Sleep Deprivation: The Most Dangerous Epidemic In The World That Nobody Is Talking About

As I mentioned in my previous blog, Digital Media is now the number 1 addiction throughout the world. Imagine taking alcoholism, drugs, gambling, eating, sex, work, and whatever other addictions you can think of and adding them all together. Even with all these, you could not surpass all the people in the world addicted to their digital devices. This includes smartphones, iPad, tablets, computers, video gaming, TVs and anything else with a screen. So powerful is the addiction to these devices that most people cannot go without them. Removing them produces a full-blown withdrawal reaction similar to drugs.

So what does this have to do with sleep deprivation? Well, it turns out that all digital screens emit blue light radiation which suppresses melatonin (your get sleepy hormone) by 50%. It also stimulates daytime hormones which disorient your body making it more difficult to fall and stay asleep. So you have the world’s greatest addiction causing impairment to the world’s most important human biological function—getting quality sleep. This “catastrophic” lack of sleep in modern society is killing us. For example—

• 66% of adults throughout all developed nations fail to obtain the recommended 8 hours of nightly sleep
• Chronic sleep deprivation will weaken your immune system, increase your risk of cancer, heart disease, depression, anxiety, and diabetes and prevent you from losing weight.
• Getting too little sleep will increase your risk of getting Alzheimers Disease.
• The shorter your sleep, the shorter your lifespan
• For those who try to make up for lost sleep on weekends, the brain is incapable of making up for lost sleep. Your sleep debt will continue to accumulate.
• Sleep is critical for making new memories and, after learning, to cement those memories and prevent forgetting.
• Insufficient sleep will increase hunger and appetite, compromise impulse control within the brain, increase food consumption (especially of high calorie foods), decrease feelings of food satisfaction after eating, and prevent effective weight loss when dieting.      
• The human mind cannot accurately sense how sleep-deprived it is when sleep-deprived.

Being good at sleep isn’t like being good at sports or public speaking. You don’t win any awards for being a good sleeper. For the most part, sleep is just something that happens, and most people don’t think much about it. When you live in a culture that rewards productivity, competition, and accomplishment, sleep is considered unimportant because it takes time away from doing things that are more valuable. Those who sleep a lot are often labeled as lazy and selfish.

So, let me be crystal clear about the urgency of this matter. Getting nightly, adequate, quality sleep is the single most important thing you can do to improve every aspect of your physical and mental health. It is the foundation for optimal health. It’s time for a major change in the way we view sleep. Changing your perception of the value of sleep will help you prioritize it and make it something you really look forward to.