They all had jobs during the day, and it was unreasonable to ask him to stay up late. –Lu Xun, “The Social Performance
So what time do you think you should stay up late? This varies from person to person. Some people, as soon as 11:00 p.m., will “lose consciousness”, while others feel that “1:00 a.m. is the right time to sleep”. Everyone has their own biological clock, but most will not leave the “day work and night rest” this big rule.
A reporter asked NBA star Kobe: “Why are you so successful?” Kobe asked in return, “Do you know what it’s like at 4:00 a.m. in Los Angeles?” As a euphemism for the effort he puts in. You know, whether you’re used to going to bed early or staying up late, you’re usually asleep at 4 a.m.
The body is very honest, as long as it does not follow its own rules to rest, the next day will show “strike” or “fatigue”. Let’s take a look at what parts of the body can become a strike “baby” by staying up late.
1, increase the risk of cardiovascular disease
Staying up late is the most obvious cardiovascular harm, and this harm can be fatal. Think back to the time when you had to sleep late for some reason, and then the next day the head drowsy, rapid heartbeat, mental discomfort? This is due to short-term sleep deprivation that strains the sympathetic nervous system and leads to abnormal vasoconstriction, elevated blood pressure, increased secretion of stress hormones such as cortisone and epinephrine, reduced glucose tolerance, and irregular heartbeat. These are the precursors that lead to coronary heart disease. If you stay up late for a long time, you may further induce heart disease due to the development of hypertension, obesity and diabetes promoted by chronic insomnia deprivation.
For people with a history of cardiovascular disease or family history, the risk is even greater. It is known that most white-collar workers who die suddenly from staying up late suffer from underlying heart disease or congenital malformations of the cerebral vessels, but they are often discovered only after autopsy. In other words, sudden death does not show significant cardiac discomfort before it occurs. Therefore, no matter how healthy you usually feel, you should not stay up late with impunity.
2, triggering immune dysfunction
The body’s immune dysfunction is a terrible consequence of staying up late for a long time. Immune dysfunction will produce nephritis in the kidneys, lupus erythematosus in the skin, and rheumatoid arthritis in the joints. At the same time, the body’s immunity will also be reduced, leaving the body in a serious state of suboptimal health, with respiratory diseases such as colds and flu, and digestive diseases such as gastroenteritis coming to the door.
Our internal clock is set to adapt to the light-dark cycle of 12 hours in length each. When this rhythm is disrupted, the immune system suffers as well. According to one study, one reason for this may be that there is a strong link between the genes that set the biological clock and specific immune cells.
3. Different effects on different areas of the brain
Staying up late has different effects on different areas of the brain. A study found that the brain’s response to the biological clock can be divided into two types: “strict obedient” and “do not care”. Areas under the cerebral cortex, including structures such as the midbrain and thalamus, belong to the former – regardless of sleep, the level of activity can still be consistent with the biological clock rhythm. Most areas of the cerebral cortex, such as the prefrontal cortex, do not buy the biological clock’s instructions – they automatically go into an inactive state as soon as the need for sleep is high. That’s why after a late night, even in the daytime, we are still “dazed”.
4. Other hazards
Staying up late can make you more prone to cancer. When you stay up late, the cell metabolism is abnormal and the normal division of human cells is affected, which leads to cell mutation and increases the risk of cancer. Take pancreatic cancer as an example, the incidence rate of people who stay up late often is more than three times higher than the average person. This is because cancer cells are produced during cell division, which mostly takes place during sleep.
In addition, staying up late can also cause 10,000 points of damage to the eyes, not just the simple appearance of “panda eyes”. Long-term eye overload can cause pain, dryness and other problems in the eyes, and even make people suffer from dry eye disease. In addition, eye muscle fatigue can also lead to temporary vision loss. Overexertion caused by prolonged late nights may also induce central retinitis, leading to a sudden drop in visual acuity.
In addition, staying up late can lead to neurological weakness by affecting sympathetic nerve excitation. The sympathetic nerves of people should be rested at night and excited during the day so that they can support people’s work all day, while the sympathetic nerves of people who stay up late are excited at night. After staying up late the next day, the sympathetic nerve is difficult to fully excited, will make people no spirit, dizziness, memory loss, inattention, slow reaction, forgetfulness and dizziness, headache, etc.. Over time, there will be neurasthenia, insomnia and other problems. Therefore, the effect of staying up late to study for a long time may not be ideal, and students should not move themselves by staying up all night the night before the exam.
Many of the hazards of staying up late seem to be caused by a lack of sleep, so more sleep during the day will be able to remedy back?
A night of poor sleep can be restored during the day with proper rest. Lack of sleep caused by daytime behavior, learning and memory capacity can be improved by snoozing; not only that, lack of sleep caused by the lower pain threshold, lower immunity and other problems can also be benignly reversed by daytime rest. For the average person, sleep experts recommend snoozing for 20 minutes or less. To avoid interfering with nighttime sleep, snoozing after 3 p.m. should be avoided as much as possible.
However, some people have the habit of staying up late on weekdays and catching up hard on weekends in an attempt to make up for lost sleep in a way that is not desirable. The brain has two systems involved in the regulation of the sleep-wake process. The first is the biological clock, the most important component of which is located in the hypothalamus. The biological clock allows the body’s various physiological functions (sleep-wake, hormone release, blood pressure changes, organ functions, etc.) to change regularly according to the circadian cycle, and its functions are not affected by how much sleep or how little sleep. Although the biological clock can be adjusted, it can only accept 1-2 hours of variation per day, which is the reason why jet lag is required for travel across time zones.
When the sleep balance is disturbed, a second system related to the homeostatic balance of the body comes into play, which we call “sleep debt”. There is no definitive answer as to what sleep debt is. We can understand that it is related to a class of substances that are released during wakefulness and can be cleared by sleep.
Staying up late accumulates sleep debt; if you continue to lack sleep, then you owe a sleep debt that will never be repaid. The practice of staying up late on weekends to catch up on sleep is not conducive to the brain’s ability to perceive normal sleep-wake rhythms, which can easily lead to a vicious cycle; moreover, long-term accumulated sleep debt cannot be cleared with a single sleep.
What’s more, the quality of sleep is not equal to the sum of sleep time over a long period of time; staying up late for a long time leads to sleep disorder, which will make the quality of sleep decline, and even if you make up for those lost hours, you can’t get enough rest. If you stay up late for a long time has caused organic lesions on the body, it is not through a few sleep can be redeemed.
For the sake of health, we all sleep well at night!