How many of you have spent your nights, binge-watching a show on Netflix and felt tired the next day? How many of you spend hours in bed scrolling through Instagram and woke up groggy in the morning?

The fast-paced world tempts us to cut short our sleep span and forces us to constantly stay active. We feel the dire need to be present everywhere through social media and not miss out on anything happening there. We neglect how badly the lack of sleep affects us and start considering ourselves superhero for surviving without enough sleep. The human body needs 7-9 hours of sleep for it to function properly and there is no shortcut to that.

We often trick ourselves into thinking that we are getting enough sleep and consider it as a sign of weakness or laziness. When in reality, deprivation of sleep is what causes laziness and weakness. Our body keeps signalling us about the lack of sleep but we either avoid it or are unaware of it. This is why we have made a list of signs from our body and mind indicating that it needs sleep.

1. You are awfully moody

Emotional health and sleep are connected. Loss of sleep negatively affects our mood and how we react to people around us. You become cranky, get irritated very quickly and fail to handle stress. This creates a nasty cycle where you get stressed and moody because of not sleeping and end up not sleeping because you are stressed and anxiety stricken. So next time you feel mood swings or irritated for nothing, sleep over it and feel the difference in your mood.

2. Loss of decision-making skills, loss of memory and critical thinking

Lack of sleep highly affects productivity as it plays an important role in learning and thinking process of the brain. Lack of sleep hinders the cognitive process of the brain and affects your ability to pay attention, staying alert, concentrate, reasoning ability, problem-solving spree and decision-making skills altogether. It affects us to the level where we find difficulty in describing a simple thing or forget words amid sentences when we speak. For better productivity, it is always advised to stop working and start the unwinding process of sleeping. When you find yourself looking for answers, or confused or unable to make a decision, and forgetting things that
happened a few minutes ago, sleep through it to activate your brain and your productive self.

3. Increased appetite

Studies have shown that people sleeping for less than the required time suffer from obesity or overweight issues. When we are tired, we look for more energy from snacks, giving in to the instant gratification that it brings. Loss of sleep causes higher blood levels of a molecule called 2-arachidonoylglycerol. This molecule regulates the feeling of reward from eating and thus, we end up eating more when we don’t sleep or binging on a show late at night. So the next time you start feeling hungry while watching a show, consider it a sign by your body to sleep.

4. Lack of sex drive

Lack of sleep = Lack of interest in Sex To put it simply, people with less sleep report lesser libido and simultaneously, lesser interest in sex. Since, they feel weak, tensed and tired, due to lack of sleep, they cannot find the energy for
romance.

5. Poor skin

Believe it or not, a lot of your skin problems are a direct result of lack of sleep. Puffy, red eyes, dark circles, etc are very common signs of sleep deprivation. These are some of the very easily recognisable physical symptoms if you are lacking sleep. Sleep also affects your skin’s radiance and glow making you look pale, tired and sick instead of fresh and gleaming.

6. Depression

Our mood suffers because of our sleeping patterns. Routinely getting less sleep than required makes us groggy but also contributes to a bad mood. This prolonged bad mood can also cause you to develop a feeling of helplessness and depression. Lack of sleep makes us feel irritated, stressed exhausted and sad. This continuity of lack of sleep aggravates depression along with other issues. Studies show that people with insomnia are very likely to develop depression and this, in turn, aggravates sleeplessness. So, if you are trying to improve your mental health, it is
time that you take your sleep seriously.

7. Feeling drowsy throughout the day

How many times have you felt lethargic and drowsy at work? Well, we all are culprits to that. Lack of sleep makes us feel drowsy and exhausted throughout the day followed by constant yawning, sending you signs about the lack of sleep in your routine. Sleep is one of the most underrated and underestimated part of our lifestyle and leaves a huge dent in our entire physical and mental health, if not taken care of. If you persistently find yourself suffering from these signs, then know that a lot of the solutions to your problems lie in just lying down and dozing off to sleep.