Early risers ‘suffer more work stress’

THEY say the early bird catches the worm – but waking up at the crack of dawn could make work more stressful.

In a survey, ,500 participants were asked what time they went to bed and got up on working days and non-working days, with the difference in these times used to calculate their ‘sleep debt’.

When asked how satisfied they were with their life as a whole, those with a higher sleep debt gave a lower score out of ten. They also gave a lower score when asked if they had experienced work stress in the past 12 months.

Researcher Michaela Kudrnacova, from Charles University in Prague, told journal Plos One: ‘ We have strict schedules where we have to get up for work and school. These results suggest that social jetlag [the effect of getting up with an alarm] may affect life satisfaction and work stress.’