Sometimes, I was wondering the consequences of sleep deprivation. Sleep deprivation is a form of psychological torture produces due to the lack of sleep. In other words, how will the sleepnessless affect our body?


Caption: sleep

I have been reading some articles concerned the stress issue. There is one Behavioral and Brain Sciences journal stated that the sleep deprivation effect is considered as a serious type of stress to human. If so, those people who have little sleep every night are trying to put themselves at risk.


Caption: beta-amyloid protien

There is a group of neuro scientist reported that the lack of sleep will cause the development of toxic plaques in the brain area. It seems that stress effects will put our brain at risk by increasing the toxic level. But, how? In fact, it all happens when this thing called the beta-amyloid protein in our brain react by increasing the toxic level. For your information, the beta-amyloid protein is sticky. The plaques will form when the beta-amyloid proteins accumulate together. When the toxics are built in our brain, it will start killing the nerve cells (or neurons). This is why the lack of sleep will help toxic plaques to develop in the brain, accelerating the progression of Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer is not a curable disease. It produces a degeneration effect in our brain, particularly at our memory. As written in one of my previous post (click HERE), the effect of the Alzheimer disease will usually take place when a person starts aging (getting older) since the neurons in our brain will subsequently reduce every year by year, and when a person do not use their brain well. The lack of critical thinking (or if we do not use our brain for critical thinking from time to time) will usually lead to the Alzheimer disease. Evidences from Brain Sciences journals stated that these toxic will start building up very quickly when a person stay awake for more than 20 hours.


Caption: the effects of the Alzheimer disease (click to enlarge image)

The image above depicts the results a person's brain when suffered from the Alzheimer disease. The hippocampus which controls the long-term memory is shrinked, severely impairing a persons memory function. This is also a reason of the collapse of memory in a person with the Alzheimer disease.

There are various methods used to reduce the formation of toxics in our brain. First, a group of scientist has successfully examined that this drug called the "Almorexant" will help to lower the amount of plaque-forming protein. However, the Almorexant drug is usually used to cure the insomnia disease, and I do not think you can buy this drug without doctor's prescription. Insomnia means unable to sleep. Second, perhaps the most common way to reduce the formation of plaques, that is to sleep longer everyday. This method is useful to limit the formation of toxic in our brain, or perhaps will block it entirely.


Caption: brain regions affected by sleep deprivation (click to enlarge)

Anyway, we could not stop the formation of toxics entirely since the beta-amyloid protein will be produced automatically in our brain as soon as we are awake! There is a group of neuro scientist from the Cambridge University in UK indicated to not consume pills when we have the Alzheimer disease. It is probably not an advisable approach to mitigate the effects of Alzheimer. Instead, they suggest to do plenty of exercises. Exercising is an effective and natural way to keep our body to induce a better sleep. Of course, the building of proteins (toxic) in our body is not only caused by the lack of sleep. They believe that other biological factors will speed up the process. Some biological factors include (1) the foods we consume (2) the weather, e.g. cold, warm etc. (3) mental stability, e.g. brain injuries and (4) infections from various diseases.


Caption: comparison of the brain of a normal and alzheimer patient

Overall, I think the most effective approach to reduce the formation of plaques is to sleep more and properly. There evidences from different medical journals, reported that a person should sleep around 10 PM - 4 AM, or from 11 PM to 5 AM since that is the time our body will repair abnormal cells in our body.