Weekend lie-in disrupts body clock

LONDON: Having a lie-in at the weekend just makes you more tired when Monday morning comes around, a leading sleep expert says.

Gregory Carter said sleeping even an hour later than usual on Saturday and Sunday disrupts the body’s internal clock, because it makes it harder to get to sleep on Sunday night, and as a result more difficult to get up the following day.

”A great myth of sleep deprivation is that if we miss sleep over the course of the working week, we need to catch up on an hour-by-hour basis on the weekend,” Carter said.

The sleep medicine specialist, of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Centre, said any “sleep debt” from the working week can be balanced out by just spending eight hours in bed.

“To maintain our internal clock, we need to go to bed eight hours before our usual time for getting out of bed in the morning. Too many of us, however, stay up later on Friday and Saturday and sleep in on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

“This pattern – combined with alcohol consumption and late-night checking of e-mails – makes for a painful Monday wake-up call.”

Our body is programmed to sleep during night hours, and studies show those who disrupt their body clock, such as shift workers, are more susceptible to a range of diseases. – Daily Mail