Though other research has connected sleep disruptions to poor health, the new study is the first to specifically link shifts in dozing times to metabolic problems.
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According to lead author of the study, Patricia Wong, those who slept 60 minutes more than their regular work days had an increased level of unhealthy cholesterol and insulin. Each of the participants wore motion-monitoring accelerometers on their wrist, allowing the team to record their exact sleep schedules. You could be experiencing social jetlag, which can wreck havoc on your health.
The researchers found that roughly 85 percent of the individuals slept longer on their rest days than on workdays, while the rest of the participants woke up earlier on their rest days than on workdays.
If there are more studies in the future that replicate the findings in this one then there might be a reason for society to consider how today’s social and work obligations affect the sleeping and heath of people. They also completed a questionnaire detailing their diet and exercise habits.
Shift work – people with irregular work hours or who work something other than day hours – has been shown in previous studies to have a detrimental effect on health. The investigators did not find any significant associations between social jetlag and total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, heart rate, or blood pressure.
All study participants had a few degree of social jetlag. However, the body’s natural circadian rhythms differ from person to person.
Wong, and her colleagues, compared the sleep schedules of their patients between working days and their off-work-days -assuming that their naturally preferred sleep cycle was their free day. For instance, fat accumulation in tissues, food absorption in the gut, and insulin secretion in the pancreas and liver all show tissue-specific circadian rhythms, the authors note.
I can only speak for myself, but generally the best part of the weekend is getting to sleep through it. During the work week my days tend to begin with an ear-shattering alarm punting me out of dreamland and into the morning rush hour, so the opportunity afforded by weekends to hit snooze as much as I feel like it (or better yet, not even set an alarm at all) are a cause for somnambulistic celebration. “The relatively later awakening time on free days may be perpetuating a cycle of circadian misalignment because it delays circadian timing, thus interfering with entrainment to workday schedules”, they wrote.
Social jetlag even among healthy people may raise health risks because it has them “working “against” their biological clock”, Wong says. “It’s been shown that regulating sleep times can help treat insomnia, and this emerging evidence along with others suggest that perhaps doing so will have benefits in treatment and prevention of other diseases”.
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No researchers reported financial relationships with industry.
