Have you ever felt tired, exhausted, lethargic, feeling sleepy but were unable to sleep? Most of the people associated with the above conditions will associate the problems with insomnia, a sleeping disorder characterized by difficulty in falling or staying asleep when an individual has the chances to do so. Most of the time, this particular problems were not caused by insomnia, but a medical phenomenon which called as the second wind paradox. It's difficult for you to sleep because of sudden burst of energy.

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This paradox is characterized by a higher level of cognitive function that an individual can attained compared to someone without sleep deprivation.

Have you ever stay awake at night (studying, playing games) and when comes morning, even without sleep for the entire night, you've felt energetic than usual? If the answer is yes, then you've experienced something that we called as the second wind.

Sleep is an important tool besides diet and exercise in promoting healthy aging. It improves the body capacity to fight stress, maintain weight and boost energy to the optimal level. In our brain, there is a structure called pineal gland which regulates our sleep pattern. It acts like an internal clock which receives information about the surrounding through the optic nerve located in the eyes. When the sun sets, this organ will start to produce a hormone called melatonin which is responsible for inducing sleepiness but when you are staying in the area with a bright light, the secretion was halted. This is an important features provided by the organ to ensure you started to feel sleepy during the night and you will not suddenly sleep while in the meeting room or so. The secretion of melatonin peak at approximately midnight and started to decline afterwards.

Sleeping is difficult after midnight due to decline level of the hormone, melatonin. Picture Source

Sleep occurs most deeply between 10 pm to 2 am. After this time, the regenerative capacity provided by sleeping started to wear off. Chronic deprivation of sleep between this two sets of time will cause you to feel tired and lethargic even with longer period of sleep when waking up in the morning. During this period of deep sleep, there is an increased in metabolic activity which is crucial for restoration of body function to optimal capacity and body tissue repair. That's why, in weight lifting any kind of sport, not only sleeping is important, the time you went to sleep also need to be considered. Even though the amount of melatonin is high at 10 pm which supposed to induce sleepiness, multiple studies have shown that, if an individual stay awake past 10, they will be having trouble with sleeping, thus the second wind paradox.

Exposure to light can hinder the secretion of melatonin, thus making it harder for you to fall asleep. Picture Source

This paradox is detrimental to health as it denies the capacities of melatonin to remove free radicals from the body while sleeping (melatonin has an antioxidant property). The natural increase in metabolic activity was converted into mental energy while awake which resulted in a state of alertness during the night and feeling groggy during the day. Reduced clearance of free radical due to this paradox interrupts the process of healthy aging which affects longevity. Typically people who stay awake past 10 pm will need longer times to induce sleep later which became obvious if they're trying to sleep past 12 am as the level of melatonin were starting to reduce. Changing the time for you to go to bed from 11 to 9 or 15-30 minutes before 10 will make a huge difference.