By Miranda Siwak, Good Housekeping
After waking up super
early for work on weekdays, all you want to do is sleep in as long as
possible. Well, bad news, because according to a new study, sleeping in
on weekends could explain why you're so tired during the week.
[post_ads]The study, conducted at the University of Arizona,
explains that something called "social jet lag" occurs "when you go to
bed and wake up later on weekends than during the week." So, for
example, if you typically wake up around 7 a.m. on weekdays, but then go
to bed later and sleep in to compensate for those weekday hours on
Saturday and Sunday, you may end up feeling even more exhausted the
following week.
"The
behavior looks like if most people on a Friday evening fly from Paris
to New York or Los Angeles to Tokyo and on Monday they fly back. Since
this looks like almost a travel jet lag situation, we called it social
jet lag," Till Roenneberg, PhD previously told WebMD.
For
this study, lead author Sierra Forbush and her team of researchers
analyzed survey responses from 984 adults in Pennsylvania. She found the
midpoint between when each respondent would typically go to sleep and
wake up on weekdays and weekends. She discovered a link between this
phenomenon and "poorer health, worse mood, and increased sleepiness
fatigue."
Researchers
discovered that 85% of participants tended to wake up later on weekends
(who doesn't??), and they were able to link this pattern to terrible
moods and chronic fatigue.
In
addition, the study found that for every hour of social jet lag, there
was an 11% increase that the person will suffer from heart disease, Newsweek reports.
"These results indicate that sleep regularity, beyond sleep duration alone, plays a significant role in our health," Forbush said in the press release.
"This suggests that a regular sleep schedule may be an effective,
relatively simple, and inexpensive preventative treatment for heart
disease as well as many other health problems."
The
study found that people who experienced just a single hour of social
jet lag (such as going to bed at midnight if you normally wake up at 8
a.m. or going to bed at 11 p.m. if you wake up at 7 a.m. on weekdays)
were 22% more likely to rate their own health as good, not excellent,
and 28% more likely to rate it as fair or poor.
[post_ads_2]
"Physicians
often tell people to think about their diet and exercise, but I think
this offers an additional preventative strategy," Forbush told New Scientist.
"It's not just about getting enough sleep, but getting regular sleep:
ideally you want to be going to bed and waking up at the same time every
day of the week."
So, maybe it's time to rethink your desire to hit the snooze button this weekend...
