The death of 34-year-old Jin Bo, deputy chief editor of the Tianya forum, has renewed the long-standing discourse on the potential hazards of staying up too late, the Global Times reported.
On June 29, Jin lost consciousness on the platform of Beijing's Subway Line 6. He was rushed to the hospital but was later pronounced dead. According to the Beijing Youth Daily, his cause of death was cerebral hemorrhage.
A colleague speculated that Jin's case was the result of "his staying up late and working overtime a lot over the past few years," the Beijing Youth Daily reported via the Global Times.
The incident revived China's issues over sleep deprivation among employees.
In 2013, the death of a Chinese advertising employee sparked outrage, questioning some of the work practices in agencies.
The man was 24-year-old Li Yuan, an employee at Ogilvy & Mather China. According to the Daily Mail, Li "[worked] overtime until 11 p.m. every night at the Ogilvy & Mather China offices in Beijing in the month before he died."
"At around 5 p.m. on Monday he stood up, cried out in pain before collapsing onto the ground," the Daily Mail wrote.
Also in 2013, China Youth Daily said that almost 600,000 employees in China die from work exhaustion. This has pushed China to overtake Japan as having the most number of deaths associated with overworking.
However, Wu Xuesi, a doctor at Beijing Anzhen Hospital specializing in cardiology, said that staying up late is only one of the factors that could trigger a sudden death, and not the direct cause of it.
"Staying up late for a long time can lead to cardiovascular or cerebrovascular disease, which could then trigger sudden death," Wu told the Global Times.
Wu also warned that people who often stay up late need not panic, saying that those who die under such circumstance are already suffering from cerebrovascular or cardiovascular disease.