Insomnia can cause heart attacks in teens

Sleep is food for the brain. However, but one in three of us suffers from poor sleep.

Sleep relaxes our body, gives our brain a break, and calms the heart, allowing it to work at a lower rate and allowing our blood pressure to drop to lower levels. Poor sleep puts people at risk of serious medical conditions, including, obesity, heart disease and diabetes — and it shortens the life expectancy.

Causes

With access to the internet and poor eating habits, sleeplessness can affect anyone. Teenagers are caught in between long school days, late nights on the computers, piling up homework and projects etc. They ignore sleep. Women are more prone to insomnia because of differences in genetics, sex hormones, stress, and reaction to stress.

The most important health condition causing poor sleep is sleep apnoea. It is often ignored or left undiagnosed as a case of snoring.

Most of us need around eight hours of good-quality sleep a night to function properly. A variety of factors can cause poor sleep, but in most cases, it’s due to bad sleeping habits.

Solution

Compensating a sleep debt doesn’t happen with a single early night. If you’ve had months of restricted sleep, expect the recovery to take several weeks. Caffeine or energy drinks are short-term pick-me-ups and can disrupt your sleep patterns even further in the long term.

The only solution is to change your habits and actively decide to sleep early. Avoid using digital screens just before falling asleep. If there are signs of a blocked airway e.g. snoring, mouth breathing, dryness of the mouth, nose block etc, consult an ENT.

(The author is ENT, sleep apnoea &
endoscopic surgeon, senior consultant,
Sakra World Hospital)