Written By: Naz Haider | Updated : November 30, 2015 9:27 AM IST
While night life is not uncommon today. Yet, we are repeatedly told to sleep early and wake up early. Why can t we just follow our body clock! What s wrong in working all night and resting during the day?
Here s why it matters.
It may be a common phenomenon today. We tend to party hard till late night or chat over the internet, go for late-night drives, movies, work overtime or in night-shifts etc. But, what is popular is not always right. And what is right is not always popular! Once in a while, if one has a very late night it is fine, but it should not become one s lifestyle. Let us look at the impact of such a life from various viewpoints:
Biological Standpoint: Ask these questions to executives with five years of experience in sleepless nights and restless days, especially in call centers. You will find your answers. They may seem to have adjusted their biological clock against nature. They, however, face sleep disorders, young-age heart diseases, depression and family discord, according to doctors and several industry surveys. Human body s natural circadian rhythms tell that the concerned person should not be working when he or she should be sleeping. The body gets heated when one stays awake and this results in cold/ flu, acidity, fever, decreased immunity, etc.
Many of our hormones and enzymes keep fluctuating during different times of the day. Take for example; cortisol concentration changes daily. Cortisol is the most potent glucocorticoid produced by the human adrenal. This peaks during the morning hours when glucose is needed for activity and reaches its low point late in the evening. So the chances of heart attacks are very high during morning, especially when it is preceded by stressful working nights. These natural cycles of the body get totally disturbed when we try to reverse the biological clock.
There is no our-own body clock. There is one human biological clock that the body follows with negligible differences based on individual lifestyles, habits, climatic conditions and physiological conditions.
People get used to drinking, for example. They may justify saying that 'What s the harm? It suits my body. I feel comfortable and fresh when I drink. I don t even get drunk!' But the kidney gradually rots away in time, no matter how used to one gets and how fresh one feels after alcohol consumption! Same way, disturbing the body clock may appear harmless externally in some cases. Yet, the impact it has on the body and mind cannot be denied.
Pranic Standpoint: Our digestive system is tuned as per the movement of the sun. Hence, it works the best between sunrise and sunset. Prana is life-energy, it is the vital-force that is the fuel for every thought we think and action we perform. Conservation of pranic energy is very important for great achievements. Much more time and pranic energy is spent when we eat late night and keep awake till odd hours. The body s digestive enzymes are secreted in minimal quantities at night. The food which is consumed late may not get digested optimally because the body is on sleep mode. Late nights and late dinners are one of the main reasons why most people in the advertising industry and most party DJs are said to suffer gastro-intestinal diseases. Especially late dinners are responsible for the extra weight that one puts on.
Psychological standpoint: Research also shows that those who are awake during the night on a regular basis, tend to face a gradual drop in creativity, alertness and productivity compared to those who sleep during nights. It is also observed that memory functions best when one has rested enough and one is not struggling to keep awake. It also takes much more time to grasp a concept. According to certain modern theories, some of us are parrots those who can study and work in the day and some are owls who can study and work in the night. Going by these theories we tend to stay up till late and work or study in groups or chat on the internet etc. Yet, it is a fact that there is a heavy price to pay for being owls because nature has not created us that way. It is our mindset, peer-pressure that makes us think in terms of parrots and owls .
Light is symbolic of freshness, brightness, brilliance, knowledge. Darkness is symbolic of ignorance, gloominess, dullness and inertia. Try living in a closed room for long. One feels claustrophobic and wants to come out into the open. Hence the mind is influenced by light and there is a new enthusiasm and dynamism. Darkness invokes laziness, lethargy, dullness, fear etc.
Spiritual Standpoint: The entire universe is a play of three gunas or moods - Sattva-guna (peace and clarity), Rajo-guna (dynamism and activity) and Tamo-guna (Inertia and ignorance). These three gunas influence the content of a thing as well as its qualities. They also influence your cognitive skills. Morning time is the time of Sattva-guna and the entire nature is filled with positivity, peace and spiritual influence of the meditation by great masters. Nature is conducive for study, contemplation, meditation, deeper thinking, reflection, creativity, etc. At dawn, and as the sun-rises, there is tremendous activity and rajo-guna takes over the rest of the day. As the sun sets in the evening, tamo-guna takes over slowly and one feels tired, sleepy, dull after a hard day s work. As the night proceeds more, and more Tamas is prevalant in the environment. Though we may have slept in the day and may appear to be fresh in the night, since the environment is pre-dominently tamasic, it will have an impact on the mind and one will struggle. On the contrary if one tries to harmonise oneself with the gunas in nature and environment around oneself, it will become easier for the mind to focus and one will see a boost in efficiency.
Considering the above wherever possible, one has to make a conscious and intelligent choice of taking care of the body as per its requirements, tune up with nature and work with it rather than against it. If this is not done, sooner or later there will be a breakdown and one will be forced to come back to the natural rhythm of the body. Where it is impossible to make the choice, one must ensure that one is aware of the consequences and take the remedial measures in anticipation and come back to the natural routine as soon as possible.
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The article is written by Swami Swatmananda, resident Acharya of Chinmaya Mission.
Image: Shutterstock
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