Have you stay up late? Happy or tired.

Staying up late has become a staple of today's youth. However, AIA landmark survey has shown that Malaysian adults only get 6.4 hours of sleep on average (2019) and that staying up late is part of people's daily lives. A recent study suggests that going to sleep at 10 p.m. is the optimal time (Nikbakhtian et al,2021), but for some people, 10pm is when the nightlife just starts.

We are all "late nighters"

11pm, condo near UTAR

Even though it is meant to be a night off, there are still lights on in several of the apartments near the campus. People are busy doing their own things while repeating the many nightlife activities each day, including reading, online chatting, gaming, and working.

"I don't want to stay up late either, but without realising it, it's already late. It's already 11pm when I get home from school, and when I get home after a brief rest, watching a news, video or something, or lying in bed playing a phone or a game, it's almost 1pm when I notice the incident, I was thinking of going home and resting early, but I still stayed up late." This is what QIAN XINGER, a student from UTAR, said. She also told us that she often stays up until after 1am or 2am, and sometimes even stays up all night, for different reasons, from catching up on TV dramas, to lying in bed and not being able to sleep, to chatting with a roommate. When she was asked if she knew that staying up late was harmful to her health, she told the reporter helplessly that she knew the great harm of staying up late, but she was under too much pressure from her studies and she suffered from mild anxiety, which led to insomnia from time to time, and she had to rely on some recreational activities to relax herself or sleep on sleeping pills.

On university campuses, staying up late is become commonplace for students. When the lights in the dorms are turned off, the computers are still on, making the dorms boisterous even when the streets are silent. The majority of students are either highly irregular or accustomed to sleeping in and rising late every day. It has become commonplace to stay up late, and it is even thought by some students that staying up late is a "good thing."

"Although I usually go to bed at one or two in the morning, I don't think I'm staying up late because I'll stay up late and then wake up in the afternoon. If I don't have a class the next day, I feel good about staying up, and I'm more used to the nighttime routine; I'm always unmotivated to do my homework during the day, and without the pressure of the day, I'm better able to get things done when I stay up. It makes me feel happy, comfortable and at ease." This is what ZHAO YI, a student from Game Design, told me．

Not everyone wants to be a "night owl"

In the interview, it was found that for staying up late, certain college students who have the habit of going to bed early packed a bellyful of complaints. When talking about whether they are willing to change their routine, qianxinger students said helplessly, "I don't like staying up late if I can, but staying up late makes me unrefreshed the next day, and it always makes me tired and more depressed after staying up late. But because of a mild anxiety disorder, I am not able to be able to control my sleep for the time being."

Student who are still studying at 3am

Another university student XU RUYUN, who is in an internship majoring in early childhood education, said: she actually wants to go to bed early too, but is often forced to sleep late. "There are times when I'm really tired after a day of studying and activities, and I want to rest early. But because I am in a kindergarten internship, I need to review my school knowledge at night after work, and sometimes I may also need to finish kindergarten craft materials and so on, plus with multiple tasks, playing with my phone really helps me relax a bit."

During the interviews, it was found that not all people like to sleep late, but in a stressful environment, everyone's uses staying up late as a tool for stress release. As a result, there is the phenomenon that even if the pressure is high, everyone involuntarily uses social software to relieve stress. "In fact, I do not like to stay up late, white from having a smart phone, my work and rest is completely disrupted, lying in bed to brush microblogging, chatting, playing games, a shake are to late at night." It is understood that psychologists call this phenomenon media dependence, mainly manifested as their instinctive behavioral habits need media to assist in completing, electronic media to a certain extent "manipulate" the action of human thinking, rather than people control the media.

Good habits for good health

Ms.ZHANG JIAYANG

Ms.HE YANXIA

Ms. HE YANXIA, an Attending Physician in Neurology, told us that staying up late has a great impact on our health, for example, if we stay up late one day, we will have difficulty concentrating the next day, memory loss and low work efficiency. If we stay up late for a long time, it will affect our body's endocrine system, producing such chronic diseases as hyperglycemia and hypertension, and our resistance will gradually decline, making us prone to colds and even cancer in serious cases.

Here the Advice from Psychological counsellor Ms.ZHANG JIAYANG and Doctor Ms.HE YANGXIA to improve staying up late.For patients who stay up late, if it is subjective that they do not want to sleep, they must develop good sleep habits and achieve a regular routine.

If it is an objective inability to sleep, patients should try to establish a conditioned reflex between bed and sleep as if to quench the thirst of the plum, which we hope to do when we see the bed.

Firstly, do not do anything in bed that is not related to sleep, including reading in bed, watching TV, listening to music, all will weaken the conditioned reflex between the ship and sleep, especially playing with mobile phones and brushing friends is very bad for sleep.

Second not sleepy do not go to bed have sleepy then go to bed, repeated training, the formation of conditioned reflexes, many insomnia patients go to bed early and wait for sleep, but sleep is not waiting.

Thirdly, if you can't get out of bed after 20 minutes, it is advisable to get out of bed and do some relaxing activities, such as meditation, and then go back to bed when you feel like sleeping.In addition, you should also build up enough sleep motivation, which can be said to mean that the more sleepy you are the easier it is to fall asleep. You can also take appropriate exercise, aerobic exercise is the most suitable, such as walking, hiking, playing Tai Chi, yoga, but avoid strenuous exercise within two hours before bedtime.

Although staying up late can bring us temporary happiness, there are two sides to everything, and while it gives us pleasure, it also places a burden on our health.

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