It is common knowledge that most people who live and commute by public transport to work in Lagos have terrible extensively sleep-deprived during the week and so try to claw back lost sleep by waking up late on Saturdays and Sundays.
Now picture a situation where avid European Football League fans had to stay up to watch the nerve-wracking World Cup final match on a Thursday between Brazil and Germany in Australia that began 10 minutes before midnight (Nigerian time) in faraway Australia, then went into extra time and ended with a tensioned-soaked sudden death penalty shoot out at about 10 minutes past 2.00am. You can best imagine how that soccer crazy fan, would be efficient and productive at work that Friday morning.
Medical research has determined that the night habits of individuals have concurrent effect on their health during the daytime. Below are some of the ways such habits impact health.
Exercise
In general, hitting the gym helps you sleep better and get to sleep quicker. But when you work out, your body makes more cortisol. That’s a hormone that helps make you more alert. That’s good when you’re trying to wake up for work. But it’s not so good when you’re trying to get to sleep. If you must exercise in the evening, try to finish at least three hours before bed.
Factor in good nutrition
In the rush to get ready and leave home early, to beat morning traffic snarls, having breakfast is often not on the daily schedule of most people who commute to work by public transport. The solution: pack a healthy quick meal of sliced bread, lettuce, sardine in a flat plastic container, to eat in the tea room once you get to the office before the start of work. Then get a good meal at lunch, to ensure that your body gets decent nutrition.
Late-night eating
Eating snacks in the wee hours isn’t a recipe for a restful night’s sleep. You’re more likely to wake rested and ready for the day with a lighter dinner – less fat, salt, and calories – several hours before bed. If you’re hungry later, snack lightly on easy-to-digest foods like toast or yoghurt.
Ignoring your teeth
If you don’t brush and floss in the evening, you might notice a thicker coating (bacteria) on your teeth in the morning. Swishing with mouthwash also might help prevent this buildup of bacteria. In just a day or two, it starts to harden into a cement-like “tarter” that can lead to cavities and gum disease. Only your dentist can remove tartar.
Staying up late
Not only does it sap your energy, but it can trigger your body to make more cortisol. It can also make you crave more high-fat, high-sugar foods the next day. That’s why you tend to have more body fat if you sleep less than 6 hours a night. That extra body fat makes you more likely to get things like diabetes and heart disease. So if you have to be up for work, it helps to go to bed early enough to get at least 8 hours of sleep.
Drinking alcohol
At first, it might make you sleepy. But after a few hours, it has the opposite effect. And the quality of sleep you do get may not be as good. Plus, it makes you pee more, which means more up and down to the bathroom. All this might leave you dragging the next day. Consider keeping it to one to two drinks per day, and try not to drink in the three hours before bedtime.
Late jolt of caffeine
Tea, coffee, chocolate, and many energy drinks contain caffeine. Even in normal amounts, it can make it harder to fall asleep or make the sleep you get less effective, especially as you get older. Even if you have caffeine six to eight hours before bedtime, it could give you that unrested feeling the next day.
Washing your face
You don’t want to overwash your face or scrub it too hard, especially if you have dry skin. But you should wash off the dirt, grime, sweat, and makeup at the end of the day. By keeping germs off your face, you’ll keep pimples away and you might even prevent eye infections. Plus your moisturizer, if you use one, will work better.
Napping
A nap of any length in the late afternoon or evening can lead to an unfortunate cycle that disrupts your normal sleep routine and makes it hard to get up in the morning.
Your busy mind
It can be hard to relax when your mind is racing with the million things you need to do. But if you take just a few minutes to organize your thoughts, you can create a mini-plan for the next day, something like a “To Do” list. It will help you lessen your stress level the next morning by giving you a ready-made guide for how to attack the day.
Being digital after dark
Too much artificial light after the sun goes down can mess up your internal clock. The “blue light” given off by your smartphone, laptop, and other electronics can cut down the amount of melatonin that your body makes, which can make winding down difficult. Specialized glasses or screens can filter out the light, and some devices have “nightshift” settings that help remove it. But the best solution is to put the electronics down early.
Get a sleep routine
Ease the path to bedtime with a soothing evening routine. Read a book or listen to calming music. A hot bath or shower can promote sleepiness, as can some light stretching. Avoid difficult or stressful discussions late in the evening, which can trigger hormones that keep you up.
• Adapted from webmd.com