10 Things That Happen To Your Body When You Lack Sleep

1. Lack of sleep makes you sick

Find yourself getting sick a little too often? Believe it or not, your lack of sleep may be to blame!

Your body needs sleep in order to keep your immune system strong. When you skip sleep, you make it easier to get sick.

And once you’re sick, you may have a hard time sleeping. It creates a vicious cycle that can be very difficult to escape.

2. Lack of sleep hurts your heart

Heart health is very important. And you should do whatever you can to reduce the risk of things like coronary heart disease and stroke.

Unfortunately, a lack of sleep greatly increases your risk for those cardiac events. By sleeping more each night, you can help keep your heart nice and healthy.

3. Lack of sleep increases your risk of cancer

In some ways, nothing is scarier than cancer. And that’s partly because we are constantly discovering new things that increase your cancer risk.

And you guessed it: skipping sleep increases your risk factor for certain cancers. Specifically, it increases your risk for breast cancer, prostate cancer, and even colorectal cancer.

It goes both ways, though. If you can strive to get at least seven hours of sleep each night, you can reduce your cancer risk in a big way.

RELATED: 10 Signs You May Have Cancer

4. Lack of sleep makes it hard to think

When you haven’t had much sleep, that morning cup of coffee starts to look very good. We use coffee to clear the cobwebs from our brain and to think a bit more clearly.

Unfortunately, not getting enough sleep can lead to issues that no amount of coffee can fix. Your brain will eventually experience issues with memory, reasoning, decision-making, and more.

This would be bad enough on its own, but you could potentially lose your job if your work performance starts to suffer. Better play it safe and get a solid night of sleep throughout the week.

5. Lack of sleep affects your memory

Everyone knows about the concepts of “short-term memory” and “long-term memory.” But have you ever thought how information moves from one to the other?

As it turns out, your body uses sleep to help move those short-term memories into long-term storage inside your brain. When you miss out on sleep, you disrupt this process and your brain doesn’t store all of the important information.

Get a good night’s sleep each night. If you’re anything like me, your memory needs all the help it can get!

6. Lack of sleep reduces your libido

It may make you blush, but our sex lives are a major part of who we are. And different factors over time can reduce your libido, effectively putting your sex drive on hold.

And we’re not just talking about effects on older people. Even young men (a demographic known for being very frisky) may experience a reduction in sexual hormones up to 15% due to interrupted sleep.

Long story short? Sleeping more will lead to more sex. And more sex may very well lead to a better night’s rest!

7. Lack of sleep makes you gain weight

What’s your biggest lifelong enemy? For many of us, the honest answer is “our waistline.”

It’s a struggle to lose or even maintain weight. And if you’re not getting enough sleep each night, those pounds are likely to sneak back onto your body.

Over time, this can lead to obesity and all of its related health problems. But if you can get at least seven hours of sleep each night, you won’t have to yell at your scale nearly as often.

8. Lack of sleep increases your risk of diabetes

In some cases, missing sleep can lead to very surprising and very specific consequences. And this includes a heightened risk of diabetes.

If you don’t get at least seven hours of sleep each night, you can disrupt the insulin production in your body. Over time, this leads to additional insulin issues and the onset of diabetes.

While diet and exercise are a great way to ward off diabetes, getting a solid night’s sleep also plays a major role.

9. Lack of sleep leads to more accidents

What’s the worst that could happen if you keep skipping out on sleep? The short answer is that you could die!

If you get less than seven hours of sleep each night, you will be less awake and alert behind the wheel. And that makes it far likelier that you cause a car accident that could hurt or even kill you.

Ultimately, if you’re feeling too groggy, you need to let someone else drive.

10. Lack of sleep ages you

Still not convinced you need more sleep at night? Let’s put it this way: the concept of “beauty sleep” is very real!

When you consistently avoid getting enough sleep, it will show on your skin in a number of ways. This includes wrinkled skin, loose skin, and even discolored skin.

These skin problems team up with the bags under your eyes caused by lack of sleep to age you more quickly. But by getting your beauty sleep each night, you’ll help prevent premature aging.