direction (Park & Baumeister, 2015).
Also when a person eats too much and is not engaged in any activities or exercise then
sleep deprivation is also one of the factors that overweight a person and problem of obesity
arises. Lack of sleep gives impact on the two hormones which are leptin and ghrelin which helps
in controlling the feeling of hunger. Leptin is a hormone which gives direction to the brain that
what to eat and when the person suffers from lack of sleep then it minimizes the leptin and
enhances ghrelin. It is seen that lack of sleep can give negative impact on the body weight of an
individual. Lack of sleep encourages your body to release the higher levels of insulin at the time
of eating. It gives impact on the blood pressure of the body (Fatima, Doi & Mamun, 2015).
So, it is seen due to lack of sleep many diseases can affect an individual. It is important
for the people to take sleep so that they can complete the routine activities properly. Sleep makes
the individual feel good and it gives benefit to the heart.
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Academic Essay
References
Alnaji, A., Law, G. R., & Scott, E. M. (2016). The role of sleep duration in diabetes and glucose
control. Proceedings of the Nutrition Society, 75(4), 512-520.
Arble, D. M., Bass, J., Behn, C. D., Butler, M. P., Challet, E., Czeisler, C., ... & Hanlon, E. C.
(2015). Impact of sleep and circadian disruption on energy balance and diabetes: a
summary of workshop discussions. Sleep, 38(12), 1849-1860.
Fatima, Y., Doi, S. A. R., & Mamun, A. A. (2015). Longitudinal impact of sleep on overweight
and obesity in children and adolescents: a systematic review and bias‐adjusted meta‐
analysis. Obesity Reviews, 16(2), 137-149.
Gabel, V., Maire, M., Reichert, C. F., Chellappa, S. L., Schmidt, C., Hommes, V., ... & Viola, A.
U. (2015). Dawn simulation light impacts on different cognitive domains under sleep
restriction. Behavioural brain research, 281, 258-266.
Kim, T. W., Jeong, J. H., & Hong, S. C. (2015). The impact of sleep and circadian disturbance
on hormones and metabolism. International journal of endocrinology, 2015.
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Academic Essay
Micic, G., Lovato, N., Gradisar, M., Burgess, H. J., Ferguson, S. A., Kennaway, D. J., & Lack,
L. (2015). Nocturnal melatonin profiles in patients with delayed sleep-wake phase disorder
and control sleepers. Journal of biological rhythms, 30(5), 437-448.
Park, J., & Baumeister, R. F. (2015). Social exclusion causes a shift toward prevention
motivation. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 56, 153-159.
Remcenter. (2018). Effects of sleep. Retrieved from http://remcenter.com/effects-of-lack-of-
sleep/
Voderholzer, U., Piosczyk, H., Holz, J., Feige, B., Loessl, B., Kopasz, M., ... & Nissen, C.
(2012). The impact of increasing sleep restriction on cortisol and daytime sleepiness in
adolescents. Neuroscience letters, 507(2), 161-166.
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