The dawn of the modern world fueled by digital technology has turned many into night owls. Many others also have the short sleeper syndrome (SSS; used for people who sleep for less than six hours every day) because of overtime work, study, or entertainment. These will tell on your health, and you’re likely to age faster. The best remedy is to stop staying up at night. If this is a habit that is hard to stop, then continue reading!
What Are The Damages Caused To The Body By Staying Up Late?
Before suggesting solutions to the problems, you have to be aware of the problems your staying up at night can create.
1. Dull and Yellowing Skin
When you ask a model what the secret of her beauty is, she usually answers, “a lot of sleep.”
Night owls rarely have pretty skin. A strong link has been established between bedtime and the condition of our skin.
During the hours of sleep, internal mechanisms intervene to regenerate the cells of our body. During the day, the cells of our body are attacked. They are often exposed to external aggressions like pollution, ultraviolet rays, stress, and even poor diet.
At night, sleep repairs these damaged cells. Even if you are sleeping for a long time, going to bed late will disrupt these restorative mechanisms. When you wake up, you may find out that your skin is dull and slightly yellowish.
2. Aging and Impure Skin with Blackheads and Pimples
If the blood flow slows down due to an insufficiently regenerated body, the skin, the largest organ in the body, can no longer be optimally supplied.
This is especially noticeable after a short night in the form of pale skin color. Also, dark circles under the eyes appear. The sleep deficit also affects the release of hormones, so pimples and blackheads are not uncommon.
There is also the risk that skin cells will renew themselves more slowly, and the aging process will progress more quickly.
3. Going To Bed Late Increases Blood Sugar
People with type 2 diabetes who go to bed late have a harder time controlling their blood sugar levels. People who do not have diabetes and go to bed late increase their risk of developing type 2 diabetes if they accumulate other bad habits.
Again, not respecting the circadian rhythms of our sleep can disrupt the functioning of our body.
4. Going to Bed Late Makes You Fat
You read that right. Going to bed late would make you fat! Studies have shown that every hour of sleep lost increases our Body Mass Index (BMI) by 2.1 points in the long run (if we go to bed regularly for five years).
This increase occurs even in people who participate in regular physical activity or sleep more than eight hours a night (going to bed late and getting up late is not suitable for your health).
By going to bed late, we disrupt the circadian rhythms of our sleep to the detriment of the biological mechanisms that intervene at night.
5. You’re Hurting Your Internal Organs
The internal organs also need to rest, especially those processing your midnight supper. These include the spleen, livers, among others. Those who stay up late for a long time and then start going to bed early often found that they were still tired the next day. No matter how much time they slept, they could not recover. This shows that the internal organs are injured like spring, always stretched out without letting go for a long time. The elasticity is weak; even if you let go, you can’t bounce back quickly.
6. Vision Problems
If you don’t sleep, you need to keep using your eyes. When you keep using your eyes and other organs, you need to keep the brain working overtime, and of course, you keep using blood.
After long-term use of the eyes, especially after staying up late, you start having blurred vision, and your eyes become dry, bloating, and painful. Not only are the eyes overused. The blood is also overdrawn.
7. There’s a Relationship between Cancer and Staying Up Late
The media, research, and professionals in the medical field often report a direct connection between staying up late as a woman and breast cancer.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has long recognized that night shifts are a strong carcinogenic factor. Compared with the nine-to-five population, the risk of late-stage tumors increased by 24%, and the risk of early-stage tumors increased by 49%.
How Do I Care For My Skin If I Still Have To Stay Up Late?
Below are skincare tips that you can put into practice if, for one reason or the other, you can’t stop staying up late at night.
1. Replenish Moisture
The skin gets oily when you stay up late because it’s dehydrated. If you ignore the signs, a lot of oil will accumulate on your face, easily clog your pores and cause acne breeding.
At this point, you can apply a refreshing lotion on your face to quickly replenish moisture to your skin. You can then apply oil control gel to control oil secretion and moisturize your skin.
While staying up late and working overtime, you should make the indoor air clear and maintain skin-friendly humidity. So, it is essential to have a humidifier in environments with dehumidified indoor air.
2. Clean the Skin As Soon As Possible
Don’t always wait until you sleep to clean your skin. Always clean the skin at regular intervals, around twice a day, reduce the burden on the skin, and prevent acne.
Also, to maintain the balance of water and oil, it is necessary to strengthen oil control and stay hydrated to replenish the skin.
When necessary, add serum to stimulate collagen proliferation and repair the skin, and enhance cell viability.
3. Take Vitamin C Supplements
Working overtime and staying up late will cause loss of skin collagen. At dinner, eat more vitamin C or collagen-containing foods to help the skin restore elasticity and luster.
Animal skin is rich in collagen. Many fruits are rich in vitamin C, or you can take one tablet of vitamin C. But avoid eating spicy, especially oily foods, to prevent excessive evaporation of skin moisture.
People with sensitive skin should eat as little seafood as possible. Alcoholic beverages significantly reduce nutrient absorption and skin retention, so they should be used with caution.
4. Always Apply Night Cream
At around 9 p.m., as the day draws to a close, the body prepares for sleep by producing melatonin, a powerful anti-inflammatory antioxidant.
Melatonin ensures that the circadian rhythm remains in balance and counteracts inflammation and oxidative stress, both of which are key players in the aging process.
When this process is interrupted by insomnia, stress, and worry, the body produces cortisol. This, in turn, prevents the body from producing hyaluronic acid, which is a natural moisturizer.
This means that poor sleep can lead to dry and dehydrated skin, resulting in a dull complexion and a damaged skin barrier.
Given that many of us currently work from home and may not wear makeup there, skipping the nightly skincare routine can be tempting. However, in doing so, you miss out on an opportunity to aid the skin’s repair mechanisms, which work while you sleep.
The best products on the market counteract this. Advanced Night Repair by Estēe Lauder uses the circadian rhythm to make your complexion look more even and provide more glow.
Also, the night cream Ultra Smart Pro-Collagen Night Genius by Elemis strengthens the skin’s protective function so that the skin’s moisture can be better stored. This makes the skin less sensitive. It was also found that the cream moisturizes the skin for a total of 72 hours. Both of these products can help make you look more rested than you might feel.
5. Do Massage Exercises Day and Night
For dark circles, there is a set of simple and effective eye massage exercises: pressing the entire eyelid, pressing the temple from the inner corner of the eye, and then pressing the temple with the middle finger; each time you press, then gently lift it. Massage the eye sockets with your ring finger before going to bed to help lymphatic circulation.
6. Give Your Eye Area Enough Moisture
Staying up late in the night always generates problems ranging from discoloration of the skin and dark circles under the eyes to fine or deep wrinkles and having bags under the eyes.
To remedy or prevent this, make sure that the eye area is sufficiently hydrated. A good eye moisturizer, with caffeine or peptides, can temporarily improve fine lines by smoothing the skin’s surface.
Also, products with vitamins A and C can help to lighten dark circles under the eyes to a certain extent.
Conclusion
Sufficient sleep is the number one nourishment for the body, but many always go to bed late for work, study, entertainment, and other reasons. Many professions and organizations are turning to flexibility and remote working. This way, you easily end up outstretching your regular working hours.
Sometimes, many just want to play more with their mobile phones. It’s not like there’s no desire to sleep, but there are always new things that stimulate the brain and keep the brain excited.
All these can leave a telling effect on your skin, brain, and even internal organs if not properly managed. As for the skin, the key is staying moisturized, cleaning up regularly, and taking vitamin supplements.