transcript: Ah! Sleep You can never have enough of it, it seems. In fact, sometimes it literally feels like you aren't getting enough. But, what if you stopped sleeping altogether? Strangely, science understands relatively little about why we sleep, or how it evolve in the first place. After all, laying unconscious in dormant for hours on in, while predators lurk, hardly seems advantagious or smart. But, we have discovered a few correlations, for example: adults who sleep between 6-8 hours at night tend to live longer. Excess of sleep, however, can lead to medical problems, including Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes. Similarly, cronic sleep deprivation has been linked to aspects of Cardiovascular Disease, Obesity, Depression and even Brain Damage. But, what if you stop sleeping right now? Well, after your first sleepless night, your mesolimbic system becomes stimulated and dopamine runs rampant. And this may actually trigger some extra energy, motivation, positivity and even sex drive. Sounds appealing, but it's a slippery slope. Your brain slowly begin to shut off the regions responsible for planning and evaluating decisions leading to more impulsive behaviour. Once exhaustion sets in, you'll find yourself with slower reaction time and reduced perceptual and cognitive functions. After a day or two of no sleep the body loses its ability to properly metabolise glucose and the immune system stops working as well. In some cases, three days of no sleep has led to hallucinations. Care about how you look? Studies have shown a direct correlation between sleep deprivation and a person percieved's beauty. That's it, just say: sleep deprived individuals appear less healthy and less attractive than when they were well rested. The longest scientific documented case of being awake was 246 hours or 11 days. And when they did develop problems, with concentration, perception and readability. The suprising truth was that they suffered no serious long-term health effects. In fact, no individuals under these documented conditions experience medical, physiological, neurological or psychiatric problems. But there are limited studies and these doesn't mean permanent damage couldn't be inflicted with more time. Sleep deprivation experiments on rats, for example generally lead to death after about two weeks. But, scientists aren't totally sure if they're dying from the lack of sleep, or from the stress of constantly being woken up Perhaps we should look at Fatal Familial Insomnia, a rare genetic disease of the brain, which causes progressively worsening insomnia or sleeplessness leading to hallucinations, dementia and ultimately, death. This disease has only affected around 100 people in the world, but their average survival span was around 18 months. Over time, the lack of sleep becomes worse and the body's organs begin to shut down. So, well, lack of sleep won't necessarily kill you quickly, continuously deprivation will have a negative effect on your body. SLEEP TIGHT! ...But not to much! Got a burning question you want answered? Ask it in the comment, or in the Facebook or Twitter. And if you can`t get enough science in your life, check out The Science Alert Facebook page which is one of the best out there to keep you up to date and entertain with the latest news and breakthroughs. And subscribe to ASAP Science for more weekly science videos. SUBTITLES BY j.mp/TheVoiceable
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