Staying up late often places stress on all your organs. The importance of a good night’s sleep for health cannot be overstated. A recent study has provided new evidence for the significance of sleep — it can help "repair" a wounded heart.
A study published in Nature in 2024 revealed that after heart damage, the heart sends signals to the brain through the immune system, regulating sleep behavior. This mechanism can extend the sleep time of heart attack patients and help repair the heart. This suggests that maintaining adequate sleep after a heart attack will become an important supportive measure in helping patients recover.
The research induced heart attacks in a group of mice and observed them. Under normal conditions, the mice slept in a rhythmic pattern based on the light-dark cycle. However, after a heart attack, their sleep rhythm was completely disrupted. They spent more than 85% of their time sleeping under any conditions, showing decreased activity levels and lower body temperatures, all related to increased sleep behavior. The study also found a significant increase in slow-wave sleep time in the mice's brainwave signals, indicating more deep sleep. Overall, these changes occurred rapidly after the heart attack and lasted for about a week. After the heart was damaged, large numbers of monocytes appeared in the mice's brains. These immune cells gradually entered the brain through the circulatory system, particularly activating the thalamus, which released tumor necrosis factor (TNF). This cytokine acted as a signaling molecule, stimulating thalamic neurons and increasing the individual’s sleep behavior.
In addition to mice, the study found similar responses in humans. For example, after a heart attack, the level of monocytes in the blood significantly increased. Moreover, patients who had better sleep during recovery had better prognoses. On the other hand, poor sleep in the first week after a heart attack not only resulted in worse recovery but also increased the risk of other cardiovascular diseases.
Good sleep helps the body recover better; poor sleep puts pressure on all your organs. Many organs are slowly deteriorating under the constant strain of staying up late...
Eyes: Looking at your phone in the dark increases eye pressure. Many people stay up late on their phones, especially enjoying using them with the lights off before sleep. This is particularly harmful to the eyes. Prolonged close-range use of eyes and looking at the phone in the dark can lead to elevated eye pressure, and prolonged high eye pressure can cause damage to the optic nerve, leading to angle-closure glaucoma. Glaucoma is one of the three major causes of blindness in humans, and some patients may go blind. The scary part is that the early symptoms of glaucoma are not obvious and often cause irreversible, severe damage to the optic nerve without the person realizing it, damaging their vision.
Brain: Lack of sleep leads to worsening memory. A good night’s sleep makes the brain feel more agile. When sleeping more than 7-8 hours per night, memory-related proteins do not accumulate much. If sleeping between 6-7 hours, the accumulation of memory-related proteins significantly increases. For those who sleep less than 6 hours, dementia-related proteins multiply.
Kidneys: Staying up late means the kidneys don’t get a break. About 13% of kidney genes are related to the biological circadian rhythm. The kidneys maintain the body’s functions 24 hours a day, but they also have their own “biological clock.” The blood flow to the kidneys decreases by half at night, reducing their efficiency compared to during the day. Staying up late disrupts the kidneys’ biological clock and prevents them from resting, which causes significant damage. Even healthy young people will gradually increase kidney damage over time due to poor lifestyle habits, leading to irreversible consequences. For example, staying up late long-term can interfere with the kidneys’ detoxification and metabolism functions, causing a buildup of metabolic waste and toxins in the body, disrupting immune system functions, and increasing the burden on the kidneys.
Liver: Chronic fatigue weakens the liver's ability to break down substances. When staying up late or working overnight, people often feel a strange smell the next day. Taking a shower may temporarily mask the odor, but long-term night owls will still carry this odor, even after bathing. This is what is commonly referred to as “fatigue odor.”
Under healthy conditions, the liver breaks down ammonia produced when processing proteins, and the ammonia is then excreted through urine. However, if a person is in a constant state of fatigue, the liver becomes overburdened, and its ability to break down ammonia diminishes. The leftover ammonia circulates in the blood and accumulates under the skin, eventually being expelled with sweat, creating a pungent odor.
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