What happens to your body when you don't get enough sleep?

A legal performance-enhancer to an actual superpower, or a risk of bringing on early eternal slumber? We have repeatedly been told that sleep has the power to make or break us. Subscribe to Guardian News on YouTube ► https://www.youtube.com/user/guardianwires?sub_confirmation=1 But how bad is a lack of sleep, really? To start with, the bad news. Yes, science tells us that being chronically sleep deprived is pretty terrible for us. And what happens to our body if we don’t get eight hours of sleep a night? If we seem to be coping fine on six hours, is there a chance we are still setting ourselves up for problems further down the line? Madeleine Finlay, Guardian journalist and host of Science Weekly, explains what happens to our body when we’re not getting enough shut-eye – and the risks involved. Do we really need eight hours sleep a night – and what happens if we don’t get it? ► https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2026/mar/24/do-we-really-need-eight-hours-sleep-night?utm_source=instagram&utm_campaign=ig_gu The Guardian publishes independent journalism, made possible by supporters. Contribute to The Guardian today ► https://support.theguardian.com/ Sign up to the Guardian's free new daily newsletter, First Edition ► http://theguardian.com/first-edition #sleep #lackofsleep #health