Not sleeping enough at night? Neurologist and cardiologist reveal how it hurts your brain and heart

Inadequate sleep hampers the brain and heart in several ways. Find out how it may increase risks of neurodegenerative disorders and cardiovascular diseases.

Sleep is often postponed to make time for everything you couldn't fit into the day earlier. After the long, hectic work hours, nighttime becomes the only time for leisure, to chat, catch up on shows and long-pending calls. But before you realise, you are left craving for more: one more episode, one more hour of scrolling, one more reason to stay up.

This trade-off will weigh heavily on your health. Sleep is one of the key pillars of good health. Cutting corners on it doesn't just leave you groggy in the morning; it affects your major organs, like the brain and heart, too. HT Lifestyle reached out to experts to understand how poor sleep affects health.

Increased cognitive decline

Risks of neurodegenerative diseases rise if you skip sleep. (Picture credit: Freepik)

Dr Ritu Jha, director and HOD of Neurology at Sarvodaya Hospital, Sector-8, Faridabad, revealed that poor sleep causes early cognitive decline.

"During deep sleep, the brain's ‘functional waste disposal system,’ the glymphatic system, becomes active. The glymphatic system clears out proteins that can be harmful, such as beta-amyloid, which can be a marker for Alzheimer's disease risk. When we have poor sleep or fragmented sleep, the brain is unable to complete its waste disposal work, which could contribute in some way to future memory problems," the neurologist shared. It highlights the brain's quiet housekeeping function, where it flushes out the toxin proteins which, if left to accumulate, raise risks of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's. When you skip sleep, this process is disrupted.

Memory takes a hit if you don't sleep enough. The ability to process and retain information dips. “Without rest, overworked neurons cannot organise information effectively, and we lose access to previously learned knowledge, subsequently contributing to the risk of memory loss and potentially accelerating cognitive decline as we age," the neurologist added.

Cognitive decline's concern is not restricted to older adults. Poor sleep can set the stage for cognitive problems much earlier. Dr Jha added, "This impact is not limited to older adults but also applies to middle-aged individuals. Inadequate sleep while in your 40s and 50s can plant the seeds for dementia decades later.”

Heart under pressure

Sleeplessness puts the heart and the physical internal system in a state of stress. (PC: Freepik)

Sleep adversely affects your heart health, too. Sleep essentially gives your body time to recover. But when you don't sleep, your body is overwhelmed and puts pressure on your heart.

Dr Praveen Kulkarni, director- intervention cardiology at Nanavati Max Super Speciality Hospital, Mumbai, explained that quality sleep plays a major role in maintaining the cardiometabolic balance. Without sleep, the fine-tuned connection between heart, hormones and metabolism all goes haywire.

“Good sleep is essential to maintaining cardiometabolic balance. It is necessary to ensure rest, repair and revitalisation of organs,” Dr Kulkarni said. When you regularly skip taking a proper rest, your internal system itself goes off track. Over time, you suffer from chronic sleep deprivation, which alters hormones.

"Chronic sleep deprivation causes a rise in ghrelin (the hunger hormone)and a reduction in leptin (satiety hormone), eventually contributing to weight gain/high BMI and hypertension. The stress hormone ‘cortisol’ is elevated in sleep-deprived individuals, causing chronic inflammation, raised blood glucose and increasing the risk of plaque build-up and hypertension," he said. Plaque buildup eventually causes heart attacks.

So this sustained stress for prolonged periods makes your heart work much harder than it should. Sleeplessness keeps the body in a stress mode. And since lack of sleep derails the balance of hormones, the cardiologist remarked, “the imbalance in the sympathetic tone contributes to high heart rate, blood pressure, and arrhythmia.”

Dr Kulkarni firmly recommended getting at least 7 to 8 hours of sleep for proper recovery and rest.

Note to readers: This article is for informational purposes only and not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek the advice of your doctor with any questions about a medical condition.