Sleep deprivation: what it is and how to use it for your benefit

Deprivation is a state similar in characteristics to frustration. Occurs when there is a long-term impossibility or limitation of satisfying the needs that are relevant to the individual. The state of deprivation refers to psychotraumatic situations. It can create irreversible mental changes. Deprivation differs in forms, types, manifestations and consequences.

What is deprivation

Deprivation is often hidden or not realized by a person, it is masked. Outwardly, a person and the conditions of his life may look prosperous, but at the same time, a conflict rages inside the person and discomfort is felt. Long-term deprivation creates chronic stress. The result is prolonged stress.

Deprivation is similar to frustration, but there are 2 main differences between them:

• deprivation is not as noticeable to the individual as frustration;
• deprivation occurs with prolonged and complete deprivation, frustration is a reaction to a specific failure, an unsatisfied need.

For example, if a child’s favorite toy is taken away but given another, he will experience frustration. And if you completely forbid playing, then this is deprivation.

Most often we are talking about psychological deprivation, for example, when deprived of love, attention, care, and social contacts. Although biological deprivation also occurs. It can be threatening to the physical and mental development of the individual (its self-actualization, self-esteem) and non-threatening. The latter is more like frustration. For example, if a child is not bought ice cream, he will experience non-threatening deprivation, but if he systematically goes hungry, he will experience threatening deprivation. But if the same ice cream is a symbol of something for a child, for example, parental love, and he suddenly does not receive it, then this will cause serious personality changes.

The appearance and severity of deprivation largely depend on the individual personality characteristics of a person. For example, two people may perceive and endure social isolation differently, depending on the value of society for each and the severity of the need for social contacts. Thus, deprivation is a subjective state that is not repeated in the same way in different people.

Sleep deprivation

Deficiency or complete deprivation of the ability to satisfy the fundamental need for sleep. Occur due to sleep disturbance due to the presence of illness, as a result of conscious choice or coercion, for example, as torture. Depressive conditions are often successfully treated with the help of deliberate sleep deprivation.

Human individuals cannot stay awake all the time. However, he is able to reduce this process to a minimum (for example, to a couple of hours a day) - partial sleep deprivation.

Total sleep deprivation is the process of being deprived of sleep for at least several days.

There are also certain techniques for using deprivation as a treatment. However, to this day there is much controversy regarding the usefulness of deprivation as a therapeutic agent. So, for example, it leads to a decrease in the secretion of growth hormone, which is responsible for converting calories into muscle mass. With its deficiency, calories are transformed not into muscle tissue, but into fat.

Sleep deprivation is characterized by several main stages. The initial stage, which lasts from one to six days, is characterized by the individual’s constant struggle with sleep. People try to fall asleep for a fairly short period of time (no more than two hours). And the main thing here is not to break down, maintaining psychological calm. To this end, individuals try to diversify their activities and do something previously unknown and interesting. When choosing a new activity, preference is given not to a monotonous, but to a more active activity. You need to understand that during the initial stage, individuals may be plagued by nervous tension, emotional disorders, and poor health. At the end of the initial stage, the feeling of poor health goes away. The next stage, lasting up to ten days, is shock therapy. The second stage is characterized by disorders of consciousness: human individuals will seem like robots, disturbances in the perception of the surrounding reality may be observed, and malfunctions may also appear in the cognitive sphere. For example, an individual may forget what happened a moment ago or confuse the past and present. Mild euphoria is possible. This stage is characterized by constant insomnia, to which the body has already adapted. The work of all systems is intensified, and processes are accelerated. There is a clearer perception of the world, and feelings are heightened. If you continue to deprive yourself of sleep, the third stage will begin, which is considered quite dangerous for the health of individuals. And it is marked by the appearance of visual hallucinations.

Today, doctors successfully use sleep deprivation techniques to lift people out of the deepest depression. The essence of the method is a gradual change in sleep cycles: reducing the amount of time spent asleep and increasing the period of wakefulness.

Sleep deprivation, as most doctors believe, selectively affects certain areas of the brain that are responsible for people falling into depressive states.

Types of deprivation

Deprivation is considered and classified according to needs. It is customary to distinguish the following types:

1. Sensory deprivation. Implies such conditions of development of a child or life situations of an adult in which the environment has a limited or extremely variable set of external stimuli (sounds, light, smells, and so on).
2. Cognitive deprivation. The environment has excessively variable or chaotic external conditions. The individual does not have time to assimilate them, which means he cannot predict events. Due to the lack, variability and inadequacy of incoming information, a person develops an erroneous idea of ​​the outside world. The understanding of connections between things is disrupted. A person builds false relationships and has erroneous ideas about causes and effects.
3. Emotional deprivation. It involves a rupture of emotional interpersonal connection or intimate-personal communication or the inability to establish close social relationships. In childhood, this type of deprivation is identified with maternal deprivation, which means the woman’s coldness in her relationship with the child. This is dangerous for mental disorders.
4. Social deprivation, or identity deprivation. We are talking about limited conditions for mastering a role, passing through an identity. For example, pensioners, prisoners, and students of closed schools are subject to social deprivation.
5. In addition, there are motor deprivation (for example, bed rest due to injury), educational, economic, ethical and other options.

This is a theory. In practice, one type of deprivation can transform into another; several types can manifest themselves simultaneously; one type can arise as a consequence of the previous one.

Sensory deprivation

Partial or absolute deprivation of one analyzer or several sense organs of external influence is called sensory or stimulus deprivation. The simplest artificial means that cause a state of loss of perception include earplugs or blindfolds, which remove or reduce the impact on the visual or auditory analyzer. There are also more complex mechanisms that simultaneously turn off several analyzer systems, for example, olfactory, tactile, taste and temperature receptors.

Stimulus deprivation is successfully used in various psychological experiments, alternative medicine, BDSM games, meditation and as torture. Short periods of deprivation have a relaxing effect, as they trigger internal processes of subconscious analysis, organizing and sorting information, self-tuning and stabilization of mental activity. Meanwhile, prolonged deprivation of external stimuli can provoke excessive worry, anxiety, hallucinations, depression and antisocial behavior.

Scientists from McGill University in the fifties of the twentieth century asked volunteers to stay for the longest possible period of time in a special chamber that protected them from external impulses. The subjects were located in a small enclosed space in a supine position, in which all sounds were drowned out by the monotonous noise of the air conditioner motor. Their hands were inserted into special cardboard sleeves, and their eyes were covered with tinted glasses that let in only faint, diffuse light. Most subjects were unable to endure this experiment for longer than 3 days. This is due to the conversion of human consciousness, deprived of the usual external stimuli, into the depths of the subconscious, from which quite bizarre and most incredible images and false sensations began to emerge, reminiscent of hallucinations to the tested individuals. Such imaginary perceptions frightened the subjects, and they demanded to complete the experiment. This study allowed scientists to conclude that sensory stimulation is vital for the normal development and functioning of consciousness, and deprivation of sensory sensations leads to degradation of mental activity and the personality itself. The inevitable consequences of long-term stimulus deprivation will be impairments in the cognitive sphere, namely memory, attention and thought processes, anxiety, sleep-wake cycle disorders, mood swings from depression to euphoria and vice versa, and the inability to distinguish reality from hallucinations.

Further research has shown that the occurrence of the listed symptoms is determined not by the fact of deprivation, but by the individual’s attitude towards the loss of sensory perceptions. The very deprivation of external influence on analyzers is not scary for an adult individual - it is just a change in environmental conditions, to which the human body easily adapts by restructuring its functioning.

So, for example, food deprivation will not necessarily be accompanied by suffering. Unpleasant sensations appear only in those individuals for whom fasting is unusual or they are forcibly deprived of food. People who consciously practice therapeutic fasting feel light in their bodies on the third day and can easily endure a ten-day fast.

Sensory and emotional deprivation of young children manifests itself in a lack of opportunities to establish an emotionally intimate relationship with a certain person or in the severance of an established connection. Children who find themselves in an orphanage, boarding school or hospital often find themselves in an impoverished environment that causes sensory starvation. Such an environment is harmful for individuals of any age, but it has a particularly detrimental effect on children.

Numerous psychological studies have proven that a necessary condition for the normal formation of the brain in an early age is the presence of a sufficient number of external impressions, since it is during the receipt of various information from the external environment into the brain and its further processing that the training of the analyzer systems and corresponding brain structures occurs.

Deprivations and their consequences

Sensory deprivation

One of the most studied forms. For example, changes in the consciousness of pilots on long flights have long been confirmed. The monotony of days and loneliness are depressing.

Perhaps the most films have been made about sensory deprivation. For some reason, the story of a man surviving alone on an island is very beloved by screenwriters. For example, remember the film Cast Away with Tom Hanks in the title role. The picture very accurately conveys the psychological changes of a person left for a long period alone and in limited conditions. One ball friend is worth something.

A simpler example: every person knows how monotonous and identical work depresses. The same “Groundhog Day” that many people like to talk about.

The main consequences of sensory deprivation include:

• a change in the direction of thinking and a decrease in the ability to concentrate;
• escape into dreams and fantasies;
• loss of sense of time, impaired orientation in time;
• illusions, deceptions of perception, hallucinations (in this case, this is a variant of a defense mechanism that helps maintain mental balance);
• nervous restlessness, excessive agitation and physical activity;
• somatic changes (often headaches, muscle aches, spots in the eyes);
• delusions and paranoia;
• anxiety and fears;
• other personality changes.

In general, two groups of reactions can be identified: increased excitability against a background of general depression, that is, an acute reaction to situations (under normal conditions the same events did not cause such a violent reaction) and a decrease in craving for previously interesting things, an overly calm and apathetic reaction. A third reaction option is possible - a change in taste preferences and emotional relationships to the opposite (one gets irritated by what one liked).

This applies to changes in the emotional sphere, but disturbances due to deprivation also affect the cognitive sphere:

• Deterioration and disorders in the area of ​​verbal-logical thinking, indirect memorization, voluntary attention and speech.
• Disturbances in perceptual processes. For example, a person may lose the ability to see in three dimensions. He may feel like the walls are moving or narrowing. A person mistakenly perceives colors, shapes, sizes.
• Increased suggestibility.

As we understand, sensory hunger can easily arise in everyday life. Very often it is sensory hunger that is confused with ordinary hunger; the lack of impressions is compensated by food. Overeating and obesity are another consequence of sensory deprivation.

Not all changes are strictly negative. For example, an increased active imagination encourages creativity, which is useful in finding ways out of a difficult situation. Let's remember the same films about survivors on a desert island. And in principle, any outlet for awakened creativity will reduce the risk of mental disorders.

For extroverts, due to their innate need for external stimuli, sensory deprivation will cause greater disturbances than for introverts. Also, people with a stable type of psyche will more easily survive this type of deprivation. People with hysterical and demonstrative accentuations will find it more difficult to survive sensory deprivation.

Knowledge of the individual personal characteristics of people and assumptions about their reaction to sensory deprivation is important for professional selection. Thus, working in expeditions or flight conditions, that is, sensory deprivation, is not suitable for everyone.

Motor deprivation

With prolonged limitation in movement (from 15 days to 4 months) the following is observed:

• hypochondria;
• depression;
• unreasonable fears;
• unstable emotional states.

Cognitive changes also occur: attention decreases, speech slows down and is disrupted, and memorization becomes difficult. A person becomes lazy and avoids mental activity.

Cognitive deprivation

Lack of information, its chaos and disorder cause:

• boredom;
• inadequate ideas of the individual about the world and his possibilities of life in it;
• erroneous conclusions about world events and people around them;
• inability to act productively.

Ignorance (information hunger) awakens fears and anxieties, thoughts about incredible and unpleasant developments in the future or the inaccessible present. There are signs of depression and sleep disturbances, loss of vigilance, decreased performance, and deterioration of attention. It’s not for nothing that they say that there is nothing worse than ignorance.

Emotional deprivation

Recognizing emotional deprivation is more difficult than others. At a minimum, because it can manifest itself in different ways: someone experiences fears, suffers from depression, withdraws into himself; others compensate by being overly sociable and having superficial relationships.

The consequences of emotional deprivation are especially acute in childhood. There is a delay in cognitive, emotional and social development. In adulthood, the emotional sphere of communication (handshakes, hugs, smiles, approval, admiration, praise, compliments, etc.) is needed for psychological health and balance.

Social deprivation

We are talking about the complete isolation of an individual or group of people from society. There are several options for social deprivation:

• Forced isolation. Neither the individual (or group of people) nor society wanted or expected this isolation. It depends only on objective conditions. Example: plane or ship crash.
• Forced isolation. The initiator is society. Example: prisons, army, orphanages, military camps.
• Voluntary isolation. The initiator is an individual or a group of people. Example: hermits.
• Voluntary-forced isolation. The individual himself limits social contacts in order to achieve his goal. Example: school for gifted children, Suvorov Military School.

The consequences of social deprivation largely depend on age. In adults, the following consequences are observed:

• anxiety;
• fear;
• depression;
• psychoses;
• feeling like an outsider;
• emotional stress;
• euphoria, similar to the effect of taking drugs.

In general, the effects of social deprivation are similar to those of sensory deprivation. However, the consequences of social deprivation in a group (a person gradually gets used to the same people) are somewhat different:

• irritability;
• incontinence;
• fatigue, inadequate assessment of events;
• withdrawal;
• conflicts;
• neuroses;
• depression and suicide.

At the cognitive level, with social deprivation, memory deterioration, speech slowdown and disturbances, loss of civilized habits (manners, norms of behavior, tastes), and deterioration of abstract thinking are noted.

Social deprivation is experienced by outcasts and hermits, mothers on maternity leave, old people who have just retired, and an employee on long-term sick leave. The consequences of social deprivation are individual, as is the period of their persistence after a person returns to normal living conditions.

Existential deprivation

Associated with the need to find oneself and one’s place in the world, to know the meaning of life, to understand issues of death, and so on. Accordingly, existential deprivation differs by age:

• In adolescence, existential deprivation occurs in a situation where the environment does not allow the teenager to realize the need for adulthood.
• Youth is determined by finding a profession and starting a family. Loneliness and social isolation are the causes of existential deprivation in this case.
• At 30 years old, it is important that life corresponds to the internal plans and motives of the individual.
• At the age of 40, a person evaluates the correctness of his life, self-realization, and the fulfillment of personal purpose.

Existential deprivation can occur regardless of age, due to personal reasons:

• change in social status (positive or negative);
• destruction of meanings, inability to achieve goals;
• rapid change in living conditions (longing for the old order);
• melancholy due to the gray monotony of life (excessive stability);
• a feeling of loss and sadness when achieving such a desired goal after a long and difficult journey (and what to do next, how to live without a dream).

Educational deprivation

We are talking not only about complete pedagogical neglect, but also about learning conditions that do not correspond to the individual and personal characteristics of the child, the impossibility of full disclosure of potential and self-realization. As a result, motivation to learn is lost, interest drops, and there is a reluctance to attend classes. An aversion to learning activities in the broad sense of the word is formed.

Within the framework of educational deprivation, we can distinguish emotional (ignoring the needs and characteristics of the child, suppression of individuality) and cognitive (formal presentation of knowledge).

Educational deprivation often turns into cultural deprivation or serves as its prerequisite. Cultural deprivation starts in the home where education is not valued.

Possible consequences of deprivation

The consequences of deprivation in children sometimes pose a threat to the individual himself and to society. According to research, absolutely all maniacal murderers, pedophiles, sadists, etc. experienced deprivation in childhood.

This does not mean that all unloved children will become maniacs, but such children often exhibit a distortion of morality, a lack of empathy and a banal inability to integrate into society. Children have many needs, and failure to meet any of them can cause delays in physical and mental development. It is extremely difficult to correct the consequences of childhood deprivation, and a person carries this burden throughout his life.

The consequences of deprivation in adults are sometimes easier to correct. Having lost something necessary, an adult can independently try to find a way out and regain spiritual harmony. With professional deprivation, a person is able to change his occupation to the desired one, and all that is needed is willpower and firm convictions.

Pensioners, finding themselves outside of society, can always find communities of interest and get out of the vacuum. Adults are able to tolerate the absence of certain opportunities, and they can replace them with others. A bedridden disabled person may well take up writing, and the lack of sensory sensations can be cured by new romantic relationships.

To date, many techniques have been developed to identify and correct deprivation. The rehabilitation technique depends on the type of deprivation and the degree of its neglect. It is very important to recognize the problem in time and not delay solving it.

As you grow older, negative emotions become fixed and become part of your character, which is difficult to correct. Nowadays a psychologist works in kindergarten and in every school. If deprivation is detected in a child, parents need to listen to the specialist’s recommendations and begin treatment. This will help save the child from many problems in adult life.

Carolina Korableva

About the author: Hello! I am Karolina Korableva. I live in the Moscow region, in the city of Odintsovo. I love life and people. I try to be realistic and optimistic in life. What I value in people is their ability to behave. I am interested in psychology, in particular conflictology. Graduated from RGSU, Faculty of Occupational Psychology and Special Psychology.

Deprivation in the modern world

Deprivation can be obvious or hidden. With the first form, everything is simple: physical separation, confinement in a cell, and so on. An example of hidden deprivation is isolation in a crowd (loneliness in a crowd) or emotional coldness in a relationship (marriage for children).

In the modern world, no one is immune from deprivation. One or another of its forms and types can be provoked by economic and social instability of society, information war or information control. Deprivation makes itself felt the more strongly the more a person’s expectations (level of aspirations) diverge from reality.

Unemployment, poverty (largely a subjective indicator), urbanization can have a negative impact on the psyche of people. Very often, the onset of deprivation and a state of frustration are compensated by a defense mechanism - an escape from reality. That’s why virtual reality, alcohol, and computers are so popular.

Learned helplessness is another disease of modern society. It also has its roots in deprivation. People are passive and in many ways infantile, but for some this is the only option to maintain balance in an unstable environment or limited opportunities. Pessimism is another reaction to long-term deprivation.

Causes of deprivation

Deprivation doesn't just happen. Moreover, it can only appear in people who are internally predisposed to it. First of all, it manifests itself in people with an internal “vacuum” of values. In psychology this is described as follows. If a person has been deprived of something for a long time, then over time he loses the ability to follow the rules, norms and values ​​that exist in society. In order to exist normally, an individual must be able to adapt to the environmental conditions in which he finds himself. If he does not know how to do this, he feels internal discomfort. The way out of the situation is the formation of new ideals and values.

Overcoming deprivation

Deprivation can be overcome in different ways: destructive and constructive, social and asocial. For example, it is popular to become involved in religion, a passion for esotericism and psychology, and mastering self-regulation and relaxation techniques. No less popular is going into the world of the Internet and fantasies, books, films.

With a conscious and professional approach, correction of deprivation involves a detailed study of a particular case and the creation of anti-deprivation conditions. That is, for example, with sensory deprivation, the environment is saturated with events and impressions. With cognitive – searching for information, assimilating it, correcting existing images and stereotypes. Emotional deprivation is eliminated by establishing communication with people and building relationships.

Working with deprivations requires a strictly individual psychotherapeutic approach. What is important is the period of deprivation, the individual personal characteristics of a person, his age, the type of deprivation and form, and external conditions. The consequences of some deprivations are easier to correct, while others take a lot of time to correct, or the irreversibility of mental changes is stated.

Social deprivation

The complete absence or reduction of the opportunity to communicate with people around us, to live interacting with society, is social deprivation. Violation of personal contacts with society can provoke a certain mental state, which serves as a pathogenic factor causing the development of a number of painful symptoms. The occurrence of violations is due to social isolation, the level of severity of which varies, which in turn establishes the degree of severity of the deprivation situation.

There are several forms of social deprivation, which differ not only in the level of its severity, but in the person who is the initiator. That is, there is a certain personality that establishes the deprivative nature of the relationship of an individual or group of individuals with the wider society. In accordance with this, the following options for social deprivation are distinguished: forced, forced, voluntary and voluntary-forced isolation.

Forced isolation occurs when an individual or group of people find themselves, due to insurmountable circumstances, cut off from society. Such circumstances do not depend on their will or the will of society. For example, the crew of a sea vessel that ended up on a desert island as a result of a wreck.

Forced isolation occurs when society isolates individuals regardless of their aspirations and desires, and often in spite of them. An example of such isolation is provided by prisoners in correctional institutions or closed social groups, being in which does not imply restrictions on rights and does not imply a decrease in the social status of the individual (conscript soldiers, children in orphanages).

Voluntary isolation occurs when individuals voluntarily distance themselves from society (for example, monks or sectarians).

Voluntary-forced isolation occurs when the achievement of a certain goal that is significant for an individual or group of people implies the need to significantly narrow one’s own contacts with a familiar environment. For example, sports boarding schools.

Man is the most perfect creature on planet Earth, but at the same time, during the neonatal period and in infancy, he is the most helpless creature, since he does not have any ready-made forms of behavioral response.

Deprivation of young children leads to a decrease in their success in understanding society and difficulties in building communications with individual subjects and society as a whole, which in the future will significantly affect the effectiveness of their life activities.

In addition, being in closed institutions does not remain without detrimental consequences for children's developing psyche.

Social deprivation of orphans sharply activates the formation of undesirable personality traits, such as: infantilism, self-doubt, dependency, lack of independence, low self-esteem. All this slows down the process of socialization and leads to disharmony in the social development of orphans.

Afterword

By the way, the phenomenon of deprivation is closer than we think, and it has not only a negative side. Its skillful use helps to know oneself and achieve a state of altered consciousness. Remember the techniques of yoga, relaxation, meditation: close your eyes, don’t move, listen to music. All these are elements of deprivation. In small and controlled doses, when used skillfully, deprivation can improve the psychophysiological state.

This feature is used in some psychotechnics. With the help of perception management (can only be done under the supervision of a psychotherapist), new horizons become available to the individual: creative abilities, previously unknown resources, increased adaptive abilities.

Maternal deprivation

The loss of a mother or prolonged deprivation of communication with her leads to maternal deprivation, which negatively affects the personal development of the baby. The following situations also have a negative impact on the child’s mental development:

1. Woman goes to work too early
2. Mother goes on a long business trip, session
3. Separation from mother after difficult birth
4. The child is sent to kindergarten very early
5. Mother and child are separated due to illness

The situations listed above refer to open deprivation. There is also a hidden form, in which the mother is actually with her child, but there is psychological tension between them. What are the reasons for such deprivation? In psychology, the following reasons are identified:

1. The mother’s excessive passion for scientific literature and “correct” parenting methods. The woman absolutely does not pay attention to the individual characteristics of the baby and does not listen to her intuition.
2. Hostile or tense relationship between father and mother.
3. The mother has health problems, as a result of which she cannot allocate sufficient time and fully care for the baby.
4. The birth of similar children into a family. The mother is under constant stress and therefore cannot provide adequate care for the baby.

The risk group includes children born as a result of an unwanted pregnancy. This negatively affects the mother’s relationship with the child, who always subconsciously feels it. An important period in the development of a child is an early age - from 0 to 3 years. At this time, contact with the mother is important for the full development of the child’s psyche. Otherwise, internal aggression and depression arise. As an adult, such a child will not be able to build normal relationships with people around him. There is a theory that maternal mental deprivation is the cause of autism.

Paternal deprivation

The father should be involved in raising the child no less than the mother. Depriving a baby of emotional contact with his dad leads to paternal deprivation. What situations can lead to its appearance?

• lack of positive emotional relationships between father and child, despite the physical presence of a man in the house;
• father leaving the family;
• realization of ambitions by the child's father;
• violation of role positions in the family. In this case, the father takes over the maternal functions and vice versa.

How does paternal deprivation affect children's development? The child misidentifies his gender and becomes incompetent and emotionally vulnerable. This also affects the ability to properly build relationships with people, the inability to correctly and competently build relationships with one’s own children.

My recommendations

Sensory deprivation is a common cause of various phobias and decreased self-esteem in children. Practicing psychologists have to not only form a positive image of the “I” in a child, but also correct negative behavioral deviations.

In my opinion, effective methods of working with clients who have experienced sensory hunger are hypnosis and all areas of art therapy.

One day a young man came to me complaining of panic attacks. I suggested that such an effect in the emotional-volitional sphere could be caused by sensory deprivation: the young man practiced yoga alone, meditated for hours, sitting without moving. Their reason was the guy’s passion for meditative techniques and yoga. It was difficult to work with him: achieving mutual understanding between me and the client was hampered by his conviction that independent yoga classes at home could not cause harm to the body.

In my opinion, the best prevention of sensory deprivation is full-fledged live communication, a rich life with vivid impressions, a balanced diet and systematic exercise.