Waking up late during the weekends is bad for your heart
Weekends are usually associated with staying up longer and waking up late but doctors say this kind of behavior has a negative impact on our lives and we’re better off keeping the same schedule as during the week.
Scientists call going to bed and waking up late social jet leg and according to new findings, this altered biological cycle that we go through during the weekends can have serious health consequences. Researchers involved with the Sleep and Health Research Program at the University of Arizona in Tucson recently published the preliminary results of a study analyzing survey responses from 984 adults between the ages of 22 and 60 years old to see how social jet leg impacts health.
According to the findings, those that went to bed and wake up later on weekends than during the week, recorded poorer health, worse mood, and increased sleepiness and fatigue.
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And each hour of social jet lag was associated with an 11 per cent increase in the likelihood of heart disease. These effects are independent of sleep duration and insomnia symptoms, which are related to both social jet lag and health.
These results indicate that sleep regularity, beyond sleep duration alone, plays a significant role in our health,” said lead author Sierra B. Forbush, an undergraduate research assistant in the Sleep and Health Research Program at the University of Arizona in Tucson. “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.”
Social jet lag was assessed using the Sleep Timing Questionnaire and was calculated by subtracting weekday from weekend sleep midpoint. Overall health was self-reported using a standardized scale, and survey questions also assessed sleep duration, insomnia, cardiovascular disease, fatigue, and sleepiness.
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine, publishing the preliminary results, recommends that adults should sleep 7 or more hours per night, on a regular basis, to promote optimal health. But specialists warn that getting the 7 hours minimum of sleep is not enough. As the study shows, a healthy sleep is not determined by duration alone. People should also pay attention to the appropriate timing and the regularity of sleep if they want to have a healthy lifestyle.
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