What extra money is spent by the sleep deprived?

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An article called “Your Body on a Lack of Sleep”in health magazine Prevention lists several effects of not getting enough sleep.  I want to share some of those effects and how they could affect people’s consumer habits.

• The article says,“Sleeping fewer than 6 hours ups obesity risk 30%. One study found that women who slept fewer than 5 hours ate 329 more calories the next day.”  This statistic gives the quickest and simplest example of what money will be spent on that it otherwise wouldn’t be.  The extra 329 calories means that the sleep deprived person will be spending more money on food than a person who gets necessary amounts sleep.

• It also says that these people are at higher risk of poor immunity, catching a cold, diabetes, high blood-pressure,and heart disease.  Being at higher risk for so many health problems, these people are bound to be paying much larger amounts throughout their life on medical expenses.

• The obvious problem with not getting enough sleep given by Prevention is that “Missing out on as few as 1 1/2 hours of sleep can reduce daytime alertness by up to 32%.”  While most people can assume something to that effect, it is interesting how little sleep needs to be missed in order to reduce alertness by such a large amount.  These people who are less alert are likely to turn to coffee and caffeine and probably spend more money on those products.

There is an additional article “Up all night, down all day: insomnia may not only accompany depression--it may cause it” in Psychology Today.  This article points to more issues that can arise from not getting enough sleep.

• “According to one study, people with persistent insomnia are 40 times more likely to develop depression within a year than are those who sleep well.”  This percent seems incredibly high.  These people are therefore more likely to be purchasing antidepressants.

All of this information is fairly easy to understand. In my next post I want to see how people act when shopping on little sleep.