The Harm of Staying Up Late
Introduction to Staying Up Late:
Staying up late is a phenomenon frequently heard or done in modern life. It is a harmful habit that can lead to various diseases and decrease efficiency. Staying up late is one of the bad habits that can easily result 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 age of 18, has attracted high attention from all walks of life. The cause of her death was mainly due to abnormal daily routine of only sleeping 3 hours on average and excessive accumulation of fatigue. In 2016, Xu Ting, a 26-year-old emerging actress in China, also passed away due to frequent staying up late, 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, relying on their youth, think that staying up late is not a big deal. However, more and more cases of sudden death caused by continuous staying up late have been reported by the media. Can staying up late really lead to sudden death?
The Increased Risk of Sudden Death from Staying Up Late
Continuous sleep deprivation and staying awake all night indeed are triggers for some people's sudden death. Most people who die from staying up late are due to sudden cardiac arrest. Staying up late disrupts the biological clock, over-excites the sympathetic nervous system, accelerates heart rate, and triggers ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation, causing sudden cardiac death. Some people die from stroke, and the reason is that high blood pressure causes rupture of cerebral blood vessels.
However, staying up late is not the root cause of sudden death. Only those who have shown cardiovascular symptoms or have a family history of cardiovascular disease are more likely to experience sudden death from staying up late. People with a family history of sudden death are at high risk of sudden death from staying up late. Most young people who die suddenly have underlying heart disease or congenital cerebral vascular abnormalities, but these conditions are often discovered only after autopsy.
So, can people who do not have the 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. The reason is that short-term sleep deprivation is enough to make the sympathetic nervous system tense, leading to increased blood pressure, increased secretion of stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline, decreased glucose tolerance, and irregular heartbeats. All of these factors are precursors to coronary heart disease.
Chronic sleep deprivation can promote the development of hypertension, obesity, and diabetes, all of which are factors that induce heart attacks. In addition, insufficient sleep can disrupt the body's immune system, promote inflammation levels in the blood vessel walls, and contribute to the occurrence of atherosclerosis, thus increasing the risk of stroke.
