About staying up late and getting up early, maybe you have been wrong all the time. What time do you usually sleep at night? If you like me, like to go to bed at 1 or 2, or even stay up until 3 o’clock, then you must have received a lot of “I don’t want to be too late, go to bed early”.
staying up late
What time do you usually sleep at night?
If you like me, like to go to bed at 1 or 2, or even stay up until 3 o’clock, then you must have received a lot of “I don’t want to be too late, go to bed early”.
In this era, “getting up early and getting up early” is already an irrefutable political correct. It is so correct that even “night and night” has to add a “熬” to emphasize its irrationality.
However, it must be right to go to bed early and get up early? Is it bad to stay up late?
actually not. staying up late
Watch out for your attention and you will find something interesting:
Some people, when they arrive at 11:00 and 12:00, can’t get enough sleep, and they can fall asleep within 5 minutes. Get up at 7 o’clock the next day, refreshing, no difficulty;
But other people, after 12 o’clock, are mentally awkward and their thinking is turning faster than during the day. Don’t say sleep, close your eyes for a few seconds, it feels like a torture.
For the latter, let them sleep at 11 o’clock, can be imagined, how difficult it is – and therefore, they are often frustrated, feel: Is it their own perseverance? Still not self-disciplined? Why have you never been able to develop a good habit of going to bed early?
But it really can’t blame them.
In fact, psychology has long been conclusive about this point. Psychologists believe that everyone has an attribute called the “physiological clock,” which determines the fluctuations in our state of energy during different stages of the day.
The most striking feature of the physiological clock is sleep preference.
As early as 1976, psychologists have developed a Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ) to assess different sleep preferences.
According to the research results, there are at least three types of preferences: staying up late
1) Morning type, also known as “lark”, tends to go to bed early and get up early;
2) Night-type people, also known as “owls”, tend to sleep late;
3) Normal people, also known as “hummingbirds”, have no particular tendency.
In general, morning-type people are used to falling asleep before 11:00, and night-type people usually have 1-2 points, while normal people have no particular tendency, but they can be early or late.
So, is the night-type person a very small number? In fact, it is not the same, the proportion of the three is unexpectedly balanced. In 1976, the first MEQ survey showed that in the crowd, the morning type accounted for 24.7%, the night type accounted for about 26.4%, and the normal person accounted for just half.
In the past 40 years, there have been quite a lot of research and supplements on MEQ, and the proportion has fluctuated, but the change has not changed much.
In 2016, sleep expert Michael Breus further divided these three types into four in his book The Power of When: Dolphins, Lions, Bears and Wolfs.
1) Dolphin type: about 10%, characterized by very shallow sleep, responsible for alertness;
2) Lion type: about 15-20%, characterized by going to bed early and getting up early, responsible for day shift patrol; staying up late
3) Bear type: about 50%, the physiological clock is synchronized with sunrise and sunset, responsible for labor and collection;
4) Wolf type: about 15-20%, characterized by late nights and nights, responsible for night shift patrols.
It can be seen that these four types are actually changing the soup and not changing the medicine. It is only a supplement to the morning and night types. staying up late
Therefore, if you work very hard, it is still difficult to fall asleep before 1 o’clock, do not doubt your perseverance, it is probably just because you happen to be a “night person”.
So, what is the factor that determines whether a person is a morning or a night?
There are two major innate factors that together determine this.
The first factor is the Circadian Rhythm.
We know that the external “day” is 24 hours. For a long time, we have become accustomed to living in such a cycle. But the physiological clock cycle inside our body—the brain, the endocrine, and the active cycles of the various systems in the body—is not exactly the exact 24 hours.
It has some errors and it varies from person to person. staying up late
In fact, this number averages 24 hours and 11 minutes. This is the data measured by Harvard University in Europe and the United States in 1999. Later, the National Spirit and Neuromedical Research Center of Japan also measured similar results in Japan (24 hours and 10 minutes).
Like other things in nature, this average period also shows a normal distribution trend in different individuals.
In other words, some people’s physiological clock cycle may be more than 23 hours, and some people are close to 25 hours.
Obviously, for the former, his “every day” will be shorter, so he tends to fall asleep earlier; for the latter, he will be longer each day, and he tends to sleep late.
Coincidentally, last year’s Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to three American scholars who won this award for discovering the molecular mechanisms of the physiological clock cycle. It is also regarded as this long-standing hypothesis, laying a solid physiological foundation. staying up late
However, this raises another question: this theory can only explain “why night people sleep late“, but can’t explain “why night people are more and more spirited.” staying up late
According to MEQ’s survey results, the most active stage of the morning type is the morning, which has been falling all the way since noon. The night type is just the opposite, starting from noon and getting better at night.
Why is there such a big difference?
This involves another important factor: evolution and genes.
Psychologists believe that every cell in our body has a special gene responsible for regulating its activity and metabolic rhythm. Expressed as a whole, it is the active level of the individual’s energy and thinking.
This is somewhat random. Therefore, in the crowd, some people are active in the morning, some in the afternoon, and some in the evening, and so on.
In ancient times, we not only needed to synchronize with the sunrise and sunset, but also needed some people to work on the morning shift, and another part of the night – so their genes also followed.
The present morning and night-type people are the descendants of the value-for-money and the night-time, that is, the result of natural selection and evolution. staying up late
Current twin experiments have found that genetics can account for about 50% of differences in sleep preferences (the rest are affected by physiological clock cycles, environmental factors, etc.).
In other words, if you are a night-type person, then about 50% of the factors are due to your parents. staying up late
Psychologists have come up with many interesting results based on the two types of morning and night. staying up late
For example, a series of experiments based on MEQ and personality and ability tests show that:
In general, the morning type is more self-disciplined, self-confident, responsible, and thinking biased toward aggregate thinking and inductive reasoning;
The night-type people are more open, intelligent, and agile, and their thinking is biased towards abstract thinking and divergent thinking.
So, if you are a night-type person, don’t feel incompatible with the world – we are smarter! What are you afraid of?
just kidding.
However, in reality, the difference between the two does reflect. staying up late
You will find that people who like to sleep late are mostly engaged in creative and content-related work, such as advertising, public relations, new media, marketing (and possibly some programmers) – which is what we often call “creators.”
The reason may not be that they are dragging and not self-disciplined. It is very likely that it is only because these people who are more open-minded and divergent are also typical “night-type people”. staying up late
Therefore, they will feel more like water in the evening, and the state will be more concentrated and more active.
For this reason, whenever I see complaints such as “3 am, the world of adults is very sad”, my heart is not wavering – for us, this is the normal state of life. Only the interns who are just entering the line (or the morning type) will feel very outrageous. staying up late
For example: What is the typical life track of a 4A advertising copy? staying up late
Usually get up at 10 am, go to the company at 11 o’clock, brush the news, eat lunch at 12 o’clock, open a gap after dinner, chat, start work at 14 o’clock, take a coffee break at 16-17, eat dinner at 18-19, and have a meeting. Pick up live. Then, if the task is not urgent, take it home, start work at 21-22, and do it at 1-2 in the morning, and go to work.
Like I am doing content entrepreneurship, it is the same: usually work at 2-3 pm and get up at 9-10 in the morning. staying up late
Although I slept late, I got up late. staying up late
However, this is also the biggest problem for night people:
Social time difference. staying up late
In this era, we are a society that highly respects “efficient”, “advanced” and “hardworking”. Therefore, we will try our best to “get up early” and think that people who get up early will work harder and be more motivated.
On the other hand, those who sleep late and get up late are easily seen as “out of society”, “prolonged illness” and “lack of self-motivation” – which has caused problems for many night-type people.
At the same time, most companies require 8-9 to go to work, and normal interpersonal relationships will be arranged during the day – these will put pressure on the night-type people, forcing them to change their sleep habits and become “late and get up early”.
What will happen in the long run?
In 2012, a statistic of 65,000 Europeans showed that people who get up early and get up early are more likely to suffer from depression and have a higher chance of being overweight.
getting up early
In 2015, a sleep tracking experiment also found that getting up early and getting up early is closely related to insulin. In the experiment, the subjects only slept for 5 hours a day for one week, and the sensitivity to insulin changed significantly, making it difficult to maintain normal blood sugar levels. This will increase your chances of developing heart disease, diabetes and obesity.
At the same time, long-term lack of sleep can also lead to irreversible brain damage, as well as the obvious accumulation of beta protein, which is the culprit leading to Alzheimer’s disease.
Not to mention the symptoms that can be felt, such as headache, fatigue, memory loss, and so on.
In short: the culprit is not “sleep late” but “sleep less.”
People who sleep less than 6 hours a day are constantly overdrafting their bodies.
There may be night-type friends who will say: I sleep a lot, I can sleep 7-8 hours a day, but why still feel uncomfortable, can’t sleep?
The reason is simple: many times, you think you are sleeping enough, but it is not.
It is well known that the regulation of sleep and the production of “sleepiness” is a hormone called melatonin, which is secreted by the pineal gland. How does the pineal gland regulate melatonin concentration?
The answer is: the brain senses the light in the environment through the retina and skin, and then signals the pineal gland to regulate melatonin. staying up late
Melatonin is most secreted when there is no light in the environment. And even a little bit of light can seriously interfere with the production of melatonin. staying up late
Therefore, many night-type people think that they have slept for 7 hours, but in fact, it is very likely that the ambient light intensity will be completely different at 6-7 in the morning.
At this time, your body has long been awakened and entered a semi-awake state, but you can’t feel it.
In addition, for people with “dolphins”, a little external environment sounds can interfere with sleep, making it difficult to enter deep sleep.
So, if you really want to sleep for 7-8 hours, you may need: a completely shaded curtain, a completely dark room, isolated from all noise, and long-term adherence to this life rhythm.
This is an effective way to fight “sleep less.”
Another important reason is the “sleep cycle.” staying up late
We know that sleep is not a coherent process, but is divided into multiple stages. In each stage, we will experience a period of “quick eye movement (REM) → shallow sleep → deep sleep → shallow sleep → REM”, which means “U-shaped”.
Among them, each cycle is about 90 minutes. The night type is shorter, and the morning type is longer.
For details, please refer to this picture:
In the figure, the abscissa indicates the duration, the ordinate indicates the depth of sleep, and the deeper the sleep. The red mark belongs to REM, stage 1-2 belongs to shallow sleep, and stage 3-4 belongs to deep sleep.
among them: staying up late
1) REM restores the spirit and plays the role of “cleaning” and “finishing”. If you deprive REM sleep, it will affect your memory and mood. staying up late
2) Deep sleep restores physical strength and plays a role of “rest”. Deprivation of deep sleep can cause prolonged fatigue and sleepiness.
3) It is only when you have experienced a whole cycle that you actually have a sleep.
Many people are used to setting an alarm clock. But if the alarm sounds, you are just below the red line, then this is actually equivalent to “breaking sleep”, your entire sleep cycle is incomplete.
So, the best way is to go through a full 4-5 sleep cycles (that is, experience 4-5 REMs, about 6 hours, depending on the person) – at this point, you are actually in a semi-awake state The body has done all the finishing and rest – wake up naturally or wake up by an alarm clock.
In addition, this also requires the whole society to change the perception of “early rise” – it may not be good to get up early, and it may not be suitable for everyone.
The state of some people is better than good morning in the middle of the night. Why do you want to force him to get up early? staying up late
Many people think that “sleeping late” can cause damage to the body. In fact, it has long been proven in medicine that the sleep time required by each person is different, usually 6-9 hours. As long as you sleep well and stay a long time, you fall asleep at 11 o’clock or go to sleep at 2 o’clock, and there is not much difference.
That is to say: the cause of the damage is “sleep less” than “sleep late“. As long as you can keep your work habits for a long time and stable, it doesn’t matter when you fall asleep. staying up late
In fact, this conclusion is also very easy to introduce:
Our circadian rhythm is controlled by light. Then, those who sleep late are nothing more than just moving the “lighting time” of each day.
For example: A gets up at 7 o’clock, sleeps at 11 o’clock, B gets up at 10 o’clock, and falls asleep at 2 o’clock. Then, for B, he transferred the “time to get the light” from 7 to 10 (through shading and sound insulation); at the same time, shifted the time from “light loss” from 11 to 2 (by lighting).
In other words, the indicators and rhythms of the two human bodies are actually the same, except that B moved backwards throughout the period. staying up late
Therefore, please be kind to the night-type people, do not give them too much pressure. : ) staying up late
Finally, simply mention: as a night person, if you want to change your sleep preferences,