Random Gnarly Things That Happen To Your Body When You Die Of Sleep Deprivation (15 items)

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  (#13) Your Immune System Will Stop Working Properly

  One effect of insomnia that you may not expect is that it negatively impacts your immune system. After days and days of no sleep, your immune system starts to be suppressed. This doesn't just mean that you're very likely to get sick (though you are). It creates a situation in which the little things in your body that generally wouldn't hurt you now actually have an impact. 

  Although scientists cannot definitively say what about sleep deprivation actually kills you, the effect it has on your immune system is certainly related to its lethal outcome. One scientific theory (which comes from a laboratory experiment conducted on rats in the 1980s) holds that, with enough lost sleep, immune systems can become so depressed that the normal bacteria in the intestines can spread around the body to the point that they eventually kill a person. One thing is for certain, however, if you're already immuno-compromised: sleep deprivation could be the kiss of death when it comes to fighting off foreign diseases. 
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  (#3) You'll Start To See Symptoms After Only 24 Hours

  You may be wondering how soon you'll start noticing the negative impacts of sleep deprivation. Shockingly, the consequences of a lack of sleep start to manifest right away! In fact, you may notice the very first symptoms starting to slip in after only 24 hours of sleeplessness.  

  The body needs regular sleep – as in every night – so after one missed night, your body will experience slight hormonal changes. For example, your levels of cortisol and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) will begin to rise as a response to a lack of rest, which leads to everything from increased blood pressure to carb cravings and a weakened immune system.
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  (#14) Your Body Temperature Will Drop

  Speaking of that 1980s rat experiment, there's a rival theory to the one involving death by depressed immune system. This other theory poses hypothermia as the actual cause of the rats' deaths. This makes sense when you think about the fact that when you go without sleep for days that lead into weeks, your body temperature eventually starts to drop, and not just by a little bit. The body temperature of people, or rats, who don't sleep can plummet to dangerous levels, even to the point where the body cannot keep itself warm enough to survive. This can actually bring on hypothermia, so numbness after too many sleepless nights makes sense.

  Although scientists are still not sure if hypothermia causes death in cases of sleep deprivation, this uncertainty doesn't change the fact that hypothermia induced by sleeplessness can cause damage to the mind and internal organs.
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  (#4) Your Blood Pressure Will Rise

  As your body goes through the hormonal changes related to sleep deprivation, your blood pressure will also gradually begin to rise. This causes more than a few problems with your mind and body. While it may cause no issues at all, sometimes high blood pressure can lead to dizziness and headache, which explains why people who don't sleep well often complain of migraines and nausea. Your face may also become flushed, and your vision may be clouded or unfocused. This vision problem can also cause headaches and dizziness in and of itself, so you should expect to feel some head pain when you don't get rest. 

  And while the exhaustion you feel might seem like a no brainer (you didn't sleep, so DUH), increased blood pressure can make even simple tasks feel exhausting.
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  (#10) You'll See Things That Aren't There

  A single prolonged period of sleep can possibly bring on hallucinations. You may hear people talking to you who aren't really there, and you may see people and things that don't actually exist. Dr. Steven Feinsilver, a man who experienced hallucinations brought on by sleep deprivation in his first year of medical school, describes his delirium and hallucinations as involving a talking pumpkin. He recalls: "I [knew] it was October, because I was in the ICU after a night on call, and there was pumpkin by the nurses' station. I had a very vivid feeling of the pumpkin talking to me."

  Not exactly a comforting thing to happen when you're already stressed and confused from sleep loss. Doctors also say that in your peripheral vision you may register flickers of movement and blinking lights, even when there's nothing there. This can lead to paranoia and irrational actions.
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  (#5) You May Lose The Ability To Smile

  It probably makes sense that there are emotional consequences to sleep deprivation, but these affective effects are likely more intense than you think. Your positive emotions are actually the first to go when you don't get enough sleep. Not only will you feel sadder or even depressed more often, but you'll also have problems expressing happiness when you do feel it.

  Doctors have discovered that when people become sleep-deprived, they lose the ability to show positive emotion on their faces. So, even if you say you're happy and try to smile to demonstrate it, if you haven't slept, you may still show a neutral face. That, or you might appear falsely happy, showing a pained grimace-y thing instead of a genuine smile. On top of that, you may not even be able to recognize a smile from another person. To a sleep-deprived mind, a positive expression can appear neutral or even negative. There's a reason sleep deprivation has been used as a form of torture.

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