You promised to go to bed early, but you can't help but stay up late? Huaxi doctors: It's not just the mobile phone that's to blame

"Ah, it's midnight again so soon? But I don't want to sleep yet~"

"Check Weibo and sleep for 6 hours, that's about it!"

"It's 2 o'clock? Who else is still awake in the circle of friends?"

Then the next day, yawning, with dark circles under my eyes

I can't help but question myself

Why didn't you sleep last night???

Good question!

If you always go to bed later than you would like without any external force preventing you from going to bed, then you may have sleep procrastination .

What exactly happened? Let's listen to Dr. Zhang Ye from the Sleep Center of West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Dr. Zhang Jun from the Mental Health Center , and students from West China School of Clinical Medicine: Wei Zhuoxiu, Wang Chengyang, Song Yuxin, and He Xinyan talk together ~

▽

In 2014, Dutch scholars Kroese, de Ridder, Evers and Adriaanse first introduced the concept of sleep procrastination into the field of healthy behavior procrastination;

It refers to the phenomenon of being unable to go to bed at the scheduled time without any external obstacles.

Some people may feel that they are too busy to sleep at night.

It's because I'm too lazy, and I even blame myself for it.

But in fact, the formation of sleep procrastination

It is the result of many complex factors.

Currently, the factors that affect sleep procrastination can be divided into three parts: physiological, psychological and environmental :

Physiological factors: refers to a person's biological rhythm, that is, a person's circadian rhythm changes, and the time of sleep and wakefulness may be delayed overall;

Environmental factors: including personal bedtime activities and the collective late-sleeping atmosphere of people around;

Psychological factors: such as loneliness, conscientiousness, self-efficacy, mindfulness, rumination, time perspective, etc.

Just like many people lying in bed alone at night, holding their mobile phones and unwilling to put them down;

Or if you don’t have any goals in mind, you will just look around here and there out of boredom; all of these will lead to and induce sleep disorders.

At the same time, related studies have found that a person's aversion to "waking up in the morning" and low expectations for the next day are also significantly correlated with sleep procrastination.

After all, for many people, waking up means going to work, but not sleeping means having your own time and doing what you want to do;

So in fact, procrastination and staying up late are more caused by psychological reasons. The summary is: "I don't want to end today, and I don't want to face tomorrow."

But we all stay up late, how can it not harm our health?

There is no doubt that sleep procrastination can cause certain harm to our physical and mental health:

At first glance, you might think: Hey, it’s nothing special.

But if you think about it carefully: these combined together are incredible

On the surface

Make you lose hair, become obese, and have bad skin;

In the body

It causes your blood pressure and heart rate regulation to become disordered, making you more susceptible to colds and illnesses;

In my heart

It sowed the seeds of depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder...

I know some people must have started to panic:

Go to bed early, but sleep late;

I know I have to get up early for work and school, but I’m not sleepy yet;

If there are no external factors, can we just worry?

Dr. Huaxi said, don’t worry!

As long as scientific treatment methods are actively adopted, sleep delay can be effectively alleviated; the specific treatment can refer to the treatment of delayed sleep wake phase disorder:

Behavioral therapy

For mild sleep delays, you can gradually advance your bedtime at night and wake-up time in the morning towards your set goals, and gradually form a healthy biological clock.

For sleep delays that require treatment, the first step is to rule out external factors that may exacerbate or cause phase delays, including evaluating sleep hygiene practices and identifying potential substance abuse.

In particular, you should be encouraged to:

▪ Minimize or eliminate caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol intake

▪ Avoid daytime naps

▪ Avoid exciting activities at least 2 hours before your expected bedtime

Secondly, doctors recommend: Avoid getting up ≥30 minutes later than weekdays on weekends, because getting up late itself may cause a delay in the biological clock; if you can maintain a regular waking time, it doesn’t matter if you take a nap in the afternoon.

Drug treatment

For patients who do not respond to behavioral modification and sleep-wake scheduling, we suggest trying a timed melatonin strategy in the evening.

Avoid nighttime light exposure

Nighttime light exposure may have direct effects on melatonin signaling, sleep disruption, and circadian rhythms;

So the best way to avoid these problems is to draw the curtains, turn off the lights, wear an eye mask, and put away electronic devices before going to bed.

Especially mobile phones! We all know that they are so much fun…

In fact, we all know that whether you delay going to bed or not

What do you say in your heart?

So go to bed early, even if it’s just for the sake of hair volume?

← Here is a survey on “Assessment of Procrastination Tendencies and Change”;

If you procrastinate and are willing to spend a few minutes filling out the questionnaire, you can long press to identify the QR code~

If you find this article helpful, please share it ! If you have any other questions about sleep procrastination, please leave a comment!