Sleep deprivation is very common and it no doubt happens frequently to almost everyone globally. People who suffer from lack of sleep, often feel depressed, stressed and sometimes miserable, because their bodies do not function properly especially in the long run, which can lead to serious consequences, such as obesity and diabetes.

So how much sleep do we really need? Ideally for a child it’s nine to eleven hours of sleep, for a teen it’s eight to ten and for an adult it’s seven to nine hours of sleep. Anything less than that can lead to insomnia and regular sleeping problems. To identify issues with sleep, it’s momentum to distinguish the causes of sleep deprivation that ultimately affects our daily routine, causes such as phone addiction, going through negative emotions, facing an unpredictable event or dealing with health issues. Negative emotions can be seen as a healthy, but excessive negative emotions that can eat away our sleep, unfortunately leads to countless health issues.

I’ve conducted an interview with Elena Jin asking general questions about sleep deprivation.

she first started talking about how much sleep she used to get per day- “fours to five hours of sleep during school days”. also mentioned how much work she used to get from school and how anxiety was an immense barrier to her sleep. It wasn’t a massive problem , because she knew other people who were sleep deprived. “I thought it was normal,” she spoke.

Difficulties started to escalate however, when she had signs of sleep deprivation. “I was a lot tired and frustrated on the tiniest things and I just couldn’t get work done.” I asked her if she knew why Elena responded that “I knew I was not getting the recommended hours of sleep, but I neglected the signs of sleep deprivation and just went on with my day,” since she thought that the whole situation was trivial. It was only when her fatigueness accumulated that made her sit down and think what caused her to feel this way. “I would sometimes fall asleep on my homework or something, so I wasn’t really getting enough work done. My mum also asked me if I was feeling alright.” That’s when Elena felt she needed more sleep at night and took a note of some of the causes that kept her awake.

Hearing this unveiled to me how much we compromise our sleep even though it’s the most crucial thing for our bodies. This led me to ask my respondent of habits that kept her awake at night. “Phone, work and overthinking. I motivated myself to cut off these habits by drinking more water and threw my phone away far from my bed, so I could sleep more.” Even though this was a small issue, it’s crazy to think how much harm it could do to our body,” Elena added. After this I thanked her for taking her time to participate in this interview.

Sleep is vital for good health (physically and mentally), further performing someone’s well being, due to our bodies repairing and our brain supporting certain functions. Nevertheless, if an issue is peril to your sleep, despite turning away from the causes affecting your sleep then consult a doctor or a GP for professional advice.

By Layba Ahmed