Sometimes, getting up early could be more harmful to your body. Why? We all know that “early to bed and early to rise is good for health,” but it might adversely affect your health if you blindly pursue getting up early without considering your specific situation.
Some people are not made for getting up early
Why is getting up early considered harmful to these people? Getting up early is relative. Good sleep quality differs from getting up too early.
“Getting up early” means you didn’t stay up too late the night before. It is normal to go to bed at 10 p.m. and not oversleep in the morning. This indicates that you have had enough good quality sleep.
However, a group of people are not suitable for getting up early. If you didn’t sleep a lot, but still had to get up early, the harm could be no less than staying up late. Sleep disruption can be sudden if one wakes up too early, leading to sleep inertia. This may manifest as feeling groggy, depressed mood, cognitive decline, and in severe cases, even issues of disorientation or confusion.
Healthy sleep should align with the body’s circadian rhythm. Generally speaking, the optimal sleep time is around 10 p.m., waking up naturally in the morning, which best corresponds to the human biological clock for sleeping. Getting up early does not necessarily indicate good health; it might also indicate insomnia or other sleep-related problems.
Getting up too early may bring about potential harm:
- Excessive fatigue: Insufficient sleep, coupled with long working hours and relatively shorter intervals for lunch and rest, can lead to increased fatigue.
Heightened irritability: Getting up too early can elevate cortisol levels, a hormone associated with stress. Individuals who get up too early are more prone to headaches and muscle pain and are generally more susceptible to irritability. - Sleep deprivation: Both getting up too early and staying up late can result in inadequate sleep, leading to symptoms of sleep deprivation. Besides dizziness, fatigue, and decreased attention span, prolonged sleep deprivation can disrupt the body’s immune function, increasing the risk of various diseases.
If you occasionally stay up late, sleeping in a little the following day is advisable. However, do not linger in bed, and if you can take a 30-minute nap around noon, that would be ideal.
The Impact of ‘late to bed, early to rise’ on the body
The biological clock is like an invisible hand regulating the physiological state of the human body. Even with a total of 8 hours of sleep, going to bed and waking up early is more in line with the biological clock, while staying up late and waking up late may disrupt the biological clock, posing health risks.
- Poor mental state: Prolonged sleep deprivation not only disrupts the biological clock, leading to issues like lack of concentration, poor judgment, and eating disorders, but also affects work and study.
- Sleep disorders: The typical manifestation of a disrupted biological clock is working or engaging in activities at bedtime and feeling sleepy during the day when one should be alert.
- Increased risk of heart failure: According to a study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, going to bed late and waking up late on workdays, defined as sleeping after 11 pm or waking up after 8 am, significantly increases the risk of chronic heart failure.
- Increased risk of diseases: Long-term late sleeping can weaken immune systems. For children, staying up late may impact growth and development, while insufficient sleep in the elderly can increase the risk of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
Translated by Katy, edited by Amanda
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