While it’s unfortunate to add another ailment to the growing list of things adults need to worry about, it turns out that almost one in three Aussies suffer from a little known condition called “social jet lag”.
What is social jet lag you ask? Ultimately it describes the effects that occur as a direct result of your body being confused about when it should sleep; that is, for example, the time of sleep on weekends is more than an hour out of sync with the time of sleep on work nights.
The effects of social jet lag include going to bed late, waking up tired, being late for work, and going to work sick.
Speaking with The Guardian, University of Adelaide sleep specialist Robert Adams said: “This suggests that people with social jet lag are either less able to recognise their sickness signs or they feel a degree of pressure to work despite being unwell or just plain tired.
“Either way, it’s time we considered the consequences of these employees driving, operating dangerous machinery and potentially spreading contagious illness in the workplace.”
The condition has best been explained by chronobiologist Till Roenneberg, who is quoted in Harper’s Bazaar UK as saying: "Every time we need an alarm clock it just means we were forced to wake too early. So five days a week most of us are forced to live in a timezone that is not corresponding to our biological timezone. It’s as if somebody in London has to work in St. Petersburg, but never leaves London.
"It’s only on weekends that we can live according to our own biological timezone."
If you recognise yourself as someone who might suffer from social jet lag there are ways to fix it. For example, experts suggest minimising sleep debt and not trying to catch up on missed hours on the weekend; instead go to bed an hour earlier.
