I haven’t always seen eye to eye with my body’s need for sleep. While I’m certainly a fan of the rest, I’ve always struggled with things I’d rather be doing. You know, like the kid who always begs his parents for 5 more minutes in front of the TV. I just never grew out of that and spent the vast majority of my years equating sleep with an interruption from studying, watching TV, reading and any number of things I wasn’t quite done with when the yawning started. It was the inevitable harm to my health that finally turned me around.

Unfortunately, I’m hardly the only one who has set aside a few hours of sleep every night. In many cultures such as the US, the demands of our jobs practically require less sleep and more time at the office. Funny how, in the pursuit of more creature comforts we find ourselves sacrificing the greatest comfort of all. On occasion, that’s alright. As a matter of habit, it’s terrible. Aside from the direct impact to our health, poor sleep contributes to a chain reaction that can lead to a dramatically diminished quality of life.

The direct benefits of sleep are fairly obvious. Better concentration and productivity come immediately to mind. But did you know that healthy sleep habits contribute to better weight management?

One of the theories behind the association of quality sleep with good weight management is based in evolution. The premise is that our bodies interpret a low stress environment and react accordingly. There must be plenty of food and it must be readily available or we wouldn’t be sleeping so soundly all the time. Poor sleep, on the other hand, triggers stress reactions and our bodies respond differently. We tend to go into a type of horde mode to carry us through tough times. It’s the metabolic equivalent of a squirrel packing away nuts to carry it through the winter.

Whether or not you agree with the popular science behind the association of sleep and weight management, what isn’t up for debate (it’s been well studied) is that there really is a relationship between them. “Why” isn’t as important as the simple acceptance that symptoms such as weight gain, depression, fatigue and mood swings are legitimately tied to our sleep habits and the message is clear. Sleep is important.

But accepting the consequences of lost sleep as valid doesn’t necessarily prepare us for the less obvious consequences. We might recognize that we’ll have trouble concentrating but won’t make the intuitive leap to realize how badly that could influence our lives. We then further fail to connect with the realization that those bad results could subsequently lead to more lost sleep. In a vicious circle that keeps coming back on itself, it isn’t all that hard to find ourselves in a repetitive and self-destructive rut from which there seems to be little escape.

Imagine, for example, a tough day at work following a few nights of poor sleep. As a result, you botch a very important proposal. Your boss isn’t the least bit happy. It’s all you can think of that night as you crawl back into bed and your head just won’t let you doze off. Your alarm goes off the next morning after hours of tossing and turning and you drag yourself to the office even more fatigued where, predictably, your performance continues to suffer. Your work doesn’t go unnoticed and when promotion time rolls around, you find yourself passed up after a demoralizing review in which your boss tells you that you’re not living up to his expectations.

As a continuation of that work scenario but perfectly capable of standing on its own, let’s take it to the family. Days of poor sleep, and poor performance at work leave you completely depressed. You find yourself incapable of caring about your spouse, her day at work or her interests. The inevitable arguments begin and you can’t find yourself agreeing on anything. Your ability to care, to compromise or even to pay attention to that internal censor that often keeps you from putting your foot in your mouth is compromised. You say the wrong thing, a VERY wrong thing, and now you’re sleeping on the couch. If only you could sleep!

But wishing for it doesn’t make it a reality. All your problems, your work, your home life, tumble through your mind as soon as you close your eyes. Your career is a wreck and your relationship is little better. And you owe it all to a few nights of interrupted sleep.

Think that’s all a bit dramatic? Think again. Millions of people who already suffer from depression or who already find themselves facing difficult circumstances can attest to how little it takes to teeter from coping to floundering. A bout of bad sleep over as little as a few days can emotionally and physically cripple a person. If you accept that planes crash due to pilot fatigue and the fact that people die on highways every year due to tired drivers, is it really that much of a leap to accept that sleeplessness can contribute to ruining lives in less final but more prolonged ways?

Our bodies and minds are resilient but also potentially fragile things. Just like a machine, they require maintenance and general upkeep. Where food and water serve as our fuel, quality sleep serves to charge our battery. Without the chance to recharge, the machine begins to break down and fail on both an emotional and physical level.

When our parents or doctor ask us how we’re sleeping, the question isn’t motivated by an interest in the quality of our mattress. Rather, the question gets to the heart of the matter about our health, our relationships and our life in general. All those things can have a negative impact on our lives when they aren’t going well and your answer will tell the concerned party a great deal about your emotional and physical circumstances. In essence, they are asking how life is treating you.

If you find yourself sacrificing sleep as a matter of routine, ask yourself what you’re really gaining. If the end result is depression, mood swings, arguments and plummeting mental and physical health, is the juice really worth the squeeze? The answer for me is “no.” I’d rather enjoy the time I have than stretch a few more hours into misery for me, my family and my employer.