Be strict about snoozing
Regular bedtime key to staying sharp, Harvard study of undergrads suggests
Going to bed at the same time each night is just as important for academic and business success as getting a long night’s sleep, new research suggests.
Harvard University researchers found that the benefit of sleeping for seven to nine hours a night can be squandered by not going to sleep at a regular time. And the implication is that a shortage of sleep can be, in part, offset by having a reliable routine.
Erratic patterns, of the kind ad- opted by young students, knock the body’s circadian rhythm out of sync in a similar way to jet lag.
And, in an additional blow to the student lifestyle, the research suggests that napping to top up on sleep missed does not help.
Scientists at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Harvard monitored 61 undergraduates for a month, measuring the quantity and timings of their sleep. They found those who kept regular patterns
performed better academically.
The comparative benefit was similar to that observed between people who get the right amount of time in bed and those who are sleep deprived.
Charles Czeisler, a co-author of the research, said that for the students whose sleep times were inconsistent, classes and exams that were scheduled for 9 a.m. felt like they were at 6 a.m. according to their body clock — a time when performance is impaired.
The circadian rhythm is a daily cycle of brain-wave activity, hormone production and cell regeneration that is broadly linked to
sleep. It was measured in the Harvard students by monitoring their levels of the melatonin hormone, which induces sleep.
The cycle is heavily influenced by light, and the study authors believe irregular sleepers have a delayed circadian rhythm because they do not get enough natural light during the day and too much artificial light at night.
“Results indicate that going to sleep and waking up at approximately the same time is as important as the number of hours one sleeps,” said Andrew Phillips, who led the research.