How does sleep loss affect quality of life in work and in our relationships?
The impact of sleep loss on quality of life is highly subjective, as quality of life itself is highly subjective. Interestingly, there are very large differences from one person to another in the psychological response to sleep loss. Some people when they are sleep-restricted, tolerate it relatively well and others really suffer a lot more. Individuals who tolerate sleep loss well are likely to restrict their sleep to the maximum amount tolerable. So these subjects who tolerate sleep loss well subjectively may put themselves at risk for really adverse health effects of sleep loss, because they don’t have a safeguard to say, “Stop, I need to sleep now.” How does it affect our everyday health? There is no animal, other than the human, that deprives itself of sleep. We can’t adapt to sleeping too little because it’s not part of our biology. Studies suggest that chronic sleep loss is a risk factor for diabetes. In recent years, several laboratories including our own have begun to study mar
