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Sleeping late can harm your health

Try to rest early to avoid higher risk of memory loss, stroke and heart attack

Do not try to cheat on sleep because it will take revenge. It harms your health in a number of ways.

Poorer memory and learning

Don't burn the midnight oil preparing for that presentation or studying for a test. Not only will you feel sluggish the next day, your brain loses efficiency every hour.

Furthermore, the information goes only into your short-term memory, so there is no guarantee you will remember it the next day.

More likely to die early

Try to go to bed early and rise with the sun.

A study by the Northwestern Medicine in the US and the University of Surrey in Britain revealed that late sleepers have a 10 per cent higher risk of dying early.

The experts advise not pushing back your bedtime to avoid making late nights a habit.

Higher risk of stroke and heart attack

According to a study by the Warwick Medical School published in the European Heart Journal, getting less than six hours of sleep increases the risk of developing or dying from heart disease by 48 per cent.

The chances of getting and dying from stroke also goes up by a scary 15 per cent.

Hard to repay chronic sleep debt

You cannot fully repay a sleep debt so do not keep adding to it.

A report by Harvard Health Publishing shared that the lack of sleep can impair your immune system and contribute to health issues, and the worse thing is it can even make you unaware of its impact even as your performance declines.

So no, you cannot function on just two hours of sleep. Get to bed at a sensible time.

More likely to gain weight

Keeping late hours makes you more prone to snacking, and late-night eating has been linked to greater weight gain. Sleepiness also messes with hormones and makes you hungrier. Over time, the overeating may lead to obesity.

May get depression

There is something about the night that brings out dark thoughts, and your preference for sleeping late could cause you to spiral into depression. This is particularly true if you have Type 2 diabetes, according to research presented at the Endocrine Society's annual meeting.

You could be more irritable as well, so if you do not want to go around snapping at people all day, get some extra Zs.

This article was first published in Shape (www.shape.com.sg)

WELLNESS & BEAUTY