Are you one of the many men who does not get enough sleep? Whether you are working too many hours, running too many errands, hanging out with friends or you just can’t sleep, something needs to be done. Today you are going to learn more about brain functioning and lack of sleep. The connection of these two things is striking. You may not even know it but your brain is affected greatly when you don’t get enough sleep. Find out more right here!
Losing Memories
One of the first things that happens when you don’t get enough sleep is that you start losing memories. The hippocampus is in the temporal lobe and sends neural activities throughout the brain so you can make memories. When you are sleeping, these same memories are replayed so you can remember them later. If you aren’t getting enough sleep, you could lose these memories.
False Memory Creation
Another thing that happens when you aren’t getting enough sleep is that you may create false memories. When you don’t get enough sleep the hippocampus, prefrontal cortex and the parietal lobe will be altered. When this happens, your brain can not encode the memories correctly which will lead to false memory creation.
Anger
When you don’t get enough sleep, you may also have increased anger. Not getting enough sleep leads you to focus on the negative things. You might not see facial expressions correctly, you may become more defensive and you may even be more emotional too. Emotional processing happens in the medial prefrontal cortex. This area of the brain is altered and not functioning properly when you don’t get enough sleep.
Cerebral Shrinking
If you aren’t getting enough sleep, your parietal, frontal and temporal lobes are affected. In fact, not getting enough sleep will actually sleep these areas of your brain. Studies have shown this occurs.
Slurring Speech
You may also start slurring your speech when you don’t get enough sleep. Your temporal lobe is responsible for your speech and language. When you are fully rested, this part of your brain will be fully functioning but once you start becoming sleep deprived, it is affected very negatively.
Risky Decisions
Another part of lack of sleep and brain functioning is making risky decisions. Your prefrontal cortex is the part of your brain for decision making. When you plan decisions while tired, this area of the brain gets lit up but when things don’t go right, the activity in this area of the brain decreases. If you had enough sleep, a risky decision would be recognized by this area of your brain.
These are some of the things you need to know about brain functioning and lack of sleep. As you can see, it is very important that you get enough sleep (between 7 and 9 hours a night).
