The best FIFA goal? Not slipping up on sleep

The football World Cup is here (yay!) but the late night telecast could disturb sleep patterns.

In India, for example, around 20 games will start post-midnight and last until about 2.30am at least. Many football enthusiasts told Happiest Health that they plan to compensate by sleeping during the day. But such a shift in the biological clock affects many bodily functions and also leads to eye strain.

Late nights and sleep

“Watching the football World Cup is a thrilling feeling,” says Shahjahan Moideen (22), a graduate from Malappuram, Kerala. “I won’t miss it at any cost, but staying awake late at night to watch games does make me feel drowsy the next day.” There’s an additional worrying factor for him: “When the team that I support loses, I don’t feel like going back to sleep. It makes me feel frustrated throughout the next day.”

Football enthusiast Prithvi Suresh, a 22-year-old employee with a private company in Bengaluru, says watching live matches on television after midnight has a domino effect on him, “I get up late and am less productive at work,” he says. “It affects my eating and sleeping habits, and I feel drained mentally and physically.”

The thought of children staying up late to watch the football has also left some parents worried as late night telecast could disturb sleep. “I strictly restrict my 12-year-old son Ishan from watching late-night matches as it disturbs his daily routine,” says Neeta Shetty, a mother and chef from Goa. “He also shows a lack of focus and concentration on his studies due to sleep deprivation.”

How to avoid sleep problems

“Many years ago, when we did not have electricity, our sleep cycle relied on the sun,” says Dr Amy Bender, director of clinical sleep science, Cerebra, Canada. “So, we would fall asleep as it got darker during the night. Now that we have artificial sources of light, we can be awake at any time. Particularly, blue light can affect our circadian rhythm. Hence watching a game at night tells our brain to be awake. The excitement of the game adds up to this.”

Dr Bender says enjoying the World Cup is important, especially because it comes once in every four years. “But there are a few things that could be done to avoid sleep problems,” she says. “For instance, to ‘bank sleep’ to these game nights — for example, if the match is at 1am on Saturday, you can increase your sleep duration when you go to bed on Thursday night; this will help in reducing sleep deprivation.”

Dr Kishan Srikanth, consultant pulmonologist and sleep medicine specialist, KIMS Hospital, Hyderabad, says the sleep cycle, which is often in sync with bodily functions, gets disturbed when one watches television or watches screens late at night. “For example, if an individual’s sleep cycle is set from 10pm to 6am, [it] changes when they are awake at night [to watch] a live telecast from midnight to 2am. The individual then goes to bed after the match. Firstly, the sleep cycle is changed. Secondly, the sleep duration is shortened, leading to sleep deficiency.

“Watching late-night matches for more than a month can cause the person to go into ‘delayed sleep phase’ syndrome, which means the individual’s sleep is delayed, in turn causing disturbances in their daytime tasks. Generally, a person is most productive six to eight hours before sleep. In a 10pm to 6am sleep cycle, the person is productive during the day. On the other hand, sleeping at 2am and waking up at 11am makes you productive at night. Therefore, the productive hours are compromised. This can lead to a person feeling anxious and restless.”

Sleep deprivation and health issues

Late night telecast could disturb sleep. Short sleep spans can also lead to many health issues. “Staying up late at night to watch a match can influence the next day’s behavior and efficiency of an individual,” says Dr Sandeepa HS, consultant pulmonologist, BGS Gleneagles Global Hospitals, Bengaluru. “Having a short sleep span can cause a person to be lethargic and irritated. Being chronically sleep deprived can cause a predisposition to hypertension, diabetes, stroke and so on.”

Watching late-night games, particularly on gadgets like smartphones or laptops, can also have an impact on the eyes. “The blue light emitted by these gadgets causes damage to the eyes by causing dryness of eyes and eye irritation,” says Dr Gladys Rodrigues, consultant ophthalmologist, Kasturba Medical College (KMC), Mangaluru, Karnataka. “Because of this, the sleep pattern is altered. This causes a computer vision syndrome.”

Late night telecast could disturb sleep, tips to make up for sleep loss

Dr Bender suggests that having a 15–20-minute nap the next afternoon (post a midnight game) could be beneficial since it can improve alertness throughout the day. “Wearing sunglasses or blue-light-blocking glasses while watching the game during the night helps the brain preserve melatonin, so this makes it easier to go to bed after watching the match,” she says.

Dr Bender says having a routine to unwind after the game helps fall asleep quicker. “This includes taking a shower, performing breathing techniques to calm the mind and [using the] cognitive shuffle technique, where you can think of a word such as ‘bedtime’ and then recall all [words] that begin with this first letter, like ‘ball’, ‘boss’ and so on,” she says.

Dr Srikanth says following the sleep cycle is essential. “Doing physical activity four to five hours before [one’s] sleep routine will help maintain a normal sleep cycle,” he says. “Do warmup exercises post waking up after a match night and preferably be in bright daylight to be active. Do not try to compensate for the [lost] sleep during the daytime — this will not help because it will further disturb the circadian clock. Hence, fix the cycle by trying to sleep on time the next day.”

For maintaining eye health, Dr Rodrigues says, “Watching a match on television from a safe distance is comparatively better than watching on laptops or smartphones. In case you are watching on these gadgets, having an anti-glare [screen] would be helpful.”

Sleep deprivation: when to visit the doctor

Dr Kishan Srikanth says watching late night telecast could disturb sleep and can cause mood swings and restlessness in young children. “Children may not be able to communicate the problems they are facing to their parents,” he says. “So, parents must notice symptoms of children behaving crankily, not eating on time, [showing] sudden mood swings such as banging their head against the wall or having issues with eyesight and continuous watering of eyes. If these symptoms persist, they must visit a doctor.”

Dr Srikanth says adults can tolerate late-night match-watching better, but symptoms like restlessness, attention deficiency and decreased productivity can occur. If they notice eyesight issues, they must visit a doctor.

But how to handle the heartbreak when your team is beaten? “When the team that you support loses, and this makes you feel upset and you cannot sleep thereafter, recording this feeling in a journal and putting away might help,” Dr Bender says. “Getting the thoughts onto paper could be beneficial.”