One-third of a person's life is spent in sleep, so sleep is very important for people's physical and mental health.
Because only in good sleep can the body be well restored from physiology to psychology, and people's memories also need to be integrated and consolidated during sleep. A good night's sleep enables people to maintain physical and mental health and good social abilities.
People are different, and how they sleep is not the same. Therefore, there are different sleep patterns. Generally speaking, there are three types of rough division.
"Lark type", which means those who go to bed early and get up early. This type of sleep is medically called the "early morning type".
The "owl type", also called the "night owl", is the type of "no sleep at night, no up in the morning". Such a person, who is not very energetic during the day, becomes more and more energetic at night, which is called "night type" in medicine.
Of course, there are also "intermediate" ones, neither "larks" nor "owls".
In medicine, there are more fine points.
Which sleep type is better for the body?
Lark type!
The body's circadian rhythm is regulated by the biological clock. Including the secretion of various hormones, the regulation of the nervous system, etc. The lark type has better sleep quality.
Studies have found that lark-type sleepers have significantly better work efficiency and alertness in the morning than in the afternoon and evening, and are more easy-going, cooperative and conscientious in terms of personality characteristics.
In the group of night-type sleepers, the cognitive performance during the day will be worse. It is easy to have negative emotions such as depression, excessive tension, anxiety, depression, etc., and when encountering difficulties and setbacks, it is more inclined to take a negative avoidance approach to solve the problem, which in turn will increase negative emotions. Therefore, the probability of depression is significantly higher than that of the other two types of sleep.
Some scholars have done research among college students and found that compared with the early morning type and intermediate type of sleep, the depression of college students who sleep at night is more obvious.
Because of sleeping late and getting up late, there are often situations such as prolonged sleep time and reduced efficiency, which affects the quality of sleep. Poor sleep quality will affect daytime function, easy to have negative emotions, and increase the risk of depression.
And the effect is more pronounced for men than for women.
Night-type sleep will also bring a kind of bad, that is, do not eat breakfast in the morning, eat a lot of food before going to bed at night, and some people can't even sleep without eating. This is another disease, "nocturnal eclipse". This will also bring about a variety of diseases, in addition to gastrointestinal diseases, as well as obesity, diabetes, etc., and sleep disorders interact with each other, but also aggravate depression and anxiety.
Teenagers, young and middle-aged people are more inclined to the night type due to the relationship between study and work. However, going to bed too late and staying up late is definitely detrimental to health, because it violates the physiological laws of the human body and the natural world.
Therefore, for the sake of physical and mental health, do not stay up late, be a "lark".
What about those who work the night shift?
People who work the night shift certainly have an impact on the body's biological clock. Studies have also found that night shifts and nighttime overtime can adversely affect sleep, increase depression, and affect cognitive ability. However, these night shifts are not yet avoidable. This requires good regulation to ensure adequate sleep for night shifters, and social care and support can also mitigate this negative impact.
Key References:
CHEN Yongjin, HUANG Huizhen, ZHI Jianyun, et al. Relationship between sleep type and depression and its mechanism[J]. Advances in Psychological Science, 2020, 28(10): 1713–1722
ZHU Yingying, MA Xiaoqing, TANG Zhuoyi, et al. Effects of sleep types on depression in college students: A mediated model with regulation[J]. Studies of Psychology and Behavior,2021,19(5):657~664
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