Are You A Night Owl? Shocking Research Results On Staying Up Late Will Make You Think Twice.

Late one night last year, 36-year-old Zhang Bin sent his final email at 1 am. He told his colleague Li Li that he wasn’t feeling well. Zhang Bin was pale and he was sweating profusely. 

Upon returning home, Zhang Bin learned that the project report had not been approved, so he continued working on it instead of resting. Feeling some discomfort in his stomach, he went to the restroom where he suffered a sudden heart attack and experienced brain death within a minute. Medically, this is known as sudden death, and the cause was late-night overtime work.

In fact, Zhang Bin had been staying up for several nights consecutively. To complete the project, he often worked overtime with his team until 2 or 3 am, or even later on certain days. After a short rest, he would go right back to work again in the morning. He only took 3 days off work during the Lunar New Year holiday season. Due to this continuous work, tragedy struck, and a young man lost his life in his prime years unexpectedly.

There are many similar examples: On January 16, 2015, 34-year-old singer Yao Beina passed away from breast cancer. Unknown to many, her late-night rehearsals for numerous performances were a significant factor contributing to her breast cancer.

In March 2015, Lin Tao, a programmer who had just graduated from Sun Yat-sen University, joined Baidu for four months and worked continuously for 48 hours, only to die in his sleep, never waking up again.

In June 2016, deputy editor Jin Bo suddenly died in the subway due to staying up late the previous night to rush a manuscript.

The Chinese Sleep Medicine Association released a survey showing that 90% of young people who died suddenly from a brain hemorrhage or heart attack had a habit of staying up late. More than 70% of young people have a habit of staying up late.

We all know that sleep deprivation can have serious consequences, but what are the specific risks?

1. Premature Aging

The British Sleep Research Association conducted an experiment inviting participants to sleep different durations and observe the changes in their appearance. The results were shocking: people who slept for 8 hours had a good mental state, while those who slept for 3-4 hours looked and felt nearly 20 years older.

2. Poor Skin Condition

Sleeping helps the body detoxify, but if you stay up late, detoxification becomes difficult, and toxins accumulate in the body. This can cause skin problems such as dryness, acne, and blemishes.

3. Decreased Immunity

Disrupting the biological cycle leads to a weakened immune system. Staying up late can harm the body, causing fatigue, lethargy, and a lack of vitality. During menstruation, women’s resistance may be weaker, and they may experience chronic fatigue, making them more susceptible to illnesses.

4. Mental and Psychological Impact

Staying up late and not sleeping well at night can make you feel listless the next day. This affects your work efficiency and may also make you irritable. If this continues, you may develop mental and psychological issues, including anxiety and a quick temper.

5. Increased Risk of Cancer

The body’s cells divide the most at night. If sleep is insufficient, the body’s ability to control cell mutations is weakened, increasing the risk of cancer.

6. Vision Decline

Busy work and excessive social activities can lead to extended use of phones and computers, reducing sleep time. Prolonged eye strain disrupts the balance of photopigments, causing vision problems such as blurriness and fatigue and potentially leading to various eye diseases.

7. Cardiovascular Diseases

Nighttime is meant for rest, but staying up late puts the body in a tense state, causing abnormal blood vessel constriction and higher blood pressure than usual. This increases the risk of hypertension and related complications.

8. Memory Decline

A study in the “Journal of Neuroscience” found that staying up late causes irreversible damage to the brain and leads to memory decline, sluggish reactions, dizziness, and difficulty concentrating. The nervous system is normally active during the day and rests at night. In late night-dwellers though, it remains active at night, making it difficult to fully engage the next day and can lead to memory problems.

Heavy work and life circumstances sometimes compel us to stay up late. How can we minimize the harm caused by staying up late?

1. Rest Before and After Staying Up Late

There is a saying, “One night without sleep requires ten nights to recover.” The best remedy after staying up late is to catch up on sleep. In addition to normal nighttime rest, taking short naps during the day can also help. Young people may recover in 2-3 days, while people over 40 may need around 5 days.

2. Not Giving Your Body Additional Strain

Staying up late is a challenge for various body systems, especially the heart, liver, and stomach. Eating spicy, fatty, or indigestible foods and consuming alcohol, coffee, or strong tea exacerbates the strain on these systems. Therefore, while staying up late, eat light foods that are easy to digest and warm the stomach, such as millet porridge with yam or white fungus soup with lotus seeds. Drinking drinks like mung bean and seaweed soup, sugarcane water, or vegetable and fruit juice can help replenish fluids and vitamins and combat the effects of staying up late.

3. Manage Your Emotions

Staying up late is already harmful to the body. Adding excessive emotional excitement can easily trigger heart disease and sudden death. Try to avoid these situations.

4. Frequent Movement

Whatever you’re doing late at night, avoid sitting for too long. Stand up and move every half hour, do some stretching exercises, or go outside for fresh air to give your body a break. Also, do not hold your bladder movement; take the opportunity to empty your bladder while moving around to reduce the burden on your kidneys.

5. Avoid Certain Foods After Staying Up Late

After staying up late, drink plenty of water to speed up metabolism and expel the waste products of staying up late. Add ingredients to water to help restore your body, such as honeysuckle to clear heat and detoxify, rose to soothe the liver and regulate qi, and goji berries to nourish the liver and kidneys.

You can also make tea with Polygonatum, ginseng and chrysanthemums. Polygonatum boosts energy and nourishes yin, ginseng enhances vitality, and chrysanthemums relieve stress and improve vision. These ingredients can help refresh and combat fatigue.

Staying up late can harm the liver, so try Kudzu root and gardenia tea to nourish and protect the liver, especially if you consume alcohol or spicy, fatty foods while staying up late. This helps clear heat and moisture and reduces the burden on the liver.

A special reminder: People with high blood pressure, diabetes, or severe stomach issues should avoid staying up late, as it can worsen their condition or cause unexpected complications. If you experience any warning signs such as dizziness, palpitations, or chest tightness while staying up late, it is highly recommended that you get some rest as soon as possible.