There are many "night owls" on the internet, working hard for their jobs and livelihoods. We have compiled some health tips about staying up late, hoping they will be helpful to everyone's health.
"Rise with the sun and rest with the moon." This is the result of humanity's long-term adaptation to the environment. Staying up late can harm your health. This is because the body's adrenal cortical hormones and growth hormones are only secreted during nighttime sleep. The former is secreted before dawn and has the function of promoting the body's carbohydrate metabolism and ensuring muscle development; the latter is produced after falling asleep, which not only promotes the growth and development of adolescents but also delays aging in middle-aged and older people. Therefore, the best time for sleep in a day is from 10 PM to 6 AM.
What self-care measures should people who often stay up late take? First, strengthen nutrition. You should choose small amounts of high-quality protein, fat, and vitamin B foods, such as milk, beef, pork, fish, beans, etc. You can also eat some dried fruits like walnuts, dates, longans, peanuts, etc., which can help fight fatigue. Second, exercise regularly. You can exercise according to your age and interests to improve your physical fitness. If you feel tired or drowsy while staying up late, you should do some gymnastics, Tai Chi, or go outdoors for a while. Third, adjust your biological rhythm. Those who stay up late all year round should create a work and rest schedule and continuously modify it until it is adapted. Fourth, eliminate mental burdens. Those who often stay up late must avoid worry and fear. They should build confidence and maintain a pleasant mood and high spirits during nighttime work.
Dietary Health for Night Owls
Workers at night need to get enough vitamin A because vitamin A can regulate the synthesis of retinal photosensitive substance—rhodopsin, which can improve the adaptability of night workers to dim light and prevent visual fatigue.
Night workers have high labor intensity and consume a lot of energy, so they should pay attention to supplementing high-quality protein. Animal protein should account for at least half of the total protein supply. Because animal protein contains essential amino acids for the human body, this is beneficial for ensuring the work efficiency and health of night workers.
Self-Care for Night Owls
In the fast-paced modern society, those who have never stayed up late are lucky. Staying up late can disrupt the body's normal rhythm, affecting vision, the stomach, and sleep. So, how should people who often stay up late practice self-care?
People who stay up late are often engaged in clerical work or frequently use computers. Fighting through the night under dim lights can easily cause eye muscle fatigue and a decline in vision. Li Changping, a chief nutritionist at the Nutrition Department of Beijing Hospital, told reporters that vitamins A and B have a certain effect in preventing vision loss. Vitamin A can regulate the synthesis of retinal photosensitive substance—rhodopsin, which can improve the adaptability of night workers to dim light and prevent visual fatigue. Therefore, it is necessary to eat more foods rich in vitamin A, such as carrots, chives, and eel, as well as animal foods rich in vitamin B, such as lean meat, fish, and pork liver.
In addition, you should also supplement calories appropriately by eating fruits, vegetables, and protein foods such as meat and eggs to replenish energy consumption, but do not overindulge in heavy meals. Dr. Li Changping believes that eating some dried fruits like peanuts, almonds, cashews, and walnuts is particularly effective for restoring physical strength. They are rich in protein, vitamins B and E, minerals such as calcium and iron, and vegetable oil, while their cholesterol content is very low.
In addition to paying attention to diet, night owls should also strengthen physical exercise. If you feel tired or drowsy while staying up late, you should do some gymnastics or go outdoors for a while. Because staying up late takes away from normal sleep time, you can seize opportunities to make up for sleep. For example, you can rest your eyes for a moment on the way home from work, or arrange a short nap during your lunch break at the office to recover your energy and lift your spirits.
What are the tips for working late at night?
Even when working overtime at night, you need skills to stay healthy. Otherwise, even the strongest body cannot withstand such toil day and night! Therefore, if you plan to stay up late, you must remember:
1. Don't eat instant noodles to fill your stomach, as it can cause too much internal heat. It's best to eat fruits, toast, bread, or light congee with simple dishes to satisfy your hunger.
2. Before starting to stay up late, take a vitamin B complex supplement. Vitamin B can relieve fatigue and enhance the body's resistance to stress.
3. For refreshing drinks, green tea is the best choice. It can refresh you and eliminate excess free radicals in the body, making you feel clear-headed. However, people with a sensitive stomach should better drink tea made with goji berries, which can relieve stress and also improve eyesight.
4. Before staying up late, be sure to remove your makeup or wash your face thoroughly to prevent thick layers of powder or oil from causing acne under the stress of staying up late.
5. After staying up late, be sure to take a short nap at noon the next day.
How to Live a Night Owl's Life
In modern times, due to work or professional reasons, people have all experienced times of reversed day and night. Reversing the day-night rhythm has certain negative effects on the body's physiological functions and metabolism.
Under normal circumstances, the body's physiological rhythm differs significantly between day and night. During the day, it is mainly dominated by sympathetic nerve activity and the catabolic process of substance metabolism, while at night, it is mainly dominated by parasympathetic nerve activity and the anabolic process of substance metabolism. Biochemical observations also show that the activity of different enzymes and the metabolism of endocrine hormones vary greatly between day and night.
Things to Know When Staying Up Late
1. When staying up late, eat hot things (like hot instant noodles).
2. Don't eat too much for dinner.
3. Pay attention to keeping warm and don't let your stomach get cold.
4. Be sure to drink plenty of plain water.
5. No matter how tired you are while staying up late, do not go to bed to rest in the middle.
6. If you feel tired, you can drink stimulant beverages like coffee or tea to refresh yourself, but note that they should be hot and not too concentrated to avoid harming your stomach.
7. While staying up late, you should take deep, long breaths from time to time.
8. You must stay up until dawn, around 5 AM, and constantly imagine the splendor and momentum of the rising sun.
9. Breakfast must be filling, and you should not eat cold food.
10. If you want to sleep at 7 or 8 AM, you must calm your mind. Even if you don't go to bed, you should sit in a chair and calm down.
Optimal Schedule for Night Owls
Some people like to stay up late, but the result is often that they become exhausted and inefficient, and over time, it will also harm their health. In fact, scientific and intermittent staying up late can sometimes have unexpected effects for certain types of people. After staying up late, you will go to sleep around 4 or 5 AM. After a whole night, you will definitely feel very tired, so you will sleep very soundly and deeply, and you will rest very well. Staying up late can allow you to concentrate for a long time to tackle a difficult task.
The prerequisite for following this schedule is that you feel an excess of energy at 9 or 10 PM and have no desire to sleep at all. Ordinary people should not use this schedule easily.
10:00 AM Wake up
10:00—11:00 AM Take a walk, listen to music
11:00—11:20 AM Eat a meal with hot soup, plenty of vegetables, and some meat.
11:30 AM—7:30 PM Read, do exercises.
7:30—8:00 PM Eat a meal, with meat, plenty of vegetables, until 90% full.
8:00 PM—4:30 AM Work, study.
4:30 AM—10:00 AM Sleep.
Optimal Diet for Night Owls
People who often work at night, in addition to creating good working conditions and ensuring sufficient sleep, should also scientifically arrange their three meals a day.
In the arrangement of three meals a day, first of all, you should ensure sufficient energy intake. For example, to stimulate your appetite, you can try to make the food variety, color, aroma, and taste complete, and delicious; to make the daily energy distribution reasonable and prevent overeating or hunger, you need to reasonably arrange meal times and the percentage of dietary calories each meal should account for the total daily dietary calories.
Dinner is very important for people who stay up late. It can account for 30% to 50% of the total dietary calories. You can eat some high-protein foods, and it is best to have the meal one or two hours before starting work; lunch calories generally account for 20% to 25% of the total dietary calories, and the meal time can be arranged around 3 PM; breakfast calories generally account for 15% to 20% of the total dietary calories, and should mainly be easily digestible carbohydrates. On the basis of ensuring sufficient energy intake, you should also pay attention to ensuring sufficient intake of high-quality protein, inorganic salts, and vitamins. Therefore, appropriately consume dairy, eggs, fish, lean meat, pork liver, soybeans and their products, eat more vegetables and fruits, eat less pure sugar and high-fat foods, and control your salt intake.