Working professionals often stay up late due to overtime. Are you also a member of the late-night party? Nowadays, more and more people are joining the army of staying up late, and staying up late until the early morning has become a common phenomenon. But do you know the harm of staying up late? Traditional Chinese medicine is here to help you!
What food therapy should you have if you often stay up late?
1. Ginseng and Astragalus Black Chicken Soup
Ingredients: 15g American ginseng, 15g astragalus, 250g black chicken meat, 10g tangerine peel, 5 red dates.
Black chicken nourishes Yin and nourishes blood, containing rich amino acids and fatty acids; shiitake mushrooms can remove greasiness and improve digestion; a little honey dates can provide nourishment. Therefore, this food therapy is suitable for long-term staying up late, when Yin is consumed, leading to fatigue, dry mouth, loss of appetite, and dizziness and sallow complexion.
2. Five-Fingered Peach and Winter Jujube Soup
Ingredients: 30g five-fingered peach, 15g Ophiopogon japonicus, 5 red dates.
Five-fingered peach can invigorate the spleen and promote appetite, and has the effects of tonifying Qi and invigorating the spleen, dispelling dampness, and resolving stagnation. Ophiopogon japonicus is regarded as a top-grade herb for nourishing Yin and moistening the lungs in "Shennong's Classic of Materia Medica". Red dates can invigorate the spleen, nourish the blood, and harmonize the middle. Therefore, this food therapy is more suitable for people who lack sleep for a long time, have dark circles under the eyes, have a weakened constitution, insufficient Qi, and fatigue.
What are the dangers of staying up late?
1. Fatigue
People who stay up late often always feel tired, and their immune system will also decline. Among the aftermath of staying up late, fatigue, listlessness, and easy colds and allergies often occur. Due to the decline in immunity, it may also lead to chronic diseases.
2. Headaches
After staying up late, people usually experience headaches, difficulty concentrating, and some people may even have headaches. Long-term staying up late can also impair memory.
3. Dark circles under the eyes
After staying up late, dark circles and eye bags often appear. It can also have adverse effects on the skin, causing dryness, dark spots, acne, and other problems. Staying up late particularly damages the skin of women, making the skin lose elasticity, luster, and have a yellow complexion.
How to reduce the harm of staying up late to the body?
Maintain regular daily routines
Try to maintain regular daily routines. If you must stay up late due to work, you can drink a tea made from wolfberries and mulberries as a substitute.
Take 3g of wolfberries and 5g of mulberries, and brew them with hot water. Wolfberries nourish the liver and kidneys, improve vision, and moisturize the lungs. Mulberries nourish Yin and blood, generate body fluids, and moisturize the intestines.
This tea substitute has a certain nourishing effect and can relieve the harm caused by staying up late.
However, it should be noted that people with weak spleen and stomach should not drink this tea substitute.
The two misconceptions of staying up late
1. You cannot eat supper when staying up late
You should not skip supper when staying up late. In fact, staying up late consumes energy, and eating properly is a good way to replenish it.
You can choose mild and moisturizing foods such as lily and lotus seed sweet soup, red jujube and snow fungus sweet soup, etc., which can not only ensure water intake but also replenish energy, making them a good choice for staying up late.
2. Exercise to improve physical function after staying up late
You can exercise to improve physical function after staying up late. Many people choose to exercise and stay fit in order to strengthen their bodies.
However, after staying up late, the body is tired, so excessive and intense exercise is not suitable. You can choose exercises such as the Five Animal Frolics and Eight-section Brocade to adjust the balance of the body's Qi and blood and Yin and Yang.
Can you make up for lost sleep?
Some people believe that it is useless to replenish sleep after staying up late because lost sleep cannot be made up for.
Actually, regardless of whether it can be made up for or not, it is important to try to ensure sufficient sleep after staying up late. For office workers, the best way is to ensure a nap time.
