7 signs you are not getting a good night’s sleep

Most people are familiar with the classic daytime sleepiness and the mental fog that results from too little sleep. But what about the less obvious signs? Feeling like a zombie isn’t the only indicator that you’re getting too little sleep. In fact, you could feel completely rested during the day and still not get the recommended amount of sleep you need each night.

Even if you feel good during the day, research shows that you miss out on even a single hour of sleep can significantly increase your risk of illness and have a negative impact on your daily well-being. To avoid the long-term health consequences, here are some less obvious signs that you are not getting a good night’s sleep.

Your mood is everywhere.

You probably know that there is a link between sleep and mental health. If you don’t close your eyes enough, you’ve probably noticed that it’s easy to get upset and feel overwhelmed by the little things. According to WebMD, the reason for this is the poor night’s sleep affects your ability to cope with daily stress.

Unfortunately, acute and chronic stress can also make it difficult to sleep well. To relieve stress and close your eyes, try establishing a calming bedtime routine. Make yourself a cup of chamomile tea cuddle with a weighted blanket and relax with a good book. The calmer you are before bed, the more likely you are to fall into a peaceful sleep.

You are more hungry than usual.

Cravings? Fancy all kinds of junk food lately? A restless sleep could be to blame for this. When your brain doesn’t get the energy it needs from sleep, it changes your appetite controlling hormones to get energy from food instead. The result is incessant stomach growls and cravings for potato chips, donuts, and other high-calorie foods with a rich energy signal.

Unsurprisingly, this can lead to weight gain if the problem (poor sleep) is not resolved. If the bathroom scales move up, this could be another sign that you are not getting a good night’s sleep.

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You have dark circles under your eyes.

Dark bags under the eyes can be a sign that you are not getting enough restful sleep. Lack of sleep often causes your blood vessels to dilate, which increases blood flow throughout your body. The blood vessels under the eyes are particularly noticeable because the skin around the eyes is thinner. (Hence the dark shadows you get when you save on sleep.)

Likewise, lack of sleep can lead to fluid build-up around the eyes. If you wake up in the morning with dark circles and / or puffy eyes, you might Try to sleep with a weighted sleep mask. Many weighted sleep masks not only block the light and make you feel more relaxed before bed, but they also have warming and cooling properties that can soothe tired looking eyes.

You make unusually bad decisions.

We all make bad decisions at one point or another. Mistakes are how we learn and become better people. But if you’ve made a number of bad decisions lately, sleep deprivation could be the culprit.

In a study published in the journal sleep, researchers asked 26 healthy adults to make decisions based on fictional dilemmas before and after staying awake for 53 hours. The results of the study showed that participants were sleep deprived respond more slowly to moral dilemmas and had greater difficulty deciding which course to take.

Similarly, research has also shown lack of sleep tends to increase your impulsiveness. This is because with a lack of sleep, your brain processes information more slowly – like the potentially negative outcomes of the action you try to take.

The final result? Don’t make important decisions when your sleep quality is suffering.

You are more forgetful.

Have you been feeling more forgetful lately? It could be a sign that you are not sleeping well.

Sufficient REM sleep is critical to processing new information and consolidating memory. According to the National Sleep Foundation, a poor night’s sleep can be weaken your learning skills by up to 40 percent.

Sleep deprivation can negatively affect the brain in other ways. According to a Study 2018, even a night of tossing and throwing can lead to buildup of beta amyloid, a metabolic waste product that has been linked to decreased mood, memory, and general brain function in people with Alzheimer’s disease.

You’re clumsier than usual.

Some people are just born clumsy. But if your normally light-footed self often trips and bumps into things, it could mean that you are overtired. If you don’t close your eyes enough, it can affect our motor skills, which is your body’s ability to process movements. Exhaustion can shorten your reaction time and make it difficult to focus. Neither of these is ideal if you are into a team sport or have a dangerous job that requires full concentration.

It’s worth noting that unusual clumsiness can also indicate a serious underlying health condition, such as a stroke or a brain tumor. If you’ve been clumsy lately, it can’t hurt to make an appointment with your doctor.

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Your libido fuels.

If you want to have a healthy sex life, start making your sleep a priority. Studies have shown that getting more sleep can improve your sex drive, while not getting enough sleep can have the opposite effect.

It’s not hard to see how a lack of sleep can make your cravings for sex wane. When you are exhausted, the last thing you probably feel like doing is doing an energy-burning activity like sex.

But there could be more to it than just exhaustion. Poor sleep can also suppress the production of sex hormones such as estrogen and testosterone, which ultimately leads to a decreased sex drive.

Get the rest you need

We all know that sleep is essential to better health, so why not more of us making our sleep a priority? If you’ve been lighting the candle on both ends lately, consider this a friendly reminder to build a better bedtime routine and get the quality Zzzs you need.