Proven! It only takes one night of sleeplessness to affect your well being

If you are under the impression that your weekly sleep requirement can be covered up over the weekend, then here’s a study to prove you wrong. According to researchers at Annals of Behavioral Medicine, it takes only one night of sleep loss to affect your physical and mental health. The study included 2000 middle-aged adults who were relatively healthy and well educated. Researchers observed the result of sleeping less than six hours for eight consecutive nights.

Soomi Lee, Assistant Professor at University of Florida and lead author of the paper said that as per the results, one night of sleep loss significantly impairs daily functioning. When observed further, by day three, mental and physical problems steadily peaked and by day six, participants reported that the severity of physical symptoms was at its worst. There was reportedly, a pile-up of anger, nervousness, loneliness, irritability and frustrating feelings as a result of sleep loss. They also experienced more physical symptoms, such as upper respiratory issues, aches and gastrointestinal problems.

In order to avoid these, Lee said that the best way to maintain a strong daily performance is to set aside more than six hours to sleep every night.