Catching More Than Zs: Don't Sleep on These Common Pitfalls That Come With Insomnia
Posted on: 13 July 2017
Clinical, chronic insomnia – the kind your doctor diagnoses you with, when sleepless nights plague you at least three nights a week for at least three months – contains many side effects that can impact the way you live your daily life. These pitfalls of insomnia often go unnoticed for a time, as you may be (understandably) more focused on the fact that you cannot get any sleep than on insomnia's other companions that come out to play when you can only get a couple of good nights of sleep during the week. So if you're curious about what effects insomnia can have on the rest of your body's health, then here's what you need to know.
Lack of Focus
If you don't like the sound of going about your day a little too buzzed to focus, you might be surprised to learn that your lack of sleep can often bring about with it a lack of focus and small motor skills similar to having one drink too many. You may know you feel a little off when you don't sleep well, but the consequences of attempting to go about your daily life – which often involves driving, operating small machines like coffee makers, and making financial decisions. If you suffer from insomnia, make sure that you limit the days after the worst nights to more mundane tasks and safer car routes through quieter sides of town.
Mood Swings
If you have insomnia, you've definitely noticed that a bad night tends to be followed by a bad day, but a worse night is followed by an even worse day. This is because lack of sleep tends to bring with it mood swings, irritability, and a general lack of ability to handle life when it doesn't go swimmingly. Unfortunately, this can lead to fights with friends and family, problems with customer service, and negative self-talk that can influence your perception of the world and yourself negatively. If you have chronic insomnia, be sure that you listen when friends and family tell you that you're being irrational, be extra polite while in public, and consider going to a therapist on the regular who can help you through the negativity and (often occurring alongside it) depression that can come with insomnia.
Gut Trouble
Often, when your sleep schedule is messed up, your ability to handle processing meals is disturbed as well. While trouble in your GI tract may cause a few embarrassments or a few loads of laundry to be done, a far deadlier consequence can come as a result of a lack of sleep – that of colon cancer. A lack of sleep has been linked to many, many health problems, from obesity to diabetes to heart disease, but among all those other problems lies a higher risk for colon cancer. If you have insomnia, it's a good idea to get yourself regularly checked, and be open to having colonoscopies done by a doctor who knows of your insomnia and thus your higher risk for cancer. Talk to doctors at facilities like Lincoln Surgical Group PC for more information.
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