DTS, Why You Need Sleep & The Dangers of Sleep Deprivation
- Feb 25, 2025
- 9 min read
As we approach the seasonal transition, it is important to discuss the implications and changes associated with daylight savings time (DST). This biannual practice, which involves setting clocks forward by one hour in the spring and back by one hour in the fall, is designed to make better use of daylight during the longer days of summer. The upcoming change will occur on the second Sunday in March, when clocks will spring forward one hour at 2:00 AM, effectively shifting an hour of daylight from the morning to the evening.
This adjustment can have various effects on our daily routines, sleep patterns, and even on energy consumption. Many individuals may experience a temporary disruption in their circadian rhythms, leading to feelings of fatigue or decreased productivity in the days immediately following the time change. Additionally, studies have shown that the transition into and out of daylight savings time can correlate with an increase in accidents and health issues, as people adapt to the new schedule.
Furthermore, the debate surrounding the necessity and effectiveness of daylight savings time continues, with some advocating for its abolition altogether in favor of a more standardized time system throughout the year. Proponents of maintaining DST argue that it promotes outdoor leisure activities in the evening and can lead to energy savings. However, opponents point to the confusion it causes and the potential negative health impacts. As we prepare for the upcoming change, it is advisable for individuals to gradually adjust their sleeping schedules in the days leading up to the switch, ensuring a smoother transition. It is also an opportune time to remind ourselves of the importance of time management and the need to be mindful of how such changes affect our lives. Stay tuned for further updates as we monitor any legislative changes or public sentiment regarding daylight savings time in the coming months.
In our fast-paced modern world, sleep is often overshadowed by productivity, entertainment, and the relentless demands of daily life. However, this biological necessity, which occupies roughly a third of our lives, is much more than a mere daily break from consciousness. Sleep is a sophisticated orchestration of vital processes that keeps our bodies functioning, our minds sharp, and our health intact. From the intricate dance of sleep stages to the powerful effects of melatonin, understanding sleep's profound impact on our well-being highlights why this seemingly passive state is actually one of the most active and essential activities we engage in each day.
What Is Sleep?
In essence, sleep serves as a downtime period during which our body repairs itself and our brain processes and consolidates information from the day. Throughout sleep, our bodies and minds experience various restorative processes, essential for maintaining both physical and mental health.
During sleep, we progress through various stages, each fulfilling essential and distinct roles. The initial type of sleep is non-REM sleep, comprising three stages.
Stage 1: This is light sleep, where you can easily wake up. You might feel like you're drifting in and out of sleep.
Stage 2: Here, your body temperature drops, and your heart rate slows down. This prepares your body for deeper sleep.
Stage 3: This is deep sleep (also known as slow wave sleep). It's hard to wake up during this stage and represents a time of significant rejuvenation.
The other significant sleep phase is REM sleep, which means Rapid Eye Movement. This stage is marked by heightened brain activity and intense dreaming. During this phase, our eyes dart quickly beneath our closed eyelids, and it is vital for cognitive functions like memory consolidation, learning, and creativity. REM sleep aids our brains in processing and storing the information we have collected during the day, making it a crucial part of our sleep cycle.
Sleep is a behavior observed in virtually all animals, highlighting its vital importance despite inherent risks. Even though you cannot protect yourself or your kin while sleeping, evolution deemed it essential for nearly every living creature. This fact alone demonstrates the profound and biologically necessary effects of good sleep. It's worth fully lowering your guard and immobilizing yourself.
6 Reasons Why Your Body Needs Sleep
Regulate Your Circadian Rhythm
Humans are inherently diurnal, designed to be active during the day and rest at night. This rhythm, honed over millennia, perfectly aligns our biology with daylight and darkness. However, when sleep patterns deviate, our internal clock—known as the circadian rhythm—can become unbalanced.
When your body's internal clock is out of sync with the environment, due to insufficient daylight exposure or excessive artificial light at night, it disrupts the signals essential for proper body function. Research consistently demonstrates that circadian misalignment is linked to numerous chronic diseases we encounter today, including:
Sleeping less than 7 hours per night, according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society, is strongly linked to these same health issues. This is no coincidence, as one of the first effects of circadian disruption is poor sleep.
Research confirms that consistently getting less than 7 hours of sleep increases the risk of mortality from any cause. Even if immediate life-threatening outcomes are absent, quality of life is often compromised. Specifically, shorter sleep durations (around 5–6 hours) are linked to:
A higher risk of high blood pressure and obesity.
Greater likelihood of developing type II diabetes.
Impaired insulin signaling and glucose metabolism, even after a single night.
Increased inflammation, possibly disrupting the blood-brain barrier.
Lower testosterone levels.
Reduced fat loss and greater muscle loss when dieting, even when food intake is identical.
Just a few days of poor sleep or disrupted circadian rhythm can lead to reduced alertness, worsened cognitive function, and metabolic issues such as elevated blood glucose, insulin resistance, inflammation, disrupted cortisol and leptin rhythms, and higher blood pressure.
Experts are advocating for renaming "metabolic syndrome" — a condition associated with heart disease and diabetes — to "circadian syndrome," highlighting the strong connection between circadian disruption and metabolic dysfunction.
Melatonin, Our Ancestral Antioxidant
A key reason circadian misalignment and sleep disruption severely impact the body is the diminished melatonin signaling at night. This triggers a vicious cycle — reduced melatonin exacerbates sleep and circadian issues while also depriving our cells of a potent antioxidant defense.
Melatonin's structure enables it to move effortlessly through both water and fat, allowing it to pass through cell membranes and safeguard the inner workings of cells. It is an exceptionally potent antioxidant, up to twice as effective as vitamin E and four times more powerful than glutathione or vitamin C.
Even more impressive is melatonin’s ability to transform into other antioxidant molecules after neutralizing free radicals, establishing it as a four-in-one antioxidant (R1, R2, R3, R4). It also enhances the activity of other antioxidant enzymes like glutathione peroxidase, superoxide dismutase, and catalase.
Research increasingly demonstrates that melatonin effectively protects against diseases associated with mitochondrial dysfunction, including heart disease, neurodegeneration, and cancer.
Melatonin's antioxidant role underscores the critical importance of sleep. The Free Radical Flux Theory of Sleep asserts that the nightly release of melatonin into the cerebrospinal fluid actively repairs oxidative damage accumulated in the brain, known for its high mitochondrial density.
Body Composition
Consistently, sleeping less than 7 hours a night is associated with a higher likelihood of obesity. As one researcher states, “lose sleep, gain weight,” and the evidence supports this claim.
Extensive research has demonstrated the significant impact of insufficient sleep on body fat. A comprehensive review of 41 randomized controlled trials confirmed that sleeping less than 5.5 hours per night undermines weight loss efforts. In contrast to individuals who sleep 7 or more hours, those with shorter sleep experienced:
Increased hunger
Consumed about 250 more calories daily
Gained 1.5 lbs within two weeks
Showed brain activity changes, with food becoming more tempting and self-control weaker
In one study, a group of overweight participants was divided into two groups: one slept 5.5 hours, the other 8.5 hours. Both groups followed the same diet and lost the same amount of weight, yet the results differed significantly in fat loss. The sleep-deprived group lost 55% less fat and 60% more lean body mass compared to those who got more rest.
It's clear that catching up on sleep over the weekend doesn't resolve the issue. One study found that participants who slept in on weekends after being sleep-deprived during the week still experienced more muscle mass loss. They lost less fat compared to those who consistently had sufficient sleep (58% vs 83% of weight loss from body fat), demonstrating that recovery sleep cannot counteract the negative effects of weekday sleep deprivation.
Conversely, when sleep-deprived adults who were used to 5.5 hours of sleep increased their sleep to 7 hours over two weeks, they experienced less sleepiness, more energy, and a 14% decrease in appetite. Impressively, their cravings for sweet and salty foods plummeted by 62%, simplifying the avoidance of junk food traps that undermine many diets.
In another study, participants who received guidance on enhancing their sleep habits, along with standard diet and exercise advice, achieved faster and greater weight loss than those who didn’t prioritize sleep. They also experienced reduced stress and increased confidence in maintaining their goals.
Neurodegenerative Diseases and Mood Disorders
The brain relies on consistent, quality sleep to operate optimally, making it especially susceptible when our circadian rhythms are disrupted. During sleep, melatonin saturates the brain, while the glymphatic system efficiently clears out toxins that build up during the day.
When sleep is disrupted, this vital cleansing process is hindered. This leads to a cascade of negative effects on brain function, including increased neuroinflammation, a compromised blood-brain barrier, and neuronal damage. These disruptions clearly illustrate the strong link between poor sleep and a range of brain disorders: in children, neurodevelopmental challenges arise; in adults, mood disorders are prevalent; and in older individuals, neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s frequently develop.
Shift workers experience these effects directly. The cognitive impact of irregular hours is immediate, leading to noticeable declines in mental sharpness and an increased risk of depression and other mental health challenges compared to those working regular daytime hours.
For young adults experiencing mood disorders like anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder, an irregular circadian rhythm significantly worsens symptoms. Whether it's triggering more intense manic episodes or deepening depressive ones, disrupted sleep undeniably makes these conditions more challenging to manage.
Moreover, poor sleep is now acknowledged as a major risk factor for neurodegenerative diseases. Research shows that sleep issues may be responsible for up to 15% of Alzheimer's cases, highlighting the critical connection between adequate rest and long-term brain health.
Cancer
Night shift work is the only job officially classified as cancer-causing. It doesn't just expose workers to carcinogens; it inherently increases the risk of cancer.
Extensive studies and meta-analyses have demonstrated that working night shifts significantly increases the risk of developing several major cancers, including breast and prostate cancer.
A meta-analysis of 58 studies involving over 5 million adults, night shift work was associated with a 15% higher risk of any cancer, 22% higher for breast cancer, 26% higher for prostate cancer, and 15% higher for digestive system cancers.
Another meta-analysis of 15 studies looked specifically at over 2.5 million men and found that night shift workers had a 23% higher chance of developing prostate cancer.
When it comes to breast cancer, seven meta-analyses collectively examining 30 studies found that the risk could be up to 40% higher for women working night shifts, especially in studies with the highest research quality.
Using the most specific definition of night shift work — working at least 3 hours between midnight and 5 a.m. — one meta-analysis of five studies and 13,000 women found that premenopausal women had a 12% higher risk of breast cancer. This risk increased dramatically depending on the intensity and duration of the shifts: 36% for 10-hour shifts, 80% for three or more night shifts per week, and 2.5 times higher for those working three or more night shifts weekly for at least 10 years.
Night shift work also affects digestive health. A meta-analysis of six studies found a 32% increased risk of colorectal cancer for those working night shifts.
The connection between night shifts and cancer is attributed to their disruption of the body’s biological clocks — both central and peripheral. This disruption impacts gene expression, which regulates cell growth and division, and when these processes are disturbed, cancerous cells can develop.
Melatonin plays a key role in this. It possesses antioxidant, immune-boosting, and anti-cancer properties. Research demonstrates that melatonin-rich blood collected from women at night can significantly suppress the growth of breast cancer cells, whereas melatonin-poor blood collected during the day or after bright light exposure lacks this effect.
No Sleep Could Kill You
Sleep plays crucial roles in maintaining a healthy brain, yet its exact purpose remains somewhat mysterious. The fact that sleep is a period of extreme vulnerability clearly indicates that its functions are not only vital for life but also cannot be achieved while awake.
The significance of sleep is clearly demonstrated by observing the effects of sleep deprivation. Perceptual distortions, anxiety, irritability, and temporal disorientation begin with just 1–2 days of sleep loss, progressing to complex hallucinations and disordered thinking. Merely three days without sleep can result in symptoms resembling psychosis or toxic delirium.
Final Thoughts
The evidence is undeniable: sleep is not a luxury—it's a fundamental pillar of human health that impacts every facet of our lives. From maintaining a healthy weight and safeguarding against cancer to preserving our mental health and cognitive function, quality sleep is a cornerstone of wellness that we must prioritize. As our understanding of sleep's biological significance grows, one thing is crystal clear: investing in better sleep habits is not just about feeling more refreshed—it's about committing to our long-term health and longevity. In a world that often glorifies constant activity and productivity, the most productive action we can take is ensuring we get the essential rest our bodies and minds critically need.
Comments