If you're a fan of urban legends, you've likely read the Russian Sleep Experiment Creepypasta. If not, the basic gist is that Russian researchers kept 5 people awake for a 15-day span using experimental gas and they wound up becoming... monstrous.
That's just a Creepypasta, but it does beg the question: what would happen in real life? Can insomnia kill you?
Here, we're going to take a look into what happens when you sleep (and what happens when you don't) with the aim of answering this question. Read on to learn whether or not you would actually die if you went without sleep or too long.
What Happens When We Sleep?
Everyone knows that sleeping is amazing. It's relaxing, helps release tension from your muscles, and you wake up feeling refreshed.
But sometimes, as this post would have you know, we have unfortunate but minor issues while we sleep like teeth grinding and snoring, but that's really the only negative. When we sleep, our brains and bodies recharge for the day ahead, making the minor problems you might face totally insignificant in the grand scheme of things.
How does this happen?
Well, there are a few phases of sleep, the most important of which is Rapid Eye Movement, or REM. Leading up to REM sleep, your muscles relax and your blood pressure drops. During this timeframe, healing enzymes are released into the body that repairs tissue. Your body also releases growth hormones that you need to be healthy.
During REM sleep, when our eyes move around under our eyelids, the brain is as active as the body is not. This is the stage where dreams occur as well as the stage where the immobile body becomes relaxed. During REM sleep, the energy that supports your performance the next day is produced.
What Happens If We Don't Sleep?
So sleep is good for your health- great. But what happens when you lose sleep?
In the short term, you're going to be forgetful, cranky, and moody. You'll feel exhausted, which is never pleasant. Your sex drive will decrease.
More than that, though, you'll probably get sick since the tissue-repair hormones and immune-system-boosting chemicals that you get during sleep won't be released. In the long term, you'll be more susceptible to major health issues like heart disease and cancer for the same reason.
After 3 or 4 sleepless nights, you'll start to hallucinate.
But will you die? Probably not. When you don't sleep for a prolonged time, your body will eventually go into force sleep mode. The longest anyone has ever gone without sleep is 11 consecutive days, and, as anyone would, he eventually just passed out for a long time. Usually, though, this happens after about 72 hours.
So, Can Insomnia Kill You?
In reality, can insomnia kill you? It's plausible but very unlikely. If you don't get enough sleep, you'll likely just pass out after a while due to exhaustion, sleeping in an inopportune place and waking up disoriented.
Now that you know the importance of getting enough sleep, it's time to learn more health and fitness tips. Check out the 'wellness' tab on our page to get more tips on how to stay healthy! Sleep tight- don't let the bedbugs bite!
