Lower Sleep Time May Cause Dehydration
Several people are not getting enough good sleep, which can have an impact on their health, happiness, and capacity to carry out daily tasks.
Individual sleep needs can vary, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advise individuals to get at least 7 hours of sleep each night. Additionally, they predict that one-third of Americans do not get much sleep.
A person’s ability to perform well at school or work, their ability to function daily, their quality of life, and their health can all be negatively impacted by persistently poor sleep. Interruptions to sleep that occur occasionally can be annoying.
Both the quantity and quality of sleep should be taken into account.
No matter how many hours a person sleeps, if the quality of their sleep is poor, they will still feel exhausted the next day.
Symptoms Of Poor Sleep Include:
Breathing issues, such as sleep apnea, waking up frequently at night, an uncomfortable bed, or an atmosphere that is excessively hot, cold, or noisy. Various signs of not obtaining enough good sleep could manifest in an individual with symptoms, such as:
- fatigue
- irritability
- mood shifts
- diminished sex drive
- memory problems
- difficulties concentrating
How Does It Affect Your Body?
Lack of sleep can have an impact on several facets of health, including:
Immune system:
Weight:
Sleep can have an impact on the hormones that regulate hunger and fullness.
It may also cause insulin to be released.
Increased fat accumulation, changes in body weight, and a higher risk of type 2 diabetes can all be the results of sleep disorders.
The cardiovascular system:
Sleep has an impact on the mechanisms that keep blood pressure, sugar levels, and inflammation under control as well as on the healing and rebuilding of heart vessels.
Cardiovascular disease risk may be increased by getting insufficient sleep.
Hormone production:
The production of hormones particularly the production of testosterone and growth hormones can be impacted by insufficient sleep. Additionally, it triggers the body to release more stress chemicals like cortisol and norepinephrine.
The prefrontal cortex, which manages intellect, and the amygdala, which manages emotion, are both impacted by lack of sleep.
A person’s ability to create new memories may be hampered by a lack of sleep, which might impact learning.
Fertility:
Lack of sleep may have an impact on the hormones that increase fertility.
Higher chances of facing accidents
Lack of sleep can make it harder to:
- Keep an eye out
- swiftly react and take action
A person who sleeps too little may be more likely to drive when fatigued, which might result in accidents.
One survey found that 1 in 25 American adults admitted to falling asleep behind the wheel within the previous month.
If a person feels sleepy, they should not operate machinery or drive.
Long-Term Consequences and Difficulties:
Long-term issues of not getting enough sleep may increase the risk of:
- hypertension
- either insulin resistance or diabetes
- Obesity and sleep apnea
- cardiac arrest
- stroke
- causes of anxiety
- sadness
- psychosis
There are numerous causes for why someone might not get enough sleep.
Examples comprise:
- Meeting for the shift utilizing electronic devices close to bedtime or keeping them in the bedroom, meeting deadlines, having a noisy or uncomfortable sleeping environment, having health issues like depression or sleep apnea, or caring for someone else throughout the night.
Health Conditions That Frequently Interfere With Sleep Include:
- syndrome of protracted weariness
- drug abuse
- persistent pain
- anxiety
- despair
- bipolar disorder
- schizophrenia
- obesity
- sleep apnea
- narcolepsy, sometimes known as teeth-grinding
Did You Know Less Sleep Can Cause Dehydration?
Data from two sizable investigations, the Chinese Kailuan Study and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, were examined by Rosinger and colleagues.
Around 20,000 young fit adults who supplied urine samples and answered questions about their sleep patterns were all included in the study.
Specific gravity and osmolality, two indicators of dehydration, were checked in the urine samples by the researchers.
To examine the relationship between water and sleep duration, Rosinger and the team also used logistic regression models.
They discovered that persons with regular sleep patterns of 6 hours or less per night had much more concentrated urine than those with regular sleep patterns of 8 hours or more.
In comparison to sleeping 8 hours, shorter sleep duration was linked to greater probabilities of poor hydration in American and Chinese individuals, the investigators write.
To be more precise, those who said they typically slept for 6 hours or less every night had a 16-59% higher chance of becoming dehydrated compared to those who slept for 8 hours per night.
These findings held true for both samplings of the population. The study also showed no correlation between receiving nine or even more hours of sleep each night and any outcome.
If you are only receiving 6 hours of sleep a night, it can influence your hydration state, the main author said in response to the findings. He then also said that this study indicates that if you do not get enough sleep, you will feel lousy or exhausted the next day.
The findings, according to the researchers, might be a reflection of the vasopressin hormone’s nocturnal pattern. The kidneys are instructed to keep fluid in the body rather than excrete it through urine by the pituitary gland in the brain during sleep.
If a person wakes up early, less vasopressin will reach the kidneys in time to help them preserve water because the pituitary gland typically releases more of the hormone later in the sleep cycle.
Increasing your sleep is the best treatment, of course. When you first wake up, make sure to hydrate with at least one full glass of water, but if you cannot, do so.
Results Could Be Explained By Vasopressin:
Although the current research is simply observational and cannot establish causation, the researchers believe that the hormone vasopressin may be to blame for the association between insufficient sleep and dehydration. An antidiuretic hormone called vasopressin regulates the body’s water balance both during the day and at night.
Researchers stated that vasopressin is released more quickly and later in the sleep cycle and that if you get up early, you can miss the window when more of the hormone is released, which could alter the body’s hydration. The authors recommend that more research be done on the connection between sleep deprivation and dehydration.
For instance, longitudinal studies can assess hydration levels at baseline and again after a week of low sleep. Dehydration has several harmful implications on health. It may result in weariness, headaches, and muscle weakness. Dehydration can affect mood and reduce cognitive function.
