Can you pay off the "debt" incurred by staying up late just by catching up on sleep?

When the night is long and you are lying on the couch, are you unable to take your eyes and paws away from your phone? People who like to work or play often joke that it would be nice to give up sleeping.

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However, sleeping, this extremely attractive activity, is not a waste of time. Our body is controlled by the brain. Going to bed late and lack of sleep will cause discomfort from head to toe.

The Night Burner's Brain

Every time I go to bed late, all kinds of small problems always occur the next day: I become dazed and easily distracted, the number of times I catch the ball with my face when playing basketball increases greatly, and I just skip slightly difficult things... Studies have found that people's reactions become slower at this time, they can't concentrate, and they will make all kinds of inappropriate decisions.

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Individuals are often not aware of these consequences, including the degree of their own efforts. Their brain will tell them that it is “the same as yesterday,” but in fact it has decreased.

If you encounter an exam, it will be even worse. Despite your best efforts, you still cannot demonstrate your full ability. You cannot concentrate, and you may not feel it, but in fact your brain is secretly "strike".

The memory process is achieved through the formation of a complex network of synapses between neuron cells in the brain.

When studying, there are many things that need to be "remembered"; but when sleeping, one of the important tasks of the brain is to "forget". Don't worry, generally speaking, the brain will throw away the useless things that you have not remembered, freeing up enough energy to retain the necessary information.

All kinds of information received during the day, including new knowledge you have learned, interesting things you have seen, and a new song, will be temporarily retained by the newly formed synaptic connections.

At night, the brain automatically removes some trivial memories and preserves and strengthens the synaptic connections that store important memories, so a good night's sleep can enhance the memory process.

Scientists have even found that memorizing less relevant content before going to bed will retain it better the next day. Sleep is an important step in unconsciously completing previous learning. If the function of "remembering trigonometric functions" is compared to the memory of a computer, there is another "working memory" that can be regarded as a cache, which will be greatly reduced after staying up late.

The ability to organize attention, think, make decisions, and comprehend things all rely on working memory, which is a function that the brain has the final say on, without your consent at all. This will eventually lead to the proliferation of various side effects (such as procrastination), that is, not wanting to solve new problems, but choosing those simple tasks, and then delaying them until midnight in the new day, a vicious cycle.

Acne and fat body

Girls who love beauty, please pay attention. The more terrible consequence of staying up late is acne, and it will also make you become a foodie without you realizing it, which will greatly reduce your possibility of maintaining a slim figure.

Humans have been destined not to be nocturnal animals since millions of years ago. Although the modern lifestyle has led to an increase in the number of "night owls", this goes against the laws of nature and the human body will naturally protest.

When you stay up late, your brain will send out signals to increase the secretion of a substance called cortisol. Everything has side effects, and cortisol is no exception. In a short period of time, it will increase the secretion of sebaceous glands and reduce the regulating ability of pores, thus giving acne enough space to grow.

In addition, the endocrine system also changes after the rhythm changes, the secretion of leptin decreases, and the growth hormone increases. The latter is a good buddy with cortisol, which makes you unconsciously eat all kinds of snacks when you stay up late, and the accumulation of fat in the body increases exponentially. If you do not exercise during the day, it becomes natural to gain weight.

Due to long-term use of the eyes, the eyes may be in a state of fatigue, dryness, redness, etc. The eye muscles continue to contract and tense, and the increased secretion of lactic acid stimulates the expansion of blood vessels, causing the eyelid blood vessels to become obvious, forming dark circles. Immunity is also prone to decline. If you stay up late for a long time, you are likely to catch a cold.

Better get some sleep.

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When you turn on the night mode, the normal sleep process is interrupted, which is likely to disrupt the circadian rhythm and even create a "sleep debt". And once you have to make up for the sleep, it is really a bottomless pit. You may have had this experience: after staying up late to watch a football game, you may need to sleep for more than 10 hours the next day to recover your energy.

In fact, any method that interrupts the natural rhythm is unwise, and we should carefully consider whether the cost of staying up late is worth it. From now on, in order to improve daytime efficiency and physical and mental health, adjust your lifestyle habits to a state that best matches your physiological rhythm!

Source: Chongqing Science and Technology Museum

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