How is the heart affected when the body runs without sleep?

Asked by mazingerz88 (29202

) September 6th, 2011

Doing night shifts at work till early morning requires that we sleep during the day. But what happens when you let adrenaline kick in and stay up the whole day without sleep?

Human bodies re-energize and generate new cells during sleep, preparing us for the next waking cycle. If we force ourselves not to sleep ( afraid of Freddy Kruger…kidding! ) sooner or later, our bodies will shut down and go to sleep mode whether we like it or not.

But what about the heart? How is it affected by lack of good sleep? And does having enough sleep guarantees having a healthy heart or a restless sleep inflicts the same harm as not sleeping right-?

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5 Answers

I don’t know if it’s affected by the lack of sleep for a few days. I stayed awake for 3 days [several times] and I had no problem, nor I now. But usually I like to sleep.

Hibernate (9091

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If you read up on Fatal Familial Insomnia you’ll see that in the final phases of sleeplessness the patient suffers increasingly high blood pressure and high heart rates.

That would be a terrible disorder to have.

tranquilsea (17775

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…and like many things, it will catch up with you when you are older and less resilient. If I tried half then stuff now that I used to do 20 years ago when I averaged four hours a night, it would be bad.

jerv (31076

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Thanks for asking this one, very interesting.

Ltryptophan (12091

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I’m not sure, but I notice when I’m tired, my heart beats faster, even when I lie in bed. And when I’m tired and didn’t get enough sleep, just walking up a flight of stairs leaves me a bit breathless. So I’m sure it has a negative effect on the heart. :(

MRSHINYSHOES (14001

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