What happens when you don’t get enough sleep?

Sleep is something we all need yet lack due to our busy lifestyles, but did you know sleep is more than just giving our body some rest? At a recent media briefing Dr Chandimani Undugodage, Consultant Respiratory Physician and Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Sri Jayawardenapura explained that sleep was important as it enables proper body functioning via relaxation and rejuvenation of body systems and generation of new body cells. She pointed out that hormonal changes also occur during sleep “In small children, adequate sleep helps proper growth,” she shared. However, sleep disorders such as Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA) can interrupt sleep and lower the quality of sleep resulting in various health complications. Talking about proper sleep in this article is timely given that World Sleep Day falls today (March 18). 

What is OSA?
“It is a sleep disorder where a person stops breathing during their sleep due to the temporary closure of the upper airway. This can cause a lack of oxygen going into the blood, brain and other organs. When the brain senses the lack of oxygen, it will bring the person from deep sleep to light sleep. Sometimes the person might even be jolted awake. In a person with OSA, they can have repeated awakenings in the night resulting in poor quality of sleep,” explained Dr Undugodage. 

Speaking at the press conference, Dr S. Rishikesavan, Consultant Respiratory Physician at the District General Hospital, Chilaw pointed out that people with OSA tend to have less Non-REM and REM sleep than necessary which also leads to lower quality of sleep. “In Non-REM (deep sleep) stage, the entire body system is relaxed and regenerates itself which is necessary for proper body function and in the REM stage, there is increased brain activity which helps to strengthen memory. When these stages do not occur as necessary, it can cause health problems.” 

According to a study they had conducted in 2013/2014, 16% of the Sri Lankan population was at risk for OSA. However the doctors noted the figures could be higher as the global risk of OSA and its prevalence has also increased. “One of the main reasons for the increasing risk of OSA is due to the increase of obesity in the population. Nowadays, we see that more children and younger people are at risk for OSA,” stated Dr Undugodage. She noted that to reduce the risk of OSA and to prevent it from developing into severe OSA, it is important to live an active lifestyle and not be obese.

 Complications of OSA and poor sleep
An episode of OSA can cause the body to undergo a stress condition releasing stress hormones. This results in increased heart rate, blood pressure and blood glucose. Lack of oxygen also results in increased red blood cell production causing increased hemoglobin levels. “Long term effects of this would cause the patient to be at risk for abnormal heart rhythms, cardiac diseases, stroke, diabetes, hypertension, impotence, loss of memory power and OSA can also cause sudden cardiac death (dying suddenly while asleep),” shared Dr Undugodage. 
She also explained that those with OSA would have following signs: snoring, excessive daytime sleepiness, cessation of breathing while asleep, high blood pressure at young age, poorly controlled diabetes, obesity.

“It is important to seek medical attention if OSA is suspected as it can be controlled and the development of serious health complications can be prevented,” stated Dr Rishikesavan.
He also noted that it was important to have an adequate good quality sleep as having poor quality and inadequate sleep increases one’s risk for various diseases, even cancer. “Lack of proper quality sleep can also cause personality changes, irritable mood, loss of productivity and can even be dangerous if the person drives as drivers falling asleep on the wheel causes road accidents.” 

 On 18 March, Sri Lanka College of Pulmonologists will be launching sleepbetter.lk, a website for the general public to learn further about importance of sleep and sleep disorders.  
Pix by Kithsiri De Mel