Everyone knows staying up late is harmful to the health. Nevertheless, during the Spring Festival holidays, family or friends reunions, it is almost inevitable. What we can do is to take some remedies to alleviate the harm as possible as we can, when we have to stay up late.
1) Calcium supplementation
The loss of calcium in vivo peaks at 2 AM every day. The highly tense brain work would accelerate the loss at that time. If you know in advance that you would not stop work before 2 AM, taking a calcium pill of 1000 – 1500 mg earlier is a wise solution. Considering the inhibitory effect to calcium absorption caused by iron, those foods with high content of iron, like spinach, red dates, eggs and sea tangles, should be avoided in the supper before the night.
2) Vitamin B, good for energy refill and nerve tranquilization
Even caffeine refreshes your mind, it still consumes vitamin B group, which closely affects the coordination among nerves and muscles in the body. So, when you are preparing for staying up late, you could supplement vitamin B, which would activate brain cells and enhance your faculty of memory. Take some foods rich in vitamin B as supper, they can participate in metabolism to provide energy, moreover, relieve the anxious mood. Whenever you fail to intake enough from food, the vitamin B pill is a good choice to be supplementation. Normally, it spends 4 to 5 hours for your body to digest and absorb vitamin B. So, if you plan to stay up late, you’d better to take 1 or 2 pills of vitamin B before 9 PM.
3) Apply a facial mask
Irregular sleep causes moisture loss from your skin, especially while facing computer at night. Therefore, hydrating becomes very important. Although you have a lot of work to do, please do not forget the best time for skin care everyday is between 10 PM to 11 PM. After cleansing face, use some hydrating essence with high absorptive capacity, and then apply some nutrient lotion to keep the moisture and protect skin from the particles in the environment. When you sit late, a facial mask would help your skin to maintain moisture as well as relax your mood.
4) Say “No” to coffee
When you feel tired, coffee and tea are most likely the first two kinds of refreshing beverage which occurred to you. Definitely, the contained caffeine could cheer us up, but also could paralyze our nerve system and disorder our endocrine system, which would make our irregular life even worse, at the same time. A study conducted by researchers from University of Oxford proved, a cup of black coffee at midnight would constantly raise the blood pressure for 12 hours. And a long term habit of drinking coffee at midnight would increase the risk of getting heart attack.
5) Do more physical exercises
If you feel tired and drowsy during working at night, please stand up for a while and do some gym. Afterwards, taking part in outdoor activities, for instance, playing badminton, climbing hills and outing, will also help you throw off the fatigue after a whole night work.
Provenance: China.com.cn
Date: Jan 23, 2012