A sleep expert explains what happens to your body and brain if you don’t get enough sleep

Sleep is one of the most important parts of a healthy lifestyle — doctors typically recommend 7-9 hours each night. But when we don’t get enough sleep, it can have serious effects on our brains and bodies, putting us at higher risk for diseases and cancer . Sleep expert Matthew Walker breaks down the many side-effects of sleep deprivation . Following is a transcript of the video. Matthew Walker: My name is Matthew Walker, I am a professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, and I am the author of the book " Why We Sleep ." We certainly know that a lack of sleep will actually prevent your brain from being able to initially make new memories, so it’s almost as though without sleep the memory inbox of the brain shuts down and you can’t commit new experiences to memory. So those new incoming informational emails are just bounced, and you end up feeling as though you’re amnesiac. You can’t essentially make and create those new memories. We also know that a lack of sleep will lead to an increased development of a toxic protein in the brain that is called beta-amyloid and that is associated with Alzheimer’s disease because it is during deep sleep at night when a sewage system within the brain actually kicks in to high gear and it starts to wash away this toxic protein, beta-amyloid. So if you’re not getting enough sleep each and every night, more of that Alzheimer’s-related protein will build up. The more protein that builds up, the greater your risk of going on to develop dementia in later life. What are the effects of sleep deprivation on the body? Well, there are many different effects. Firstly, we know that sleep deprivation affects the reproductive system. […]

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