If you are not able to sleep this can affect you in many ways. Some of these ways may even surprise you. Fortunately, there are things you can do to get the slumber you need so you can get a good night's rest. The first thing you should do is to go to a doctor to make sure you do not have any health problem that can cause sleep problems.
How Sleep Deprivation
Going without sleep for long periods of time can affect you both mentally and physically.
Some mental issues a lack of sleep can cause includes symptoms like depression and anxiety. Depression will cause you to feel sad for no reason at all. You will also become even more tired than you currently feel. You can also become angry for no reason at all and lose interest in things that you normally love to do. After many days of no sleep you could develop hallucinations.
Because sleep deprivation can cause high stress levels this can affect your heart. For example, you may have high blood pressure which can lead to heart attacks. You may have an irregular heartbeat which can also cause heart problems. You also may have many headaches due to high anxiety and stress.
Tips to Help You Sleep Well
One thing that can help you sleep is to take medication. You can get this medication over the counter and also through your doctor. A prescription will be much stronger, however. It is not a good idea to take this type of medication for long periods as they can become addictive.
Another tip is going to a sleep center, which does sleep studies to help determine why you are not sleeping well. The sleep center has rooms set up that look like rooms in a hotel even though you are in a medical facility. You will get to sleep in a normal bed, as it could help you fall asleep faster. Along with the bed there will be medical equipment to help detect your sleep problems. This equipment monitors your eye movement, brain activity, heart rate, and body movements.
The sleep center may ask you to keep a sleep journal. With this you will write in the journal in the mornings when you wake up. If you wake up in the middle of the night, you could write in the journal then as well.
A sleep center can give you much more information on how this will work to help you sleep.
