Calculating the Health Risk of Sleep Deprivation
QHHL 
Oct 11 2018
0 
0 QHHL
Not sleeping enough can be a serious health risk. And now, there’s a test that can tell you just how dangerous it might be for your overall health.
Sleep is incredibly important. Not only does it give you the chance to rest, it also gives your brain and body a chance to heal. Most people know about the importance of sleep. But until recently, there have been few objective tests about the consequences of insomnia. That’s why researchers have been looking into this problem. And now, they may have found the first test that can give them some objective evidence. If you’re concerned about the long term effects of bad sleeping patterns, here’s what you need to know.
A lack of sleep can be very dangerous. One example that immediately springs to mind is how sleep deprivation affects driving ability. Sleep deprivation actually has a similar effect on the brain as alcohol does. This is why it’s thought to be a leading cause of traffic accidents. When you’re tired, your reaction time gets slower. So if something happens, it will take you longer to react. And when driving, this could be deadly. There is also the danger of falling asleep at the wheel. When this occurs, it threatens the wellbeing of every person on the road.
Sleep deprivation also affects your everyday productivity. Everyone knows that feeling, when you’re trying to work but are feeling too groggy to think. This can severely affect your work productivity and cause you to make mistakes. And if you’re determined to succeed in your career, this can be a serious problem.
For these reasons, and more, it would be good to be able to accurately calculate the effects of sleep deprivation. This would not only allow people to understand the short term consequences of interrupted sleep. It would also help medical professionals understand the health risk of long term sleep disturbances. And this would be pivotal in designing interventions to overcome the problems.
A recent study has found a new way to measure sleep deprivation through a blood test. If this test proves effective, it will give people a way to measure how much sleep someone has had. This would help medical practitioners and law enforcement agents calculate risk in these very different aspects of life.
During the test, the 36 participants skipped a night of sleep. They stayed awake for 40 hours and gave blood tests to the researchers during that time. The researchers analyzed the expression of genes in the sample by applying a machine learning algorithm. In an astonishing result, the researchers were able to identify 68 genes that were affected by the lack of sleep. The way these genes were expressed noticeably changed because of the sleep deprivation. This result allowed them, with a 92 percent accuracy rate, to identify people who were sleep deprived.
Gene expression is vitally important. It describes the process by which information in the genes is used to produce new cells. Most genes produce proteins, which are the building blocks for every part of your body. Thus, if their expression is changed, it could result in errors in the new proteins. When this occurs, it can severely affect how your body grows over time. And this could be devastating for your long term health and wellbeing. The importance of gene expression makes the results of this study extremely worrying.
Sleep deprivation is a serious health risk in the short and long term. Although the extent of this risk isn’t fully understood, it’s obviously a major problem for a lot of people. So if you have trouble sleeping, you need to take action. Investigate interventions that will help you sleep better. And make monitoring your sleeping patterns part of your regular health risk assessment. Because it will help you understand your own health status in the long term.
This test also has implications for sleep assessments as a whole. Everyone is different, and at the moment there is no way to measure the effects of sleep deprivation on the individual. This test could allow people to better define their own optimal sleep levels. And this would give them a better idea of when the problem has become serious or health threatening. It could also give medical professionals a better idea of the healing effects of sleep and just how much it benefits the body.
So if you’re concerned about sleep deprivation, try using HomeLab to keep track of your condition and any preventative measures you take. And if you see signs of a significant problem, you should check with your doctor as soon as possible.
Tags: health risk, health risk assessment, sleep, insomnia