What are the several stages of sleep deprivation
                     What are the several stages of sleep deprivation?
For survival, catching on a good night’s sleep is as essential as food and air. 
Experts recommend people must rest for seven to eight hours every night to feel 
refreshed and energized the following day. But failure to do so once in a while 
may not mean severe harm to your mind and body. However, frequent or 
prolonged sleep loss can lead to serious health issues. For example, it can lead to 
poor cognitive function, reduced immune function, increased inflammation, and a 
high risk of chronic diseases. To further understand what loss of sleep means for 
your body and how it affects your system, we will now discuss the stages of 
sleep deprivation. They are as follows:
Explain the sleep deprivation timeline:
Sleep deprivation occurs in five stages, and as each level progresses, the 
symptoms worsen. Here is how that happens:
Stage 1: 24 hours
It is not highly abnormal to miss 24 hours of sleep. Because of work or parties, 
people often stay awake for 24 hours. It does not cause significant health 
problems but makes people feel tired and off. Studies suggest that someone who 
hasn’t slept for approximately 24 hours of sleep is similar to an individual who has 
a blood concentration of 0.10 per cent. It is higher than what is legally permitted. 
Such a person displays symptoms like fatigue, tremor, brain fog, dark under eye 
circles, decreased alertness, increased risk of alertness, drowsiness, and irritability.
Stage 2: 36 hours
After staying awake for 36 hours, you will experience an overwhelming urge to rest. 
Without realizing it, you may begin to feel bouts of microsleep (brief periods of 
sleep). They usually last up to 30 seconds. In this stage, parts of your brain find it 
hard to communicate with each other. It may impair your cognitive performance and 
lead to signs like impaired decision making, slow reaction time, increased errors, 
impaired memory, and difficulty learning new info.
Stage 3: 48 hours
When you have missed 48 hours of rest, you reach the extreme level of sleep 
deprivation. After that, staying difficult becomes even more challenging and takes 
you closer to microsleep episodes. In this stage, some people even begin to 
hallucinate. As a result, you may start seeing, hearing, or feeling things that aren’t 
present. Other signs you may display include depersonalization, increased irritability, 
extreme fatigue, and anxiety.
Stage 4: 72 hours
At this stage, your urge to sleep may increase, resulting in frequent and more 
prolonged microsleep episodes. The deprivation affects your perception of situations 
and further complicates hallucinations. People who fail to sleep for three days 
straight also report experiencing signs like illusions, disordered thinking, 
depersonalization, and delusions.
Stage 5: 96 hours
Not many people stay awake to reach stage 5 of sleep deprivation. After four days of 
continuously losing sleep, your perception of reality will get disturbed, and the urge 
to fall asleep will become unbearable. Some people also report an inability to 
interpret reality at this level. It is termed sleep deprivation psychosis. Typically, it 
disappears after you have caught on enough rest.
So, there are the five stages of sleep deprivation that experts define.
  
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