Meaning & use
sleep deprivation
Last updated
Meanings
noununcountable
The state of not getting enough sleep, especially over a long period, which harms concentration and health.
Grammar: Never takes an or a plural: suffer from sleep deprivation.
Patterns
- suffer from sleep deprivation
- sleep deprivation causes something
Chronic sleep deprivation can weaken your memory.
New parents often suffer from sleep deprivation in the first months.
The study linked sleep deprivation to poor exam results.
noununcountable
The deliberate keeping of a person awake, used as a form of pressure or mistreatment.
Grammar: Often appears in reports about interrogation or torture.
Patterns
- use sleep deprivation
- subject someone to sleep deprivation
Human rights groups condemned the use of sleep deprivation.
The prisoners reported sleep deprivation during questioning.
Researchers use controlled sleep deprivation to study how the brain reacts.
Common combinations
- chronic sleep deprivation
- Chronic sleep deprivation raises the risk of illness.
- suffer from sleep deprivation
- Many students suffer from sleep deprivation during exams.
- effects of sleep deprivation
- The effects of sleep deprivation include irritability and poor focus.
- severe sleep deprivation
- Severe sleep deprivation can cause hallucinations.
- cause sleep deprivation
- Night shifts can cause sleep deprivation.
Synonyms and how they differ
- insomnia
- Insomnia is an inability to fall or stay asleep, while sleep deprivation can happen for any reason, including choice or a busy schedule.
- sleeplessness
- Sleeplessness is a plainer, more everyday word that describes the condition without the medical tone.
- sleep debt
- Sleep debt means the accumulated hours of missed sleep, while sleep deprivation names the resulting state.
Opposites
Word family
- deprive verb
- to take something away from someone
- deprived adjective
- lacking something needed
- sleep-deprived adjective
- not getting enough sleep
- deprivation noun
- the lack or loss of something necessary
Commonly confused: sleep deprivation or insomnia?
sleep deprivation vs insomnia
Insomnia is a sleep disorder in which you cannot sleep; sleep deprivation is simply not getting enough sleep, whatever the cause.
Practice
Doctors warned that months of ___ had left the nurse exhausted and forgetful.
Choose one answer.
Sleep deprivation means not getting enough sleep and explains exhaustion and forgetfulness. Over-sleeping would not cause exhaustion in this way.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “sleep deprivation”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.