The Harm of Staying Up Late
Introduction to Staying Up Late:
Staying up late is a phenomenon frequently heard or experienced in modern life. It is a bad habit that harms the body and can lead to diseases and decreased efficiency. Staying up late is a type of bad habit that easily results in a lack of internal oxygen.
Recently, the news of the sudden death of Matsuno Rina, a member of a Japanese idol group at the young age of 18, due to abnormal sleeping patterns averaging only 3 hours per day and excessive fatigue, has attracted high attention from all walks of life. In 2016, Chinese actress Xu Ting, a rising star at the age of 26, also tragically passed away due to frequent staying up late and persisting with an exhausted body.
In modern society, people often stay up late consciously or unconsciously, going to bed as late as eleven or twelve o'clock, or even staying awake all night. Many people rely on their youth and think that staying up late is not a big deal. However, more and more cases of sudden death caused by prolonged staying up late are being reported by the media. Does staying up late really cause sudden death?
Staying Up Late Increases the Risk of Sudden Death
Continuously staying up late and not getting enough sleep is indeed a cause of sudden death for some people. Most people who die from staying up late die from sudden heart disease. Staying up late disrupts the biological clock, causes excessive excitation of the sympathetic nervous system, accelerates heart rate, and triggers ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation, leading to sudden cardiac death. Some people die from stroke due to high blood pressure causing the rupture of cerebral blood vessels.
However, staying up late is not the root cause of sudden death. Only those who have already shown cardiovascular symptoms or have a family history of cardiovascular disease are more prone to sudden death from staying up late. People with a family history of sudden death are even more at risk. Most young people who die suddenly have underlying heart disease or congenital abnormalities of the cerebral blood vessels, but these conditions are often discovered only after autopsy.
So, can people who have no risk of cardiovascular disease and consider themselves healthy stay up late without any pressure? Of course not. Staying up late can affect cardiovascular health and increase the risk of sudden cardiac death in the general population. This is because short-term sleep deprivation is enough to cause tension in the sympathetic nervous system, leading to increased blood pressure, secretion of stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline, decreased glucose tolerance, and irregular heartbeat. All of these factors are precursors to coronary heart disease.
Chronic sleep deprivation can promote the development of hypertension, obesity, and diabetes, and hypertension, obesity, or metabolic syndrome are precisely the factors that induce heart attacks. In addition, insufficient sleep can disrupt the body's immune system, promote inflammation in the blood vessel wall, and contribute to the occurrence of atherosclerosis, thereby increasing the risk of stroke.
