• Question: What can happen if you don't sleep for quite a while???

    Asked by to Kate, Kieren, Nicola, Rowena, Roy on 16 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Rowena Fletcher-Wood

      Rowena Fletcher-Wood answered on 16 Mar 2014:

      All sorts of interesting and horrible things! Insomnia is the illness where you can’t sleep and it makes it hard to store memories wway so you get forgetful. You also get less lucid, which means you’re only there half the time. You can fall asleep in the middle of other things or “zone out” and sleep talk! You can also get quick mood changes and laugh or become aggressive very quickly. You often eat a lot. At the extreme end you can hallucinate too. Sleep deprivation is used as a form of torture.

    • Photo: Kate Nicholson

      Kate Nicholson answered on 18 Mar 2014:

      You can go a bit loopy! Sleep is important for the brain to function normally, so if that is disturbed or you don’t get any at all, then all the rubbish that the brain needs to sort out starts leaking into the waking thoughts and makes you distracted, unable to concentrate, drowsy or even see things that aren’t really there.

Comments