What Are The Symptoms Of Sleep Deprivation?

Sleep and mental health often go hand in hand, and a bad night’s sleep can contribute to the disruption of your mental health.

With work, family, and other life commitments, many of us just don’t get the recommended seven to eight hours of sleep that our body needs to function at optimal level.

Having another cup of coffee to get us through the day has become the norm.

It can be easy to dismiss the importance of sleep, there’s always so much to do, and not enough hours in the day. However, believe it or not adequate hours of sleep are crucial to a healthy mental lifestyle.

My sleeping habits were terrible. My pattern was either sleeping on time and waking up in the early hours of the morning , then struggle to go back to sleep. Then on some days, I’d stay up till the early hours, eventually dose off for what felt like 10 mins, just to be woken up by a blaring alarm clock.

I was continuously fatigued, irritable, and downright miserable. It didn’t matter how many naps I tried to get in, it was just never enough to lift this constant state of exhaustion. I tried different techniques to help me sleep a little better, but for the most part, they were also not the healthiest remedies. When counting sheep, and homoeopathic medication didn’t work, I opted for alcohol consumption, sleeping tablets or intense physical activity.

In the long run these proved ineffective- Instead of helping me they just exacerbated my already volatile mental state and, in some cases, made me feel even worse than before.

It wasn’t after I changed my diet and stopped excessively drinking alcohol that my sleeping patterns improved, drastically. Now, not only am I able to sleep for longer periods of time, but I am far more effective, productive and happier overall, than I was before.

Many of us may not know how detrimental sleep deprivation could be to our day-to-day function or what the symptoms may look like. Below I have listed a few signs to help you see if you might be suffering from this affliction, and to help you find the right solutions in treating it sooner rather than later.