Can Staying Awake Too Long Really Kill You?

hello I'm Simon Whistler you're watching today I found out and in the video today we're answering a viewer question because Valerie C asks can staying awake too long really kill you and just before you get started I do want to say that this video is brought to you by tunnel bear some of our helps people browse a more open Internet privately and securely to pry tunnel bear free you go to Utah where calm slash brain food every college student knows the ice training pain of a caffeine induced all-nighter it's been well documented that prolonged sleep deprivation will lead to lower cognitive and motor function as well as impaired memory indeed it might even give you a tired giggles no one has ever definitively shown why sleep is necessary for our survival and no person has ever had sleep deprivation listed as their cause of death as prominent sleep researcher John Alan Hobson states the only known function of sleep is to cure sleepiness so now we have today's big question can a lack of sleep really kill you mouse studies have consistently shown if the continued lack of sleep will lead to a 100% chance of death in relatively short order to wit every single Mouse that has been subjected to total sleep deprivation has died within two to three weeks of the experiment start for obvious reasons the same studies have not been performed on humans but given the many animal studies showing this very thing and countless sleep deprivation studies with humans demonstrating the myriad of health problems associated with a lack of sleep the general consensus is that a complete lack of sleep for too long will certainly lead to your early demise however for reasons that will become clear shortly sleep deprivation isn't likely to end up being what's listed as your cause of death alright so with all of that in mind how exactly does sleep deprivation kill you well to answer that let's take a closer look at what makes us want to sleep and what chronic sleep deprivation does to your health maintaining homeostasis is the term used to describe almost every reaction your body is trying to accomplish keeping all of its molecules such as proteins fats electrolytes hormones and even its pH within a specific range for example the body's normal pH ranges 7.35 to 7.45 too far out of this range and your cells begin to die it's not surprising then that things that are more or less acidic doesn't actually affect your blood pH levels in any meaningful way contrary to popular belief your body keeps a pretty tight lock on this using various mechanisms out of simple necessity the same is true of almost every one of the other molecules within the body one of the brain structures responsible for maintaining homeostasis via hormone release is your hypothalamus the hypothalamus controls things like body temperature hunger thirst fatigue emotions growth salt and water balance weight and appetite and the circadian rhythm involved with sleep there are quite a few components working together that make you want to sleep and then wake up they normally revolve around 24-hour cycles which are known as circadian rhythms one factor that makes you want to sleep is the presence of adenosine a purine nucleoside this compound inhibits many of the processes involved with wakefulness specifically inhibiting neurotransmitters like norepinephrine acetylcholine and serotonin adenosine levels will continue to rise in the brain while you're awake they reach their peak in the evening and while sleeping your body will break them down the body also reacts to you cycles of light and dark to regulate sleep when light enters your eyes a nerve pathway between your retina and the hypothalamus gets stimulated an area of your hypothalamus called the suprachiasmatic nucleus or SCN signals countless other parts of your body to begin releasing hormones controlling the desires to be awake or to feel sleepy when darkness ensues the Sen signals your pineal glands to release a hormone called melatonin melatonin will make you feel less alert and sleepier melatonin levels stay elevated for around 12 hours and by 9:00 a.m. assuming a natural light dark cycle are barely detectable in your bloodstream interestingly exposure to certain artificial light can affect melatonin levels significantly for example if you're watching this light the light from the computer screen can reduce melatonin levels and make you feel less sleepy this artificial light problem is why countless medical professionals warn against the effects of too much screen time cellphones computers and television failure to heed their warnings may result in insomnia and subsequent health issues which we're going to get into in a moment when morning comes the SCN will then signal hormones like cortisol to be released cortisol is a stimulating hormone that naturally prepares your body to wake up it effects everything from central nervous system activation blood sugar levels blood pressure and immune responses the rhythm of this sleep wake clock it does vary with age young children tend to sleep more in the early evening and older adults will tend to go to beds and wake up earlier teenagers have melatonin released later at night thus they tend to stay awake and then sleep in newborns don't have the cortisol circadian rhythm and it's patterns won't develop until two weeks to nine months of age now that we know a little bit about how our body's control sleep let's look at the problems that a lack of it can cause a good demonstration of how lack of sleep can kill you can be observed in the progressive neurodegenerative disease called fatal familial insomnia or ffs i FFI is known as a prion disease prions being miss shapen proteins that can accumulate in the brain and caused the death of neurons specifically FFI is caused by a mutation of condon one seven eight on the prion protein gene PRP FFI mainly affects the thalamus and over time the death of the neurons associated with the thalamus caused all of the symptoms of FFI since the hypothalamus and the aforementioned SCM are affected sleep-wake cycles are logically influenced as well the first symptoms of FFI tend to begin usually between the ages of thirty two and sixty two usually beginning with insomnia which progresses to weight loss lack of appetite body temperature problems both too high and too low panic attacks and phobias those symptoms progress to muscle wasting uncoordinated movements forgetfulness that leads to rapidly progressive dementia and unconsciousness while insomnia isn't always the first symptom total inability to sleep is common towards the end death will typically happen 12 to 18 months after the first symptoms most FFI cases are inherited if you haven't there's a 50% chance you'll pass it to your children but don't be too concerned about getting it however as it's extremely rare in fact the mutated gene responsible has only been found in 40 families worldwide as of 2016 only 24 cases of sporadic FFI not inherited have ever been diagnosed with FFI being extremely rare what about the rest of us who maybe only have chronic bad sleep instead of eventual complete inability to do so countless bodily systems affect and are affected by the hormones released by the hypothalamus and the SCN it would take an epic video and more medical jargon than any of you probably want to hear to touch on these specifics of each reaction given this I'll simply go on to mention the results that a lack of sleep can have on your health for the average person getting only 6 hours of sleep a night for one week has been shown to change 711 of your genes those changes could be at the core of why sleep deprivation is so damaging cardiovascularly sleep deprivation has been associated with high blood pressure atherosclerosis too much cholesterol in your arteries heart failure and heart attack a 2011 study from Warwick Medical School found that less than 6 hours of sleep per night gives you a 48 percent greater chance of developing or dying from heart disease if heart problems don't worry you your risk of stroke will quadruple and if you're overweight and get less than six hours of sleep per night compared to people who get 7 to 8 hours of sleep and are of healthy weight all right so why are we bringing weight into it well after just one night of interrupted sleep people tend to eat more and choose higher calorie high carb foods the corporate being those abnormal hormones when you don't get enough sleep your body releases more of the hormone that makes you feel hungry and releases less of the hormone that makes you feel full sleep deprivation also results in higher blood sugar levels increasing your risk of developing type 2 diabetes this is because the lack of sleep decreases your insulin sensitivity basically you're eating more and the body's ability to use those sugars goes down because it won't respond to the insulin that's being released not metabolizing glucose properly leads to carbohydrate cravings furthering the problem if heart attacks obesity strokes and diabetes aren't bad enough potential byproducts of a lack of sleep how about mental health problems a 2006 study performed by doctors Robert Stickgold and Matthew P Walker films that when sleep deprived you form twice as many memories of negative events as you do of positive events further studies by Matthew Walker in 2007 showed that sleep-deprived subjects were unable to put emotional experiences into context and produce an appropriate response these results confirm countless other studies showing poor sleep habits give you a much higher risk of developing depression overall brain health is also effective I'll of sleep the body normally gets rid of waste by the lymphatic system in a nutshell what is being called the glymphatic system it clears the brain of waste products that increase when you're awake brain cells actually reduce in size while sleeping allowing for cerebrospinal fluid to better flow between neurons eliminating more waste studies on the subject show beta amyloid plaques found in between neurons in Alzheimer's disease are eliminated twice as fast when sleeping compared to an awake along with clearing out waste your brain's ability to work is also generally diminished when you avoid shut-eye people who drive after being awake for only 17 to 19 hours have been shown to have the same amount of impaired coordination judgments and reaction times as people with blood alcohol levels of point zero five percent almost as high as the point zero eight percent most states in the US need to convict you of a DUI countless studies have shown immune system problems associated with poor sleep habits for example you're three times more likely to develop a cold when you get fewer than seven hours of sleep per night one theory revolves around the production of certain types of immune system cells called undifferentiated naive t-cells and signaling proteins that are called cytokines when you're sleeping their production Peaks go without sleep and you have less of them and your immune system has a problem forming its memory the parts that recognize an invader attack it and kill it increased risk of cancers are also associated with reduced sleep those who get to less than six hours of sleep a night can expect a 50% increase in the incidence of colorectal adenoma and sleep apnea will increase your risk of getting cancer of any kind if all of this is making you slightly concerned about your sleep habits do rest assured that eliminating the risk is as simple as consistently getting a good night's rest and if you want more information on how to do that check out the links to a couple of great books on sleep in the description below now to emphasize the point here yes a lack of sleep will kill you in the short term purposefully staying awake for more than a couple of weeks in a row will hasten your demise rather quickly in the long term chronically avoiding good sleep will kill you in countless other ways later down the road those more critical of semantics might argue that it's not the sleep deprivation that kills you but rather the reactions by the body to the deprivation in the ends it really matter either way bad sleep habits will undoubtedly prevent the body from being able to maintain homeostasis in many essential functions helping to prove workaholics right they will sleep when they are dead now just before we get into the bonus fact for today's episode I'd love to tell you a little bit about tunnel bear right now any website you visit any search you make can be tracked and that data can be salt recent changes to existing privacy laws unfortunately suggests that that's not going to change anytime soon but the good news is that there is an easy way to protect your online privacy and of course it's called tunnel Bell tunnel bear is the simple privacy app that allows you to browse a more open Internet securely by encrypting your online traffic you become the one and only owner of your browsing searching and viewing history now you can't write on about for free when you visit Tunnel bear com forward slash brain foods all right so let's get into those bonus facts the current scientifically monitored record for voluntarily staying awake belongs to Randy Gardner he set the record in 1965 at 264 hours that's 11 days that being said countless reports have been made of people staying awake for much longer periods on that ánotá Guinness World Records no longer tracks the feet for fear of the health problems associated among those who try while there might be people who have stayed awake longer and most likely there have been Randy's official record appear safe for the foreseeable future on that notes in 2012 a 26 year old man in China attempted to stay awake for more than eleven days attempting to watch every soccer match of the European Championship and he promptly died a doctor from the People's Hospital er stated Liang a false name to protect the victim was formerly in good health but staying up through the night and not sleeping enough weakened his immune system and he drank and smoked while watching the football triggering his condition so I really hope you enjoyed that video if you did please do hit that thumbs up below and don't forget to visit our sponsor at Tommy bear comm forward slash brain food tri for free check out some videos from the archives over there on the right and as always thank you for watching you

Channel: Today I Found Out

Views: 384,750

Rating: 4.9108052 out of 5

Keywords: today i found out, tifovidz12, tifo, awesome, facts, didn't know, staying awake, what happens if you stay awake, will you die, does lack of sleep kill, consequences of lack of sleep, can you die from lack of sleep, sleep deprivation, sleep deprivation experiments, can you live without sleep, never sleep, can people never sleep

Id: Z6ikJttzazE

Length: 13min 14sec (794 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 23 2017