Is Late-Night Sleep Harmful to Health?

Ehsanullah mashwani
2 min readJan 23, 2021
by kulik stepan.

You may consider a night owl as productive and creative, but the fact is that it is perilous to your health. Either few people do it for having no option and compelled to do it, like completing assignments and preparing for the paper in the very next day or few people are bound with the social distractions; nevertheless, it is hazardous to health.

Night owls(late sleepers) are more at the risk of around 10% more likely to die prematurely when compared with individuals who are recognized as morning people. Myriad other diseases could appear: diabetes 30%, mental illness 25%, stomach disease, and respiratory illness.

Is late-night sleep harmful to a teenager?

Well, most teenagers have a problem with sleeping before 11:00 or 12:00 because of their schools, colleges, universities, and very significant social distractions are the well-known reasons, it is quite difficult to perform well with less sleep which causes an insufficient amount of melatonin hormone. a 2013 study in the journal of adolescent health found that teens who went to bed later than 11:00 during the school year had lower grade-point average and were more vulnerable to emotional problems than those who went to bed earlier.

Hormonal changes due to late sleep.

How can these hormones(melatonin, and ghrelin) bring negative changes in the body of night owl

Melatonin hormone: it is secreted by the pineal gland, and starts secretion with no light(it is sensitive to light), secretion gets started after four-hours of sunset. it plays an important role: it leads someone to good performance in activities, gives strength to the immune system, and fights against infectious diseases such as HIV. therefore, sleeping at late night could cause the inadequacy of melatonin hormone which will bring negative results: feeble performance in studies, destroys the natural sleep-wake cycle, and Headache.

Ghrelin hormone: it is secreted when someone stays till night and produces appetite; therefore, it stimulates growth hormone which causes food intake; finally, ghrelin hormones lead your body to obsession(weight gain).

In the final analysis, the best thing to do now is to get into a regular sleep and wake-up late routine. this will help your body get into a rhythm and be able to sleep and wake up with the best outcomes. late sleep impacts efficiency and relationships, as well as health in general. manage the morning first of all. one of the reasons “night owls” stay up so late that they’re just not exhausted. be consistent, after some days you’ll get rid of it easily. obviously, there won’t be any motivation of staying healthy to relinquish the habit of being a night owl.

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