Many people don’t realize how sleep deprived they are. Do you think that the moment your head touches the pillow you fall asleep is it normal? Do you think you should want to take a nap during your lunch hour or as soon as you get home from work? Do you get frustrated or angry easily? These are all signs that you are sleep deprived.

It is even more difficult to determine sleep deprivation in children. Many children act differently than adults when they are chronically tired. The problem is that sleep deprivation and sleep apnea symptoms in children are a lot like ADHD. Children will become agitated and have trouble concentrating. They become very active during the day instead of tired.

Sleep apnea also looks different. They will snore or breathe with their mouths open. They may have some interruptions during sleep, but not always. They can go round and round a lot. However, many times the lack of sleep is due to parents not sending our children to bed early enough. They may also be woken up too early. Children need longer hours of sleep, and if you keep them up too late, they miss important periods of sleep that allow them to produce growth hormone and consolidate their memories.

In adults, lack of sleep shows up as both short- and long-term memory problems because the brain can’t process memories. It can also prevent the brain from having the time it needs to clear out waste. This can affect memory and contribute to morning headaches.

You may experience other symptoms such as fatigue and sleepiness, headaches, and snacking. I am aware that snacking sounds like a strange symptom, however, when our brain is tired we often misinterpret the signal as being hungry and make poor decisions that lead to snacking.

Everyone has their own symptoms. This is not an exhaustive list of symptoms, but it does give you a place to start considering what in your life is caused by sleep and is it worth giving up 1-2 hours of sleep a night for your health?