Study Shows the Visibly Dramatic Difference Between Six and Eight Hours of Sleep
“As the day wore on, however, I became forgetful, failing to return a phone call as promised and losing my train of thought in conversations.
“By three in the afternoon, I experienced an energy dip like the one you feel with a hangover. But I got through it and I felt buoyed up by my ability to keep functioning.”
“A lot of people feel quite alert, almost buzzed, after four hours’ sleep […] What is happening is your body is activating its primeval fight or flight response. This reflex causes a state of hyper arousal, which limits or delays the negative impact you would get with longer-term sleep restriction.
“You become euphoric, which puts a positive spin on what would normally be perceived as a negative experience and it is still possible to multi-task, solve problems and display memory recall.”
“After just two days, I’m tired, snappy, forgetful and tearful. I’m also constantly hungry and craving sweet snacks to pep me up.
“Most shocking, though, are the results of the final scan of my face. After just 30 hours sleep in the past 120, my pores have more than doubled in size and the red areas have increased by 50 per cent. No wonder my husband declares: ‘You look lousy.’ ”
“Sleep loss causes the body to release too little human growth hormone, which promotes the repair of skin cells.
“What you are seeing is your skin’s inability to heal itself […] Your face has become redder because it has an increased sensitivity to the bacteria generated by the rise in cortisol.”
“There’s a reason they call it beauty sleep.‘There’s a long-standing association between quality sleep and youthful looks and we are now beginning to understand the relevance in anti-ageing terms.”
“You can’t repair a sleep debt by having loads more sleep the next day. Your daytime activities are like a house party, and after every one of those you need a clean-up operation to remove the toxins amassed during the day.”
“One of the long-term consequences of restricted sleep is an increase in hunger.
“[…] That is why sleep is such an important component of the obesity crisis, particularly among the young — British schoolchildren are the sixth most sleep-deprived in the world.”