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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Your body has expected events it wants to do every night. Think of it like your going to bed routine. You brush your teeth, you floss your teeth, you wash your face, then you get into bed, and you turn off the lights.
Your body does much the same – it has a ton of physical work to do while you sleep. It knows what to do based on an internal clock. If you throw off your internal clock by not sleeping at the expected times it can cause that long to-do list to go partially undone.
If your body can’t do it’s to-do list at night fully, over multiple nights, you end up exhausted. Exhaustion causes you to get sick more easily, make careless errors,and physical injuries go up. Over years you increase your risk of dementia.
Eventually, if you redefine your bed time for long enough, your body will realize that it needs to do the to-do list at a different time. The chemical message runners will start to change their schedules to suit your sleep schedule. However, people who work at night tend to gain weight, have more depression and anxiety, and acquired diabetes. Your body can only adapt so much.
It’s best to fall asleep when you feel naturally tired and wake up when you feel naturally rested. For some people that’s 9pm, some it’s 11pm, some it’s 2am. There’s no perfect schedule. Our society isn’t too friendly to this fact.
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