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   Sleep Deprivation: The 10 Most Profound Psychological Effects   
      
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   Lack of sleep may feel horrible, but what is it really doing to the mind and   
   brain?   
      
   American Randy Gardner holds the record for the longest ever scientifically   
   documented intentional period without sleep.   
      
   Without the aid of stimulants, he managed to stay awake for 264.4 hours, or 11   
   days and 24 minutes.   
      
   Part of his motivation was to show that sleep deprivation wasn't that bad for   
   you.   
      
   He was wrong: it is bad for you.   
      
   In fact he suffered paranoia, hallucinations, moodiness and a whole host of   
   psychological problems, many described below.   
      
   It's just he did not notice many of the problems: that's how sleep deprivation   
   gets you.   
      
   Here are 10 of the most profound psychological effects of sleep deprivation,   
   on top of the fact that it feels horrible.   
      
   1. Sleepy brains work harder   
      
   Since brains that are sleep deprived aren't as efficient, they have to work   
   harder.   
      
   This has been demonstrated in brain imaging studies which show the brains of   
   the sleep deprived desperately pumping energy into the prefrontal cortex,   
   trying to overcome the effects of sleep deprivation.   
      
   2. Short-term memory is shot   
      
   Sleep deprivation causes sharp decrements in working memory.   
      
   Without short-term memory a person can't even hold a few digits of a telephone   
   number in their mind, let alone perform any complex tasks.   
      
   That's why, when you're sleep deprived, you keep going around in circles.   
      
   On day 11 of his sleep record, Randy Gardner was asked to repeatedly subtract   
   7 from 100. He stopped at 65 saying he had no idea what he was doing.   
      
   3. Long-term memory is shot   
      
   Sleep plays an important role in consolidating memories.   
      
   While we sleep, our brain orders, integrates and makes sense of things that   
   have happened to us.   
      
   Not only that, but we seem to consolidate our learning while we sleep.   
      
   Without sleep the process is badly disrupted, meaning it's difficult to lay   
   down long-term memories and it's harder to learn new skills.   
      
   4. Attention is shot   
      
   At our best, humans have incredible powers of attention: we can distinguish   
   one voice from many, track small, moving objects in a sea of visually   
   distracting information and more.   
      
   Sleep deprivation, though, causes many of these precise powers to go downhill.   
   Without enough sleep, we can't pay attention to our senses as well as we would   
   like.   
      
   This partly results in that weird distracted feeling you get when tired.   
      
   5. Planning is shot   
      
   After 36 hours without sleep, your ability to plan and coordinate your actions   
   starts to go wrong.   
      
   Tests show that this vital ability to decide when and how to start or stop   
   tasks quickly goes awry with lack of sleep.   
      
   Sleep deprived people easily get stuck in loops of activity or fogs of   
   indecision.   
      
   Either way it's bad news.   
      
   6. Habits take over   
      
   Since the sleep deprived find it difficult to make plans or control how they   
   start or stop actions, they have to fall back on the brain's automated systems.   
      
   By which I mean: habits.   
      
   With less sleep we rely more on repeating the same actions in the same   
   situations.   
      
   Good news when it comes to our good habits, but bad news when it comes to the   
   bad habits.   
      
   Hence, the sleep deprived eat more junk food.   
      
   7. Risky business   
      
   Anyone who has every played a late-night poker session will know the weird   
   effects on your sense of risk.   
      
   Studies using card games have found that with little sleep, players get stuck   
   in a strategic rut.   
      
   They seem incapable of changing their game plan on the basis of experience.   
      
   Sleepy people keep taking risks, even though it's obviously not working for   
   them.   
      
   8. Dying brain cells   
      
   All sorts of different studies are pointing to how sleep deprivation damages   
   brain cells.   
      
   One recent study found that in mice 25% of certain brain cells died as a   
   result of a prolonged lack of sleep.   
      
   Other studies have found lower integrity white matter in the brain, possibly   
   as a result of sleep deprivation.   
      
   Just as lack of sleep is no good psychologically, it's also no good   
   physiologically.   
      
   9. Mania   
      
   If a person suffers from sleep deprivation on a regular basis, they may start   
   to experience mania.   
      
   Symptoms include psychosis, paranoia, extremely high energy levels,   
   hallucinations, aggression and more.   
      
   Links have been found between insomnia and mental illness. Unfortunately   
   mental illness can also cause poor sleep.   
      
   If a person continues to find it difficult to sleep, it can become a vicious   
   circle.   
      
   10. Car crash   
      
   One of the scary things about sleep deprivation is that it can build up over   
   time and then creep up on you.   
      
   You miss an hour or two's sleep each night, but don't notice that it's having   
   a detrimental effect.   
      
   Studies find that people who are driving sleep-deprived don't realise how   
   acute the problem is.   
      
   Driving while sleep deprived can actually be worse than driving drunk -- it   
   has many of the same effects, but is way less obvious to the driver.   
      
   The cure   
      
   The good news is that the cure for most of these deficits is simple: just one   
   good night's sleep will often do the trick.   
      
   After staying awake for 11 days, Randy Gardner reportedly slept for over 14   
   hours the first night, then 10 hours the next night, thereafter he was fully   
   recovered.   
      
   Those must have been some sweet dreams!   
      
   http://www.spring.org.uk/2014/03/sleep-deprivation-the-10-most-p   
   ofound-psychological-effects.php   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)