Dr Yousuf Ali Al mulla
Sometimes you are surprised when you go out of your home for some emergency in the middle of night or when you return from your work and see the young people in neighborhood still awake and do not see until crack of the dawn. This sight has unfortunately become common nowadays! Are they sick or has it just become a habit that our young people may not know that this is unhealthy?
Nevertheless, those individuals who tend to stay up late at night, or the early hours of the morning, do they realize that one night of lack of sleep can make you feel upset and even worse with extreme fatigue and lethargy for some during the day. On other hand, most night owls - if I can put it this way - still have to adhere to the limitations of our culture and society with a more morning schedule. This means they may go to bed late and wake up early -which is really a painful condition -, so they regularly get inadequate sleep. Unfortunately, these people showed longer sleep time, more time in bed with insomnia, and higher levels of anxiety about sleep.
Interestingly, studies indicate that a person awake during the night tends to be more sleepy during the day and has difficulty adapting to healthy sleep habits compared to people who wake up early, which is the case of an early bird who tends to jump out of bed in the morning feeling ready for the day and we do not usually see him complain of yawning for instance.
Of course, whether you are a night owl or an early bird, this definitely depends on your daily rhythm or internal biological clock, which determines how sleepy or awake you feel 24 hours a day. What I would like to point out here, is that if you count yourself from the night owls (which according to some studies make up 20 percent of society), then know that you are not unusual, but rather your biological clock is completely different from that established by society, which tends to be more harmonious with those of the early birds! However, having this tendency in excess and persistent being night owl, you may have serious health effects.
Unfortunately, over time this habit persists in people who are sleep deprived, which increases the risk of developing chronic health problems, including obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease. In addition, insufficient sleep can lead to mental health problems such as depression and anxiety, not to mention that a person (night owls) is more susceptible to colds if exposed to influenza virus for instance.
Of course, in a few cases lack of sleep can lead to daytime sleepiness and what we call as partial sleep. It usually takes only a few seconds, but it can last for 10 or 15 seconds and sadly speaking it is a great danger if it occurs while driving. However, looking at a different aspect of this problem, did we envision that with the closure of healthy restaurants in the middle of the night, some restaurants that serve unhealthy foods continue to open and serve harmful and fast foods, which over time can greatly affect individuals and help in developing obesity, cancer and type 2 diabetes!
Here, I think it is good to try to make basic lifestyle changes that promote sleep, with exercise and avoiding caffeine and coffee, as well as following a good healthy sleep practice, through which the body prepares at night to rest and sleep, like avoiding any tablets or phone before bed an hour or more.
At the end, given the negative effects and night owls, it may be worth following the advice and sacrificing for your health. If you are a night owl you may not be looking forward to a busy or early morning, but those mornings inevitably happen… wouldn’t it be great for some of us to be around! And here I leave you wondering: Can I force myself to become a morning person ... like an early bird?
Dr.Yousuf Ali Al Mulla, a physician, a medical innovator and a writer.
