Areas of Your Life That Can Be Impacted By Lack of Sleep and Increase Your Risk for Injury

Staying up late partying, watching movies, playing games, or hanging with friends can be really fun. But if you make a habit of such things, it can really mess up your sleep schedule. Maybe you don’t do these things and are having trouble sleeping for other reasons. Regardless of why you might not be getting sleep, it’s important that you make the changes necessary to get adequate sleep. Not getting sleep is dangerous. Here are six areas of your life that can be affected by lack of sleep.

Driving

Driving while drowsy is extremely dangerous. Drowsy driving is nearly as dangerous as drunk driving. And just like drunk driving, your brain will often trick you into believing that you can handle it. If you are going to be driving the next day, you need to make sure that you get good sleep. According to Bruscato Law, fatigued driving happens when a driver becomes so tired that they are unaware of their surroundings and can increase the risk of falling asleep at the wheel. It’s estimated that there are tens of thousands of crashes every year as a result of drowsy driving.

If you are driving and are starting to feel drowsy, pull over and sleep before continuing. No destination is so important that it is worth risking your life and the lives of your passengers. The second that you feel like you need to shake yourself to stay awake, or that you want to close your eyes for longer, you are too tired to keep going.

Sports and Fitness Activities

To perform well in sports and other fitness activities, according to Thorne, you need your strength. If you’re not getting enough sleep, you will be tiring out your body. It won’t have time to recover fully between workouts, practices, or games. This leaves your body weakened and more prone to injury.

Strength isn’t the only thing that will be affected. You will also have an impaired balance, coordination, and thinking. All of these things are going to be important for successful participation in athletics. Even a small amount of sleep deprivation will affect you. You may not even notice it, but you will be performing below your capabilities.

Work

If you don’t get your sleep, your work is going to go very poorly. If you are a manual laborer, you are going to have a hard time keeping up with the rigors of your work. You will slow down, and this could result in you earning less or getting fired. Even if you aren’t a manual laborer, you will have a hard time processing information and remembering important details. You will be much more prone to making mistakes. In some cases, this will be an easy fix. In other cases, you could end up doing something dangerous.

School

If getting good grades is important to you, then you need to get your z’s. It may seem like a paradox at times. If you don’t stay up late studying, you won’t do well on your test. But, if you don’t sleep well, you still won’t do well on your test. The best answer is to choose sleep. By studying a little before bed, and then getting a good night’s rest, you will have the best chance of remembering important information. Choosing to forego sleep will result in an inability to remember things, difficulty paying attention and learning, and a tendency to fall asleep in class.

Cooking

Lack of sleep can make your brain foggy. When this occurs, you are much more likely to do things that are foolish. If you are cooking, this could lead to you grabbing something hot and burning yourself. Lack of sleep will also affect your coordination. As Home Care Assistance says, you could easily cut yourself while chopping fruit and vegetables. Your ability to accurately measure ingredients will also be affected. Who knows? You could even accidentally switch your sugar for salt.

Everything

In case you haven’t gotten the gist yet, lack of sleep impairs your decision making, your physical strength, balance, memory, and coordination. These are important attributes in every part of your life. You need to get your sleep if you want to have a happy and productive life. Not following a regular sleeping schedule can be a slippery slope that leads to dissatisfaction with personal performance.

None of this is to say that you can’t enjoy a late night occasionally. Just make sure that you are smart about it. Consider what you have going on the next day. If you aren’t going to be able to sleep in, you need to ask yourself, “Is it worth underperforming tomorrow?” If the answer is yes, stay up. If the answer is no, then you should head to bed.

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