Sleep loss harms mental, physical well-being: Study

The study, published in the journal ‘Annals of Behavioral Medicine', also indicted that consecutive days of sleep loss can increase these negative impacts, CNN reported.

New York: One night of sleep loss is enough to disrupt your day-to-day mental and physical well-being, according to a new study.

The study, published in the journal ‘Annals of Behavioral Medicine’, also indicated that consecutive days of sleep loss can increase these negative impacts, CNN reported.

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“Consecutive sleep loss was associated with decrease in positive emotions, increase in negative emotions, and greater frequency of severity of physical symptoms,” said lead author of the study, Soomi Lee, from the University of South Florida.

The study examined daily diary data for eight consecutive days from 1,958 adults who took the Midlife in the United States Survey (MIDUS) conducted between 2004 and 2006.

The analysis found that sleep loss for even one night resulted in increased negative well-being and decreased positive well-being, both physically and mentally.

Additionally, with multiple consecutive nights of sleep loss, especially after three nights, these effects were amplified.

“When sleep loss occurs almost every day, which means (it’s) chronic, that’s when our body and mind cannot tolerate anymore,” Lee said.

“The research shows that consecutive sleep loss results in incomplete recovery and stress pile-up and so it degrades our daily well-being,” Lee added.

As the number of consecutive days of sleep loss increased, the severity of adverse physical impacts — including body aches, gastrointestinal issues and respiratory symptoms such as a sore throat and runny nose — also increased, the study indicated.