Sleep deprivation can have serious effects on a person's health. It can affect a person physically and mentally. It will affect your ability to think, deal with stress, and keep your immune system healthy. Concentration can drop and memory can become impaired from long term sleep deprivation. Problem solving skills are disabled and decision making skills are compromised as well. Getting 7 to 8 hours of sleep a night is what most people need to be well rested and healthy.

Long term sleep deprivation can also cause hallucinations in severe cases. Slurred speech, depression, irritability, and slowed reactions times can happen as well. You can also get hypertension and heart disease too from sleep deprivation.

Older people tend to be more susceptible to sleep deprivation than younger people. Hormone changes and physical changes that happen as we age are likely the cause of this. For example menopausal women are going through many changes and sleep deprivation is very common among women. Most problems that older people have is the ability to get deep restorative sleep.

Dramatic weight changes have common effects of sleep deprivation. More commonly weight gain than weight loss. Not allowing enough time for sleep will cause sleep deprivation as well. Repeatedly getting awoken from loud noises, working at night, traveling across time zones, medical illnesses that cause pain and difficulty breathing can all cause sleep deprivation.

Certain sleep disorders can cause sleep deprivation. Obstructive sleep apnea is a very common disorder where there is an obstruction of the nose and throat because of enlarged tonsils or a deviated nasal septum. This disease can cause pauses in breathing while sleeping , snoring, morning headaches, and daytime fatigue. Nocturnal myoclonus is t he jerking of legs while sleeping that causes short awakening. It causes insomnia and daytime fatigue. Narcolepsy is a rare sleep disorder of dream sleep, the main symptom of it is uncontrollable sleep during the day.

Decreased productivity and car or work accidents result from sleep deprivation. If sleep deprivation becomes too much of a problem it may be best to go to the doctor to prevent and accidents. Accidents are most likely to happen in the mid afternoon and in the early morning hours. Adding naps in the afternoon may prevent accidents from happening through it will just add to sleeplessness in the night.

There are treatments available to help with sleep deprivation. Keeping a sleep diary can help you and your doctor determine the cause of sleeplessness. Include any medications taken, any stressful situations, date, time, and what you ate that day, whether you exercised or not, and lastly add how you slept the night before and how it affected you during the day.

Hypnosis may be helpful; it has been used for years to treat many disorders. It will benefit a person that has sleep deprivation related to emotional issues, anxiety, and stress. In cases where physical impairment causes sleep deprivation surgery may be the only way to treat it. Surgery is limited to treating sleep apnea. These surgeries involve areas such as the throat and nose.

Alternative Health Supplements offers a variety of sleep aids that can also give relief from sleeplessness. Sleep and Relax Tea by Bell. It has all natural ingredients like chamomile, spearmint leaves, citronella herb, passionflower herb, orange flowers, linden leaves, and valerian root. This product will relax you and give you a well rested feeling in the morning. It even tastes great.