Sleep is For The Weak 🤔: Science doesn't think So.

Gee! Have you heard those motivational speakers on YouTube these days? Yelling all over the place.

Don't sleep!!! Don't sleep!!!

Source

Some years back, I fell in love with these kinds of videos on YouTube because they fired me up to be determined to accomplish more in my life. A few days later, I began to feel the negative impact of my newly incorporated routine of sleeping less to accomplish more.

Now, don't get me wrong. What Steve Harvey is saying in the video above is very true. You need to control the time you wake up to be effective in your field or career. The only part I don't really agree with is the reduction of sleep time.

You see, there is this misconception that when you reduce the amount of sleep, it means you are a serious person or a high achiever. But, in actual sense, it's what you do when you wake up that matters. If I sleep less, wake up early, and do nothing meaningful, my life would still be the same. If I sleep 12 hours a day (that's ridiculous) but wake up to do something valuable for humanity, I would still be a higher achiever than the person who slept 4 hours and did nothing because I will receive a higher reward for what I do.

Here is the real deal, guys!

Reducing the amount of sleep you get can actually be detrimental to your success, and I will explain why shortly.

Here is my version of this:

• Not sleeping will make you weak.
• It's the weak that should sleep.
• Sleep is for the wise.
• Sleep will make you successful.

Now those are some bold claims to make, right?

Let's look at this from the scientific perspective.

You see, you need your brain to be at its best to be highly productive. And guess who the brain's worst enemy is?

Lack of Sleep.

Yep!

I'm pretty sure you are aware that a lack of sleep or chronic sleep deprivation can lead to death. Yes! Not directly though. The effects of depriving yourself of enough sleep can build up over a period and cause an impact on your health. This then increases your risk of obesity, stroke, diabetes, and other sleep-deprived related diseases. I believe the video below throws a lot of light on the effect of not sleeping, so if you can spend some time watching it 👇:

Some random stuff you should know about not sleep:

A lack of sufficient sleep can and will prevent your brain from being able to make new memories. This means storing new information will be very difficult. I wonder how you can be productive that way as my motivational speakers advise? 🤔..

How does this happen?

Not sleeping or not getting sufficient sleep increases beta-amyloid in the brain. This is a toxic protein associated with Alzheimer's disease. And you know what that means right? Memory loss and loads of confusion due to brain cells (neurons) shrinking and dying.

You see, there is a sewage system in our brain that's sort of activated when we fall into deep sleep. It then begins to wash away these toxic proteins to prevent this Alzheimer's disease.

I don't get this?

Why deprive yourself of sleep and "work hard," make all the money, then use the money for treatment later on in life because you deprived your brain in the process? 🤷

Anyways, that's just my thoughts? Back to the main topic:

Here are some compelling reasons:

Did you know that a lack of sufficient sleep can affect your reproductive system? 👀😬

Yep! Your testosterone levels lower due to this harm you are causing to your body.

You don't want to be firing blanks, do you?

Insufficient sleep also impacts your immune system as it reduces the number of immune cells that fight against diseases like cancer. So yeah, you risk yourself of getting numerous forms of cancer by depriving yourself of sleep in search for something you may deem as more "valuable".

Another part of your body insufficient sleep affects is your cardiovascular system. When we are in deep sleep, our heart rates and blood pressure go down. It's the opposite when we deprive ourselves. This will increase the risk of a heart attack or even a stroke in your lifetime.

Overall, every part of our body is somewhat directly or indirectly affected by insufficient sleep.

You remember a day where you skipped bedtime or slept late and had to wake up early? The following day was just garbage, right? This is because our brain is greatly impaired when we deny it of its rest time. Meaning our cognitive functions are affected. Also, this can lead to an increase in cortisol. If you've been following my blogs lately, you'd know that this means stress.

How then can you become a high achiever in this kind of state?

By the way, some people's reduction of sleep is not even about achieving anything; it's due to a large amount of time spent on social media flipping through short videos which are so addictive that prevents them from sleeping. This is greatly detrimental to your health and will lead to many of these issues mentioned in this blog post.

What should I do?

Google it 👀. Just messing with you!

You see, you need to take care of your body for it to take care of you by giving you the productive results you would need. It's a give and take situation. You must consciously decide to have not less than 8 hours of sleep per day. This is the best-required amount of time your body needs to reset itself by repairing worn-out tissues, detoxifying, and functioning properly.

Bonus point, researchers' findings state that after 16 hours of awake time, your system starts to deteriorate.

Now obviously there will be some days where you might need to burn the midnight candle. It would be preposterous for me to say get 8 hours of sleep every night in your entire lifetime considering the state of our world currently and how some people need to work to feed their homes. If you are able to do that well done 👏

But it's just not possible!

What I'm saying is, don't make this a habit and try your very best to find the balance as your health and life are at risk. Don't neglect your body in the process as it might also neglect you later on...

If you are in a situation that constantly requires you to deprive yourself of sleep, the best is to quickly start to find a way out by seeking other alternatives to your situation.

I hope this episode has been helpful. This is basically to create an awesome of sleep deprivation. I really hope you enjoyed reading.

I would be happy to hear your opinions on this topic or if you love my blogs, let me know how best to improve it. I enjoy doing this and I want to make sure you also enjoy reading.

I will catch you in the next blog post!

Have the Best of Sleep Tonight!

References and links:

Verywell Health - Can Sleep Deprivation Cause Your Death?

ScienceDirect - Beta Amyloid

Mayo Clinic - Alzheimer's Disease

Sleep Center Info - 5 Shocking Ways Sleep Deprivation or Insomnia Affects Your Body

Sleep and Stress