Did you stay up late during the busy Spring Festival? What are the effects of staying up late? And how to alleviate it?

A Spring Festival without a busy schedule is not a good one. You need to have dinner and drinks, make friends, buy New Year's goods, and keep everything clean. But time is like water in a sponge. If you squeeze it, there will always be some. So we pick up our phones late at night to compete to be the ones who can stay up the longest. Not only during the Spring Festival, staying up late has long been common in our lives. Whether it is the pressure of study and work, or the daily routine, when you habitually stay up late, do you suddenly feel short of breath, chest tightness, and heart "thumping", these are the "danger signals" sent by your body to you! What are the effects of staying up late? What good ways do we have to stay up late to relieve it? Today we will talk about these issues.

What kind of harm will staying up late bring to our body?

First of all, staying up late will seriously affect our skin condition and cause hair loss. As the largest organ in the human body, the skin is repaired and renewed at night. Normally, the human body's androgen levels increase during the day and begin to secrete estrogen at night. When staying up late, the brain is continuously excited, and the androgen stress secretion increases. The body will definitely show abnormalities because the body will not have what it should have and what it shouldn't have.

Increased androgen levels can cause the skin to secrete too much oil, resulting in greasiness. Insufficient skin repair and renewal can lead to rough and dull skin, and even acne, which is what we call "acne breakouts"! Hair loss is a problem for most contemporary people, and it is also closely related to our sleep. What we usually call "seborrheic alopecia" is the most common type of hair loss, but it is actually androgenic alopecia. Genetic factors and androgen effects are the main known pathogenic factors. When androgens are more in the body, they affect the energy and protein metabolism of hair follicles, leading to the miniaturization of hair follicles, which manifests as symptoms of hair loss. It's like pouring water on the land when farming. After a long time, will the crops die? Will the crops be sparse? The same is true for growing hair.

Secondly, staying up late will reduce immunity and interfere with mental state. Studies have shown that adequate sleep can significantly increase the number of T lymphocytes and B lymphocytes in the blood. As two important cells for the body to resist disease infection, they protect the body by causing cellular immunity and humoral immunity. When there is insufficient sleep, lymphocytes decrease, and the body's immune ability also decreases. Therefore, when people stay up late or do not rest well, they are often prone to colds and fevers. The nerves that regulate the internal organs of the body are divided into two major factions-the sympathetic nerves and the parasympathetic nerves, which also have different degrees of influence. The sympathetic nerves are most excitable during daytime activities. During sleep, various physiological functions and the functions of the nervous system are restored, and the excitability of parasympathetic nerve activity reaches the highest level. If you don't sleep when you should, the sympathetic nerves have to continue to be excited.

The next day, the sympathetic nerves feel tired and it is difficult to continue to be excited. Therefore, those who stay up late will experience memory loss, dizziness and other poor mental states the next day. It's like two little people fighting. Originally, they were evenly matched. I won't move until the enemy moves. Now one little person has greatly increased his power and the war is imminent. After the battle, the battlefield will be a mess. The consequences for the body as a battlefield can be imagined. Staying up late for a long time will cause the body's nerve excitation function to be disordered, which will lead to nervous system diseases, psychological diseases, immune system diseases and endocrine metabolic diseases, especially hypertension, coronary heart disease, heart failure and other cardiovascular system diseases. Therefore, "staying up late will lead to sudden death" is not an exaggeration. Staying up late for a long time will indeed greatly increase the chance of sudden death!

Staying up late can also cause great damage to the eyes. Staying up late for a long time will not only cause dark circles under the eyes, making people look listless, but also cause damage to the eyeballs and eye muscles. Under normal conditions, people's eyes blink 15 to 20 times per minute, and on average, the eyes will blink involuntarily every 3 seconds, which is medically called the blink reaction. Each complete blinking process ensures the moisture and rest of the eyeball. Staying up late leads to excessive use of the eyes, which will lead to reduced secretion of the tear glands. The moist environment and relaxation time of the eyeballs cannot be guaranteed, and it is easy to suffer from dry eyes, dry eyes, astringent eyes, and eye fatigue, which will induce more eye diseases. Long-term fatigue of the eye muscles will lead to reduced muscle regulation function, a significant decrease in vision, and may also induce central retinitis, resulting in serious vision problems! Generally speaking, this eye disease is more common in young and middle-aged men. It often occurs suddenly after staying up all night.

In short, staying up late has no benefits but only harms! But some people will say, I know all these harms, but I am a senior high school student or I am a worker who has no choice, so I have to stay up late.

So let’s talk about what remedies we have for having to stay up late at night?

In terms of diet, after staying up late, we should eat more foods with three lows and one high (low oil, low sugar, low salt, high fiber), try to avoid irritating and greasy foods, and supplement more vitamin A, vitamin B and protein. That is to say, when we stay up late, we should try to eat some light food, and never stay up late while drinking fried chicken, beer, milk tea and barbecue. Vitamin A can regulate the synthesis of retinal photosensitive substances, improve the adaptability of night workers to dim light, and prevent visual fatigue. Vitamin B can improve sleep, protect and moisturize the cornea, clean and inhibit bacteria, and effectively relieve dry eyes, astringent eyes, and eye fatigue. (Friendly reminder: Foods rich in vitamin A include liver, eggs and dairy products, and foods rich in vitamin B include coarse grains, fruits, vegetables, etc.) In addition to eating and drinking well, we can also effectively reduce greasy skin and hair loss by strengthening skin cleaning and moisturizing, and removing skin oil in time. Adjusting bedtime and improving sleep quality can also make up for the lack of sleep time.

The first step of the new year is to go to bed early and get up early. Take advantage of the long Spring Festival holiday to develop regular sleeping habits, improve sleep quality, ensure adequate sleep, and strive to be the best health-conscious person!

I wish all readers a happy family reunion, peace, health and many happy events!

References:

[1] Yang Ensheng. The harm of staying up late frequently[J]. Shandong Agricultural Mechanization, 2010, (2): 31. DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1002-2414.2010.02.034.

[2] Wang Weizhen. Two major problems caused by staying up late on the skin[J]. Public Health, 2019, (3): 106-107. DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1002-574X.2019.03.045.

[3] Zhang Juan, Wang Wenyu, Wang Mengmeng, et al. Effects of insufficient sleep on cardiovascular disease[J]. Medical Review, 2017, 23(15): 3027-3031. DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1006-2084.2017.15.023.

[4]Diet and health care manual for those who stay up late at night[J]. Science Grand View Garden, 2012, (5): 15-15.