Sleep loss is harmful to your health, and research continues to find out the exact cause that your body suffers when it loses sufficient quality sleep.

Many are at risk, including those who struggle with insomnia, as well as people who work long, erratically or at night.

Ambulance staff often fall into the latter category, and studies presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America in 2016, showed what the consequences for the heart it can lead to.

What happens to the body with a lack of sleep Researchers from the University of Bonn in Germany did x-ray radiologists before and after the 24-hour shift, during which they had only about three hours of sleep. Significant cardiac tension, a precursor of cardiac problems, was noted after a lack of sleep.

Also, other disturbing changes were noted, including an increase in blood pressure, heart rhythm and thyroid hormones, indicating a stress response.

What happens to your heart when you do not have enough sleep?.

People who sleep less than seven hours a day have an increased risk of heart disease, and this is true regardless of other factors affecting heart health such as age, weight, smoking and physical activity.

According to the National Sleep Foundation (NSF):.

"In one study that examined the data of 3,000 adults over the age of 45, it was found that those who slept less than six hours a day had a double chance of getting a stroke or heart attack than people who were sleeping from six up to eight hours a day.

It's not entirely clear why less sleep damages the health of the heart, but researchers understand that lack of sleep causes disruptions in basic health and biological processes such as glucose metabolism, blood pressure and inflammation.

Meanwhile, it is no coincidence that people who struggle with apnea, which causes constant nocturnal awakenings, often have heart problems.

Women with apnea tend to have a higher level of troponin T protein, which is a marker of heart damage, and a greater likelihood of heart enlargement, which is a risk factor for heart disease.

"... [B] e of prolonged deep periods of rest," notes NSF, "certain chemicals are activated that prevent the body from reaching long periods when heart rate and blood pressure are reduced.

This can also increase the risk of high blood pressure and heart problems.

Nevertheless, the danger is not only threatened by people with sleep disorders such as apnea. Sleep disorders due to insomnia, poor sleep habits or work schedules can also put your heart health at risk.

One recent study found that even in children shorter duration of sleep is associated with increased arterial rigidity, a risk factor for heart disease and stroke.

Saving on sleep can increase the risk of automobile accidents by four times.

When you do not get enough sleep, your problem-solving skills become weaker and the reaction time slows down. Also, there are long periods of lack of concentration and reduced response accuracy, which are particularly problematic during driving.

In a report published by the Road Safety Foundation of the American Automobile Association (AAA), the researchers compared driving in a sleepy state with driving with excess of the legal alcohol concentration in the blood.

Lack of sleep, even for one or two hours, the next day almost doubled the risk of participation of those studied in a car accident. If the lack of sleep increased, and the participants slept only four or five hours a day, the risk of a car crash increased fourfold.

According to the Road Safety Fund AAA:.

"Early studies of the AAA Road Safety Fund revealed that 7% of all accidents, 13 [percent] of accidents that lead to hospitalization, and 21% of deaths are associated with driver drowsiness.

Lack of sleep is a time bomb A lack of sleep has played a role in many catastrophic events, including Chernobyl, the Three Mile Island accident, the Challenger explosion and much more..

This is not surprising, since it is known that it causes dull reaction, but the researchers also found that lack of sleep is particularly problematic for decision-making under conditions of uncertainty and unexpected changes. They concluded:.

"Blunted responses to feedback in the absence of sleep are the cause of the inability to adapt to uncertainty and changes in unforeseen circumstances. Thus, an error can be recorded, but with a reduced effect due to a decrease in the affective valence of the feedback, or because the feedback is not related to the choice of cognitively.

This has important implications for understanding and managing cognitive impairments caused by a loss of sleep, in responding to emergencies, managing natural disasters, warfare and other dynamic real-world conditions with uncertain results and imperfect information.

For example, when in 1986 the Chernobyl reactor failed, the engineers involved in the disaster worked for 13 hours or more before the crisis. Similarly, the space shuttle Challenger exploded after its launch in January 1986, killing all seven people on board.

The managers involved in the launch slept only two hours before arriving at work at one o'clock in the morning, and the presidential commission for the accident noted:.

"The willingness of NASA staff to work overtime, although it deserves admiration, but raises serious questions when it jeopardizes the quality of work, especially when critical management decisions are at stake.

Even a "small" lack of sleep is harmful. It's amazing that only small changes in sleep can seriously change your brain, body and behavior.. As noted in the AAA report, even a decrease in the amount of sleep by one hour increases the risk of a car accident the next day.

This is also evidenced by the transition to summer time (DST), the practice of moving hours forward one hour in the summer months and returning them back in winter.

Studies presented at the annual academic sessions of the American College of Cardiology have shown that the risk of a heart attack on Monday after switching to summer time (when one hour of sleep is lost) grows by 25 percent compared to other Mondays.

At the end of summer, when the clock is moved back one hour, so people get an extra hour of sleep, the risk of a heart attack falls by 21 percent.

In addition, a neurologist at the University of Washington told CBS News that shifting the hours forward by one hour correlates with a significant increase in the number of road accidents and heart attacks within the next two to three days.

Studies also show that switching to daylight saving time leads to increased workplace injuries (frequency and severity), as well as a delay in response time that affects productivity.

Trying to work in the absence of sleep - how to work drunk You probably will not try to work or drive after excessive alcohol consumption. Nevertheless, almost everyone tried to do business after a lack of sleep. Worrying is the fact that research continues to prove that in essence these are the same states.

For example, one study from the University of Michigan (U-M) found that even six hours of sleep at night is too small and this can make you functionally weakened, as if drunk. The mathematician U-M and study author Olivia Walch said:.

"It will not take very many days of lack of sleep, so that you become functionally drunk. The researchers found that excessive fatigue can have such an effect.

It's scary that people think that they perform tasks much better than they do in reality. Your productivity is reduced, but your perception of performance remains at the same level.

In February 2016 g. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that 1 in 3 adults is not getting enough sleep.

In this case, a "sufficient" sleep was defined as seven or more hours per day, but many adults may need to be closer to eight hours a day (and, therefore, a lack of sleep can affect even more than one in three adults).

In addition to harming the heart and increasing the risk of a serious accident or injury, the researchers found that when participants reduce their sleep from 7.5 to 6.5 hours per day, there is an increase in activity in genes associated with inflammation, immune excitability, diabetes, cancer and stress.

Interrupted or debilitated sleep can also:.

Increase the risk of developing cancer To harm your brain by stopping the production of new neurons. Lack of sleep can increase the level of corticosterone (a stress hormone), resulting in fewer new brain cells in your hippocampus. To promote a pre-diabetic insulin-resistant condition that makes you feel hungry, even if you have already eaten, which can lead to weight gain. premature aging, interfering with the production of growth hormone, usually released by the pituitary gland during deep sleep (and during certain types of exercise, such as intense interval t enirovka) increase the risk of death from any cause is how lack of sleep affects your heart to do it right now to get a better sleep tonight if you have trouble sleeping, it's time to take action to get a better night's rest. Perhaps the most important natural "trick" for improving sleep is to make sure that you get the proper exposure to bright light throughout the day and the absence of blue light at night.

In the morning, bright sunlight signals your body that it's time to wake up. At night, when the sun sets, darkness should signal your body that it's time to sleep. Ideally, to help your circadian system restart itself, in the morning get at least 10-15 minutes of exposure to natural light.

This will send a message to your internal clock that the day has started, which will help them less likely not to get confused due to weaker light signals during the day.

Then, approximately on a sunny afternoon, get another "dose" of sunlight for at least 30 minutes. Even better - an hour or more. If your schedule is such that you need to get up and come to work before sunrise, try to get at least half an hour of bright sunlight during the day.

In the evening, when the sun begins to set, put on amber glasses that block the blue light.

You can also dampen artificial light (be it LEDs, incandescent lights or compact fluorescent lights [CFLs]) and turn off electronic devices to reduce exposure to light that can inhibit the production of melatonin.

Even better, replace the LED bulbs with incandescent or low-voltage halogen bulbs. After sunset, you can also turn on the lamp with low power consumption with yellow, orange or red light, if you need lighting.

The salt lamp, illuminated by a 5-watt bulb, is the ideal solution that will not interfere with your melatonin production. Candle is also suitable.

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