I’ve always wondered this, espeically over summer break or for those who work later but why is going to bed late bad for you if you still get the perfect amount of sleep?
For example, last night I wen’t to bed at like 1:30 AM and woke up at 10:30 am, which is 9 hours? So if I’m getting required sleep, how is it bad for me?
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Not really an ELI5 but here are some useful terms.
Circadian rhythm and REM cycle seems relevant to what you want to know. Idk how scientifically true it is though.
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My vague understanding of the circadian rhythm is basically when your mind sees a level of darkness and lightness, it makes some of your organs work harder or chill depending on the brightness.
Lots of light would typically make you more alert.
Lots of darkness would typically make you sleep.
If you sleep in the morning, your organs can’t relax properly because it’s bright. Also at night, your organs can’t relax properly because you are presumably awake.
So that could potentially contribute to bad health since your organs doesn’t have the ‘optimal’ environment to rest.
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REM cycle affects how deep you sleep. Roughly, the deeper/longer you sleep, the less work your body does and the more your body can fight viruses and bad things.
Statistics seems to suggest that REM cycle only occurs at night at 8pm-12am. So if you don’t sleep then, you might not easily enter deep REM cycle. But it seems to be just an unproven guess.
So if you don’t sleep at the optimal time, your body might become weaker.
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The above theories may not apply to night owls though. There are people out there who have a natural nocturnal cycle, meaning they sleep in the morning and wake up at night and things seem to be working out for them.
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