THE ESSENTIAL
- Sufficient sleep with minimal interruption at night promotes daytime cognition and emotional regulation.
- “Our internal biological clock is tuned to processes that promote sleep, not wakefulness, following midnight,” says Elizabeth B. Klerman.
“Disturbed sleep involving extensive nocturnal awakening leads to cognitive and behavioral dysregulation. Until now, most research has only examined how fragmented or insufficient sleep affects brain function the next day”, said researchers at the University of Arizona. In a recent study, published in the journal Frontiers in Network Psychologyscientists have highlighted the changes in cognition and behavior that occur when a person is awake following midnight.
A “behavioral dysregulation”
“During the day, molecular levels, neural activities and/or reactivity are matched to our usual behavior, wakefulness, which includes locomotor activity, eating, interactions with our environment and people. night, these parameters are adapted to our usual behavior, namely sleep. Thus, if we are awake at these times, the neurophysiology is likely to promote behavioral dysregulation”, explained the researchers.
High-risk behaviors and decisions
Put simply, when humans are awake at night, neurophysiological changes occur in the brain. These changes can make us more likely to view the world negatively, engage in impulsive behaviors, and make high-risk decisions, such as suicide, heavy drinking or dogo consumption, gambling addiction money or violent crimes.
Staying awake past midnight also impacts our food choices. During the night, we seek out more carbohydrates, fats and processed foods and we often ingest more calories than necessary. According to the authors, the body also naturally produces more dopamine at night, which can alter the reward and motivation system and increase the likelihood of engaging in risky behavior.
The “brain does not work as well as during the day”
“There are millions of people who stay awake in the middle of the night, and there’s pretty strong evidence that their brains don’t work as well as they do during the day,” said Elizabeth B. Klerman, author of the study, in a statement. She added that these results might have significant repercussions on the quality of life and health of people who have to stay awake at night as part of their work, including caregivers, pilots, police officers or firefighters. “I advocate for more research to look into this issue, as their health and safety, and that of others, is affected.”
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