This Is How The Lack Of Rest Affects The Brain
When there is lack of rest in our brain, the functions begin to lose effectiveness. We feel slower to respond, less memory and with significant muscle fatigue.
All these effects have a scientific explanation, and it points to the importance of brain tissue for daily life. However, the optimal maintenance of this tissue implies getting enough sleep.
Various factors intervene in the lack of rest. There are people who sleep poorly due to psychological disorders, such as insomnia from anxiety, and others who sleep due to bad habits at bedtime.
The situation is quite serious in the long term. Let’s think that a student with bad rest will not be able to advance adequately in his career. A worker will not perform the same in his work, and will even run vital risks if he operates machinery, for example.
What happens to the brain from lack of rest? What are the processes that are affected? Next, we will review the effects of lack of rest on three main areas associated with brain health: humor, memory, and circadian rhythm.
Lack of rest alters the mood
Parents who have spent whole nights up for their children know this. The next day is full of irritability, and everything seems to get too angry, even if they are minimal things.
This alteration of the mood comes from the disconnection that the lack of rest causes between the brain amygdala and the rest of the nervous system tissue. A disconnected amygdala acts on impulses, without mediating actions in the cortex of the brain.
The negative becomes more negative and worse in the amygdala’s interpretation of things. Under normal conditions, well asleep, this way of interpreting passes through other brain barriers that develop a more consistent response. After a sleepless night there are no limits to anger.
It is not a permanent effect, since after sleeping the necessary hours, the system reconnects itself. However, in people who often sleep poorly, irritability can significantly alter their social relationships.