The Fifa World Cup is almost here. From June 12, millions of fans in Bangladesh will stay awake through the nights to witness the biggest show on Earth. Results include, alongside the stress from the ecstasies and the agonies, tired eyes and drowsy days. Watching a football match is fun, healthy, and gets the society together, but it could become unhealthy, painful, or even lethal as well
The main effect of the World Cup on health is inadequate sleep due to staying awake late at nights. You must have known that sleeping 8 hours a day is essential for good health. During the World Cup, you may end up spending hours in front of your television set. And watching TV for a long time can cause eye strain.
It is accepted that watching football in groups is good for your mental health. It builds up relationship with family and friends. On the other hand, it deprives you from sleep, which, in turn, exposes you to some health hazards. From heart attacks to alterations in sex drive, studies show that sleep deprivation will have a direct impact on the passionate football fans’ health.
Statistics show that football’s great parties are typically accompanied by a surge in heart attack, suicide, depression, assault, and road accident rates. While binge-drinking and, waistline-expanding junk food consumption also increases.
Sleep deprivation can cause increased risk of heart diseases, diabetes, and obesity
Deprivation of sleep will make you drowsy and lazy during day time, and you end up not paying proper attention to your chores. Chronic sleep deprivation, for whatever reason, significantly affects your health, performance, and safety.
Sleep deprivation also induces significant reductions in performance and alertness. Reducing your nighttime sleep by as little as one and a half hours for just one night could result in a reduction of daytime alertness by as much as 32%. Decreased alertness and excessive daytime sleepiness impair s your memory, and your cognitive ability – your ability to think and process information. Driving while sleepy is also responsible for road accidents.
Prolonged watching of television relates to an absence of muscle movement. If your muscles stay inactive for too long, it can disrupt your metabolism leading to weight gain.
Additionally, when you are watching TV, you tend to eat more. Different studies have affirmed this. Studies conducted by the Stanford University of Medicine prove that TV viewing is directly linked with mindless eating. You have more chances of eating junk food while watching TV than in any other activity! For each two-hour increase in television watching per day, there was a 23% rise in obesity.
Tv can strain your eyes
Watching too much television is bad for your eyes, especially when watching television in a dark room. Focusing your eyes too long on any one object can strain your eyes.
The light emitted from the television can stimulate other systems as well. It can reduce the levels of the brain hormone melatonin, which usually increase in the evening as light levels fall. This may affect the body’s natural rhythm, keeping you awake longer and results in irregular sleep and extreme fatigue.
Other negative effects
Studies have found losing fans can become anxious and irritable, and experience sleep problems and headaches. Some fans can become withdrawn and anti-social after a loss.
An obsession with football can limit the development of other interests and have a negative impact on male/female relationships; it may even divert attention away from other family responsibilities.
Yet watching football is good
The World Cup in particular may have a positive effect on mental health. One study found there was a reduction in numbers of emergency psychiatric admissions during and after World Cup finals.
Watching football is a great amusement. When your team does well, it gives feelings of happiness, well-being, and collective euphoria. If a team loses a match, however, it does not necessarily have a negative impact on mental health.
Football also plays an important role in the formation and maintenance of social and familial relationships. Watching football in groups with family or friends can help in forming and maintaining social and familial relationships.
Football strengthens bonds between family members, most notably between fathers and sons.
Making up for the loss
After watching a football match, to make up for the sleep, you should sleep at your convenient time, and drink a lot of water. While watching the match, you have to take less caffeinated drinks, and drink more water and juices because caffeinated drinks make you more dehydrated by increasing urine production.
A football maniac having heart problems and diabetes should avoid intense matches.
