Go to bed late and get up late, but get enough sleep for 8 hours! Does it count as staying up late?

It's time for the holidays again, and our ears may be filled with these voices: "Why aren't you sleeping yet?" at 10:00 p.m.? "Why haven't you gotten up yet?" at 7:00 a.m. and often "Staying up late is not good..." This bothers us a lot. If we go to bed at two in the morning, but get up at ten the next day and guarantee eight hours of sleep, does this count as staying up late?

As we all know, there are two groups regarding sleep: the early-to-bed, early-to-rise group of parents and the late-to-bed, late-to-rise group of young people.

So, does going to bed late and getting up late count as staying up late?

1. What is the definition of staying up late?

First of all, there is no doubt that insufficient sleep is staying up late;

Second, to understand staying up late, we must first approach a term we have heard since childhood: "biological clock". The biological clock is the inherent rhythm of the life activities of organisms, which is determined by the time structure in the organism and controls a series of body functions in our body, including body temperature, sleepiness, hunger, endocrine hormones, etc. It tells us when to sleep and when to wake up. Staying up late is a fierce struggle between people and biological clocks - the biological clock reminds us not to sleep at night, and the biological clock reminds us not to wake up in the morning. It can be seen that staying up late may also break the biological clock and have irregular sleep.

To sum up, there are two aspects of staying up late: insufficient sleep and irregular sleep.

Related experiment: Scientists divided people with basically the same physical conditions into three groups. The first group slept at night and worked during the day, the second group slept during the day and worked at night, and the third group slept during the day and at night. After a period of time, the results showed that the physical conditions of the first two groups were basically the same, while the physical health of the third group unfortunately declined greatly.

So, if you can really go to bed late and get up late every day, theoretically it doesn't count as staying up late. BUT!!! As a student, is this really possible? Obviously not, please see the following reasons——

2. Why can’t you guarantee to go to bed late and get up late every day?

1) Although we are in winter vacation now and can go to bed late and get up late, but school will resume at 8 am and we will face the misfortune of jet lag. It is obviously unrealistic to go to bed late and get up late every day. Even if we don’t have classes on Saturdays and Sundays, we can go to bed late, but this will disrupt the sleep cycle and will cause harm to the body in the long run.

2) Sleeping in a well-lit environment will affect melatonin secretion, disrupt the biological clock, and affect eye health and calcium absorption.

3) Self-discipline factor - Ask yourself, can you really put down your phone when you set the bedtime and get up immediately when the alarm rings in the morning? The results are often as shown in the following figure -

On weekdays, we seem to be very "busy" as our time is fully occupied by study and work. At night, facing a day's hard work, mobile phones seem to be the greatest gift and comfort. We are unwilling to put down our phones and go to sleep. The next day is another full day dominated by work and study. It seems that if we don't check our phones, we have no time for ourselves. Life is in such a "vicious circle"... In fact, mobile phones cannot give us real satisfaction. On the contrary, they may even bring "emptiness."

3. What are the dangers of staying up late?

1) Immune system disorder: Continuously staying up late will lead to a decrease in important immune cells, decreased immunity, and greater susceptibility to viruses and bacteria.

2) Decreased memory: Why do you sometimes feel that "the more you stay up late, the more energetic you are?" Because when you stay up late, the striatum in your brain will secrete dopamine, which creates this illusion. But later, you will find that your attention in class has decreased, and you can't memorize words. This is because the hippocampus in the brain that is responsible for temporary memory is full and refuses to accept new knowledge, resulting in a significant decline in learning ability.

3) Hormone imbalance: For boys, staying up late reduces testosterone secretion, resulting in damage to sperm quantity and quality; for girls, follicle-releasing hormone will decrease by about 20%, leading to abnormal menstrual cycles and low fertility.

4) Damage to the cardiovascular system: Because you stay awake all the time when you stay up late, the demand for blood is high, and the heart also has to stay in this "awake" state, increasing the blood supply and beating faster. The burden on myocardial cells is increased, and blood pressure rises. To maintain blood transportation, the heart's pacemaker may malfunction, and the body may even die suddenly!

5) Deafness and tinnitus: Lack of sleep can easily lead to insufficient blood supply to the inner ear, which can damage hearing and may lead to deafness in the long run!!!

6) Gastrointestinal crisis: The epithelial cells of the gastric mucosa are renewed every 23 days on average, and usually at night. People who stay up late may often eat midnight snacks, which will prevent the gastrointestinal tract from getting rest and affect its repair process. At the same time, the midnight snacks stay in the stomach for a long time, prompting a large amount of gastric juice to be secreted, irritating the gastric mucosa, and over time, it is easy to cause gastric mucosal erosion and ulcers.

7) Skin damage: Staying up late for a long time will make the skin dry, produce too many oxygen free radicals, and accelerate the aging of skin cells.

8) Dark circles: The skin of the eyelids is very thin, and the color of the subcutaneous capillaries and the orbicularis oculi muscle can easily be seen through the skin. Under normal circumstances, the blood transports oxygen and other nutrients to the eyes, and at the same time takes away metabolic waste to complete normal blood circulation. However, when staying up late, the autonomic nervous system is impaired, blood return is blocked, local blood circulation is impaired, and the stagnant blood makes the blood vessels darker, appearing pink or even bluish-purple through the eyelid skin. This is vascular periorbital pigmentation (vascular dark circles).

4. How to stay up late/make up for sleep scientifically?

Try not to overwork yourself if you can, and be responsible for your body!

1) Get enough sleep before staying up late: Before staying up late to work or study, it is best to get a full sleep cycle (90-120 minutes). You can use melatonin (no more than 1mg, used 1-2 hours before bedtime).

2) Take a moderate nap to stay awake when staying up late: nap for 20-30 minutes, no more than this time (otherwise it will be counterproductive).

3) Wash up in time: Don’t be too lazy to wash up just because you stay up too late, as this will lead to oil accumulation, causing hair loss and acne.

4) Actively supplement nutrients: supplement B vitamins (staying up late consumes more energy, leading to more accumulation of adenosine, which inhibits brain activity. B vitamins are the key to the synthesis of acetyl coenzyme, which is involved in the conversion of adenosine into ATP to supplement energy), anthocyanins, fish oil and other supplements that protect the brain; if you have a poor appetite the second morning after staying up late, you can eat a light breakfast and do not go to bed on an empty stomach.

5) Tips for getting quality sleep after staying up late: choose dark, light-proof curtains for the bedroom, keep the temperature at around 18-20 degrees Celsius, use white noise, do not use electronic devices one hour before bedtime (blue light, do not become dependent on mobile phones), and relax yourself before going to bed (take a hot bath, soak your feet).

6) About restoring the biological clock: increase outdoor exercise, light therapy, regular exercise, and melatonin.

7) Tip: Making up for lost sleep cannot really make up for lost sleep. If we can avoid staying up late through self-discipline, we can try psychological suggestion and tell ourselves "That's enough for today. I'm satisfied (list my small achievements today)". This will give us a sense of happiness and achievement.

Conclusion: Maybe there are always many important things before going to bed that make us reluctant to say "good night", but tell yourself that you can still be your pro+ self, self-discipline is really great!

The mystery of staying up late

Qi Xiaoran 2023305233143