With the development of technology, more and more people are becoming addicted to mobile phones and electronic games, and staying up late to use their phones has even become a common problem among young people. In the past month, the First Affiliated Hospital of Ningbo University in Zhejiang Province has admitted 8 consecutive cases of meningitis patients, with an average age of 26 years old, the youngest being only 16 years old. One 30-year-old man’s intelligence regressed to that of a 3-year-old due to staying up late using his phone, which they all had in common.
According to reports from mainland media, 25-year-old Xiao Li (pseudonym) is a typical “night owl” who stays up until three or four in the morning watching videos on her phone, getting increasingly excited as she continues to scroll. Half a month ago, she began experiencing symptoms of fever, with her temperature reaching as high as 38°C, accompanied by persistent headaches. Sometimes, even though she didn’t have a fever, her head still felt swollen.
Xiao Li’s MRI report from the First Affiliated Hospital of Ningbo University showed “slightly thickened and enhanced meninges on both sides of the frontal and temporal lobes,” indicating meningitis. She quickly arranged for hospitalization and underwent a multidisciplinary consultation involving departments such as Neurology and Radiology, along with a 5-day antiviral treatment regimen. Her condition improved, and she was recently discharged.
The situation of 30-year-old worker Xiao Zhang (pseudonym) was even more dangerous. Xiao Zhang worked at his cousin’s factory and would play games in the dormitory when he had free time at night, sometimes playing until the early hours of the morning. On the day of the incident, his cousin noticed that Xiao Zhang hadn’t shown up for work and was not answering his phone. When she went to his dormitory upon realizing something was wrong, she found him lying in bed, speaking unclearly and running a high fever.
During transportation to the hospital, Xiao Zhang’s condition rapidly deteriorated, he developed symptoms of excessive drowsiness, and by the time he was transferred to the First Affiliated Hospital of Ningbo University, he had fallen into a coma. After a lumbar puncture examination, doctors diagnosed him with “viral meningitis with encephalitis,” indicating that not only were the meninges inflamed, but the brain tissue was also infected, leading to him being transferred to the ICU for emergency treatment.
Following a multidisciplinary expert consultation involving specialists from the ICU, Infectious Diseases, Neurology, and Neurosurgery, Xiao Zhang was able to overcome his life-threatening condition. However, his intelligence regressed to that of a 3-year-old, rendering him unable to speak normally and greatly reducing his motor skills, thereby losing his ability to care for himself.
On November 7th, the topic of “30-year-old man’s intelligence regressed to that of a 3-year-old due to staying up late” surged to the top of trending topics on Weibo.
Netizens commented, with one sharing, “It’s true. I once visited a household receiving welfare assistance, and their child was just like that. When he was seventeen or eighteen, he stayed up late every night playing games. One day, he collapsed and was rushed to the hospital for a three-month rescue mission but returned with impaired cognitive abilities, showing symptoms exactly like those described in the news. His parents sought medical help everywhere but to no avail. He damaged his brain.”
Another user wrote, “A programmer from Shenzhen, Xiao Li, stayed up past 3 a.m. continuously for 5 years due to overtime work and game playing and suddenly experienced a drastic drop in memory. He couldn’t even remember his parents’ names, swayed while walking like a drunk, and the hospital examination results devastated the whole family: brain atrophy and cognitive impairment, his intelligence equivalent to that of a 3-year-old child!”
“The number of people using their phones late into the night is increasing, as is the number of people with nearsightedness. Let’s start going to bed early and waking up early from tonight.”