Your heart never really stops working, but people on the internet are discussing that what you do at night can boost your heart health or put stress on it without you knowing it. Additionally, reports across the Internet suggest that often some of the biggest cardiovascular hazards aren't in test findings; they're in the things people do every night.
To know the truth, in a conversation with The Daily Jagran, Dr Deebanshu Gupta, Interventional Cardiologist, Sarvodya Hospital, Jalandhar, listed out 8 bedtime habits that might secretly hurt your heart.
8 Bedtime Habits That Could Be Secretly Hurting Your Heart:
1. Eating A Lot Late At Night
Eating foods heavy in salt and fat after 10 PM raises blood pressure at night and throws off the body's metabolic rhythm.
2. Too Much Time on Screens
Blue light overstimulates the sympathetic nervous system, which keeps cortisol and heart rate too high.
3. Drinking Before Bed
Disturbs deep sleep and is a known cause of atrial fibrillation when used regularly.
4. Long-Term Lack Of Sleep
Less than six hours is connected to high blood pressure and higher levels of inflammatory markers like CRP and IL-6.
5. Smoking Late At Night
Nicotine makes blood vessels constrict, which stops the arteries from healing overnight.
6. Not Drinking Enough Water
When you are mildly dehydrated, your blood gets thicker overnight, which raises the chance of clots.
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7. Stress That Isn't Handled And Doomscrolling
Anxiety at night raises adrenaline, which raises blood pressure and causes arrhythmias.
8. Sleep Schedules That Aren't Regular
Going to bed at different times messes with your circadian rhythm, which lowers heart rate variability and vascular tone.
The doctor cautiously suggested, “Individually, none of these habits may appear concerning. But if you do them every night for months or years, they will all raise your baseline inflammatory state, make your arteries stiffer, and speed up the ageing of your heart and blood vessels more than any one risk factor could do on its own.”
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Therefore, taking care of your heart doesn't stop when you leave the gym or the dinner table. It goes on all night long, even when you're not paying attention.