Before the world experienced economic development, humans are accustomed to sleeping early at night or after the sun sets. But now, electricity and artificial lighting has made it possible for humans to stay awake and do more activities round the clock. Many are sleep deprived and have adjusted their body clocks. There are now people who identify themselves as night owls, working, partying or doing their leisure activities at night. For them, their talents are more harnessed during the night.
But recent studies show that consistently staying awake past midnight brings out more of the negative thoughts on our minds. Negative thoughts that can affect our emotions, behavior and overall thinking. A group of researchers from the US summarized their finding into a hypothesis which they call as “The Mind After Midnight”. The hypothesis discusses the link between circadian rhythm disruptions and a person’s attention biases, altered rewards processing, negative thoughts of the mind, disinhibition of the brain’s prefrontal lobe. These in the end contribute to behavioral dysregulation and psychological issues.
Constantly staying awake past midnight especially for vulnerable individuals increases the chances of having erratic or negative behavior, mood swings, substance use, overindulgence on things like vices, thoughts of committing crimes, and the worst, thoughts of committing suicide.
Why is that so? The experts emphasize the importance of cognitive and emotional regulation during the daytime. In simple words, humans are much more capable of regulating their thoughts and emotions during the day. During the night, human brains are wired to be in a “fight or flight” mode where negative thoughts and fears are much more abundant. You can blame in on human evolution and genes. During prehistoric times, humans are hunters during the day but becomes the “hunted” during the night be it by wild animals or by any other dangerous creatures in the wild. That is why humans, developed shelters as refuge from the dangers of the night. Negative thoughts of the unknown things that could happen during the night linger on our brains up until this day.
So, if you are one of the “night owls” who really have that choice and freedom to bring back that normal sleeping cycle, do your brain and body some favor and start adjusting your body clocks now for your wellness’s sake.