Growing numbers of people may be suffering from "social jetlag" and putting their health at risk, researchers warned today.
The problem refers to the effect of staying up late and sleeping in at weekends – while rising early to go to work during the week.
A team from the Medical Research Council in Oxford, UK, looked at the impact of social jetlag, a term used to describe the difference in people’s sleep patterns between work days and free days.
An estimated 87% of the population suffers from social jetlag, the researchers say.
The team used figures from over 800 participants on the long term Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study. Participants were all born between April 1972 and March 1973 in Dunedin, New Zealand, and are followed to this day.
Findings showed that those with a greater difference in sleep patterns on free days and work days are at a significantly higher risk of obesity and obesity-related disease, including metabolic disorder, inflammation and diabetes.
Lead author, Dr Michael Parsons, explains that while travel jetlag can cause temporary problems with metabolism, social jetlag "can occur chronically throughout an individual’s working life so is more likely to induce more serious, chronic consequences for metabolism".
He adds: "Social jetlag is an under researched but potentially key contributor to why ‘living against our internal clock’ has an impact on our health. Our research confirms findings from a previous study that connected people with more severe social jetlag to increases in self-reported body mass index, but this is the first study to suggest this difference in sleeping times can also increase the risk for obesity-related disease."
Full details appeared in the International Journal of Obesity.
The team are unsure what causes the raised risk, but suggest it may be that social jetlag "disrupts healthy habits such as diet and exercise in a way that may compromise health".
Parsons, M. et al. Social Jetlag, Obesity and Metabolic Disorder: Investigation in a Cohort Study. International Journal of Obesity 20 January 2015.
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