3 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Jul 6, 2026 09:09 AM IST
There’s a lot in life Ananya Panday can compromise on, but when it comes to sleep, she draws a hard line. During a recent rapid-fire, the Call Me Bae actor was asked if she would survive a shoot till 5 am and then hit the gym at 7 am, and the actor candidly told Variety India, “Honestly, sleep is too important to me. I could go to the gym at 5 am and then shoot till 7 am, but then after that I need to sleep for 12 hours.”
Dr Neetu Jain, Senior Consultant, Pulmonology, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, PSRI Hospital, explained that sleeping for less than adequate time can severely disrupt the brain’s ability to function. The body experiences a hormonal imbalance: cortisol levels rise, which increases stress, while immunity weakens.
“When experienced long term, chronic sleep deprivation reduces activity in the prefrontal cortex — the part responsible for logic, judgment, and impulse control, while overstimulating the amygdala, which controls emotions like anger and fear,” Dr Jain told indianexpress.com. As a result, people may become more emotionally reactive, anxious, and prone to mood swings. To add to that, sleep-deprived people suffer from impulsive decision-making, who find it “harder to manage conflicts or stress calmly”.
Is catching up on sleep during the day the same?
All sleep is not the same, and the quality and timing matter as well. In Ananya’s case, she believes sleeping for hours in the morning would help her make up for staying up all night.
However, Dr Arunesh Kumar, Director & HOD – Pulmonology at Paras Health, Gurugram, pointed out that the issue is not just about odd hours, but about disrupting the body’s natural timing. “The body’s circadian rhythm is designed around daylight. Long-term disruption can weaken immunity, affect lung function, slow metabolism, and raise the risk of hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease,” he explained.
According to him, the impact is not just limited to physical health. “Night wakefulness disrupts hormones like melatonin and cortisol, which regulate sleep, stress and energy,” said Dr Kumar. When these hormones fall out of sync, people may experience irritability, low mood, poor concentration, persistent fatigue, and even changes in appetite or weight, he added.
While it can be assumed that the body is adaptable and adjust itself to the new sleep timings, the shift is never complete. “The body can partially adapt, but it never fully resets,” he said, explaining how daytime sleep tends to be lighter and shorter due to light exposure and environmental noise, leaving the body to function under subtle physiological stress.
What should you watch out for? Dr Kumar said that warning signs appear gradually and can look like constant tiredness despite enough hours in bed, frequent respiratory infections, headaches, mood swings, breathlessness, or increasing reliance on caffeine.
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DISCLAIMER: This article is based on information from the public domain and/or the experts we spoke to. Always consult your health practitioner before starting any routine.