Staying Up

Staying up on New Year's Eve is a traditional Chinese custom, where people await the arrival of the new year to pray for safety and happiness in the coming year. As a result, many choose to stay up late or go to bed very late on this ceremonious night. Additionally, frequent visits to relatives and friends, gatherings, and travel during the Spring Festival can lead to insufficient sleep or disrupted sleep cycles, affecting the body's natural rhythm. From a Traditional Chinese Medicine perspective, staying up late can damage liver and kidney essence. When kidney essence is deficient, it can cause hair loss, fatigue in muscles and bones, and decreased mental capacity. Insufficient liver essence can lead to hyperactivity of liver yang, discomfort in emotions, irritability, anxiety, and restlessness. Furthermore, staying up late can impair the heart's function of governing the mind, leading to listlessness, an inability to focus, and affecting cognitive abilities such as thinking, memory, and judgment. Many people also experience decreased appetite, bloating, constipation, or diarrhea after staying up late. How can one avoid sleep disturbances after staying up on New Year's Eve or during the holiday? Try the following methods. Adjust Your Schedule Before staying up on…