This Is Your Brain on Not Enough Sleep (Infographic) Wake up and smell the brain damage, sleepyhead. This is the alarming havoc you wreak on your gray matter when you don't catch enough Zs.
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When you're so tired and you haven't slept a wink, your mind goes on the blink. That's more than just a play on a quaint batch of Beatles lyrics. It's the truth.
The sleep-starved mind is a mind on the blink, a groggy, impaired ball of mush.
Being tired -- really, really tired -- is a lot like being wasted. You're more likely to slur when you speak, make risky decisions, forget what you did and generally act, well, a bit like an idiot. Worse, driving tired is as dangerous as driving drunk, several studies -- and, yes, even the meticulous Mythbusters -- confirm.
Related: Your DNA Might Determine If You're an Early Bird or a Night Owl
It's simple, yet so few of us listen, this zombie mommy included. Bottom line: Sleepy equals bad for your brain. Well-rested equals good. Not getting enough shut-eye isn't just harmful to you, it could lead to you accidentally harming others, too. By now none of this should come as a surprise, so why aren't you logging at least six to eight restorative, absolutely critical hours between the sheets every night?
Your wakeup call is now. Take a look at the sobering infographic about the ill effects of sleep deprivation by General Electric and Mic below, then see if you're still up for an all-nighter. We're not.
This is how you warp your brain when you don't get enough sleep:
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