Your sleep (it’s quality, length and regularity) is the most important, free and efficient way to ensure your body, mind (and by extension - soul) stay healthy and supportive of your life’s longevity and health span.
“Making sure you slept well is like buying bitcoin - it pays off into the future, without fail.”
But Woj, - “What could lack of sleep cause?” - you may ask…
Well:
💤 After 1 Day
Comparable to having a blood alcohol level of 0.10% — legally drunk in many countries.
Cognitive and physical effects:
• Slower reaction time and reduced coordination
• Impaired judgment and concentration
• Decreased short-term memory
• Mood swings, irritability, or anxiety
• Microsleeps (brief, involuntary moments of sleep lasting seconds)
• Reduced hand-eye coordination
• Increased appetite (due to hormonal imbalance — more ghrelin, less leptin)
Health risk: Temporary but affects safety — driving or operating machinery is dangerous.
⸻
😵💫 After 2 Days
At this stage, the body is in extreme stress mode.
Cognitive and emotional effects:
• Severe difficulty focusing and thinking logically
• Major drop in motivation and accuracy
• Heightened emotional reactivity or apathy
• Hallucinations (visual or auditory) may begin
• Microsleeps become more frequent and longer
• Speech slurring and difficulty expressing thoughts
Physical effects:
• Tremors, increased heart rate, and blood pressure
• Decreased immune function
• Hormonal imbalance affecting metabolism and stress hormones (e.g., cortisol rise)
⸻
🤯 After 3 Days
The brain starts breaking down normal function — it’s entering crisis mode.
Neurological and psychological effects:
• Strong hallucinations and delusions
• Paranoia and confusion
• Extreme difficulty concentrating or remembering
• Emotional instability (crying, anger, detachment)
• Decision-making and perception highly distorted
Physical effects:
• Slurred speech and poor motor control
• Very low body temperature regulation
• Compromised immune response
• Severe fatigue and physical weakness
At this point: It’s similar to severe intoxication or certain psychiatric conditions. Functioning normally is nearly impossible.
⸻
😵 After 7 Days
This level of deprivation is extremely dangerous and rare. It is officially illegal to deprive people of sleep for longer than 7 days, even in interrogation conditions.
Mental and physical collapse:
• Persistent hallucinations and disconnection from reality
• Memory loss and disorientation
• Total breakdown of cognitive and emotional control
• Risk of psychosis (“sleep deprivation psychosis”)
• Weakened immune system — prone to infections
• Severe hormonal and metabolic disruption
• Possible cardiovascular irregularities
Medical risk:
• Life-threatening if prolonged.
• The body may force “microsleeps” lasting up to 30 seconds or longer, even with eyes open.
• There are no verified cases of someone surviving indefinitely without sleep — animal studies show fatal immune collapse after prolonged deprivation.
Learn more in this week’s #NewEpisode and read “Why We Sleep” by Matthew Walker. You won’t regret it!
Fountain
WS Podcast • "Why We Sleep" by Matthew Walker (ep. 222) • Listen on Fountain
In this week’s episode, we dive into Matthew Walker’s Why We Sleep, exploring how the science of rest impacts our health, performance, and emo...
