How a disturbed sleep cycle is causing hair loss?

by Dr Heena September 14, 2021

You still feel sleepy after waking up in the morning and think about how the night ended so fast. Isn't it? Just a single night with workload and you tend to experience the feeling of drowsiness for a week. In such scenarios you feel irritated, don’t feel energetic, you tend to feel grumpy, and find yourself in difficulty while concentrating on work. That’s when you are suffering from sleep deprivation. This feeling of being cranky, tired, grumpy, and groggy are some of the effects of sleep deprivation. Effects of sleep deprivation are not only physical but also affect your mental health. Let's move on to see what is sleep deprivation, what are the symptoms of sleep deprivation, the effects of sleep deprivation and how is it related to hair loss.

Sleep deprivation is nothing but insufficient sleep. It is simply an effect on your mental and physical state when you are not having the sleep that your body and mind are asking for. Looking at the work culture and livelihood of recent years, this is a problem that is ever increasing. People have become so workaholics that they just don’t give any heed to sleep but hardly realize what effect it is having on them and how severe that problem can turn out to be. Studies have stated that 1/3 rd of the American adults are suffering from this difficulty and the graph is ever rising. Hence defining sleep deprivation, can be stated as sleeping less than what is required. It is defined based on the duration of sleep which varies in adults, teens, and children. Sleep deprivation can also be classified into three major types namely acute sleep deprivation, chronic sleep deprivation, and chronic sleep deficiency.

Why lack of sleep is bad for your health?

Before considering the effects of sleep deprivation or why lack of sleep is bad for your health, here are the causes and symptoms of it which will help you understand the effects of sleep deprivation in a much better way.

Sleep deprivation is caused when you do not tend to give the adequate amount of time to sleep that your body and mind are in dire need of and this is when you face the consequences of the effects of sleep deprivation. Sleep is equally important like the food you intake, the water you drink, and the oxygen you inhale to live a systematic livelihood. Inadequate sleep can cause brain fade moments and your body might not work and respond to you as it used to. Considering few other factors, sleep deprivation can also be caused due to poor diet, way of your lifestyle, work compulsions as well as due to certain medical conditions.

By now you know what is sleep deprivation and what can be the reason behind its cause, but you are failing to understand how to exactly identify that you are suffering from sleep deprivation. You know that you are sleeping less or sometimes you are having adequate sleep yet suffering. What's the way to understand? Here are a few symptoms that will help you understand:-

The primary symptom for sleep deprivation would be feeling extremely asleep even during the daytime after you woke up from sleep. Moreover, you will understand that you are unable to concentrate and the way of thinking is affected and you are failing to think like before. Problems like mood swings are also a common problem of sleep deprivation. Other symptoms include that you lack energy, can't be attentive during any kind of work, experience quick memory loss, and your effectiveness in decision making also gets affected.

There are certain side effects of less sleep as lack of sleep is extremely bad for your health as it increases the risk of memory loss, mood swings, weak immune system, more prone to accidents, heart attack, other heart problems like irregular heartbeat, heart failure, stroke, diabetes, obesity, hormonal anomalies, mental health problems, high blood pressure. Considering all these severe factors, sleep is extremely important.

How does less sleep affect your body and mind?

Insufficient sleep in people leads to cardiovascular diseases as you become more prone to problems like heart attack, stroke, and even problems like insomnia. Your sleeping hour is the time when your heart goes through the healing and rebuilding process and maintains the blood pressure and blood sugar level. Hence, inadequate sleep cuts the time for all these processes increasing the risk of heart problems.
Less sleep is the cause behind a weak immune system. A low level of immunity is more prone to catch diseases especially regular problems like cold and flu.
Lower levels of sleep hinder the release of insulin, which is a hormone for lowering the blood sugar level. Due to this reason, the body becomes unable to regulate the blood sugar level. This increases the chances of diabetes.
Insufficient sleep might lead to problems of high blood pressure.
To conclude the effects of sleep deprivation on your body, also affects the fertility boosting hormones, other hormonal imbalances including the release of stress hormones that increases the effect of stress on the body and weight gain or obesity.

Effects sleep deprivation on your mind:

During sleep, your brain performs an activity that helps in building connections that are responsible for storing and remembering all the information that you have learned and gathered. Lack of sleep shortens this period and that has a direct impact on your memory. Hence, you tend to forget things faster.
Sleep is directly proportional to the work you do. Insufficient sleep leads to hindrance in your work as you find it difficult to concentrate on your work and almost lose the ability to think on critical issues.
Insufficient sleep leads to drowsiness, which increases the chances of accidents as you remain sleepy even during day time.
Mood swings are a major effect of sleep deprivation. Unsatisfactory sleep makes you moody and you become short-tempered due to the reason that you haven’t received adequate rest.
To conclude the effects of sleep deprivation on your mind some other problems lead to symptoms like depression, anxiety, tension, the prefrontal cortex gets affected which is responsible for reasoning handling, and the amygdala. Amygdala deals with emotions.

How much sleep do we need?

To avoid the effects of sleep deprivation, every person needs to have the right amount of sleep daily no matter how much workload pressure they are having. It is being stated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that seven hours of sleep every night is a must for every individual adult. On the other hand, quantity and quality both play a major role in the case of sleep. Wondering how? Don’t you feel tired the next day if you haven’t had a good quality sleep? Quantity sleep is important but the quality comes from the stress level and your comfort level while sleeping at a particular place. So, it is always advisable to stay relaxed and free of stress and tension while you go to bed. Breathing difficulties like sleep apnea which occurs during the night hampering your respiratory system, windy environment or an extreme hot condition, unsoothing atmosphere, and an uncomfortable bed all can hamper your quality sleep. To sort these things first before going off to bed to have a peaceful sleep. Generally, seven to eight hours of sleep is a must for teenagers and adults. Considering children of the age group of six to twelve years a minimum of nine and a maximum of twelve hours of sleep is necessary. Again more less the age group, increased is the duration of sleep. Like a child of three to five years of age minimum of ten to thirteen hours of sleep, while a child of about one to two years requires a maximum of twelve hours of sleep. From birth till a year, the child needs sleep of about twelve to sixteen hours.

Can sleep deprivation cause hair fall?

Sleep is necessary for thousands of reasons and to stay away from facing the effects of sleep deprivation Just like the way it is important for your health, it is extremely necessary for preventing hair loss. This is largely because the health of your hair is largely dependent on the protein synthesis of your hair along with the release of enzymes and hormones which occur during the night’s sleep. Sleep can also lead to genetic hair loss. Stress is a major cause of sleep deprivation and it is pretty well known that stress is significantly related to telogen effluvium type of hair loss. Due to this your hair follicles go into the resting phase and get into the phase of shedding after a certain point in time. Hence, the effects of sleep deprivation fall among the various reasons for hair fall, and when your sleep is getting disturbed it is affecting the hair growth cycle.

The effects of sleep deprivation are huge but the effects on stress on the body cannot be overlooked. The best way to solve the problem of sleep deprivation is to have adequate sleep. This will not only control your hair fall issues but also keep you away from many other critical health disorders. Starting from infants to adults, to have a systematic and hassle free life, have adequate sleep. Avoid complications and sleep peacefully, this will solve millions of problems as well as keep you away from the effects of sleep deprivation; and do not forget that not only health, to have beautiful hair, sleep is also imperative.