Sound sleep helps the body to kick start the next day with energy and vigour. As we sleep, our body gets into that all-encompassing mending mode – repairing damaged tissues, building bones, secreting growth and repair hormones, storing energy and consolidating memories. What happens if you don’t get enough sleep? Part 1 in this series, titled ‘How Bad Can Insomnia Get’ covers the health risks associated with insomnia in details.

Our body is an amazing machine. Even when we are sleeping, it is working hard, doing amazing stuff at the backend to keep us healthy and rejuvenated. We all know how an all-nighter can make us feel all grumpy, tired and stressed. It is because sleep has a direct impact on the functioning of our central nervous system, the information highway of our body – affecting our mood, internal balance, cognitive and decision making abilities. Sleep deficiency is often cited as one of the biggest reasons for road and aviation accidents. In fact, two of the most tragic nuclear disasters in the recent history such as the 1979 Three Mile Island and the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear reactor meltdown have been linked to the lack of sleep.