Why you’re so tired on mornings - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Why you’re so tired on mornings

By Susannah Locke

There’s a big downside to sleeping in on Saturday.

If you normally sleep, say, 11 pm to 7 am on weekdays but I am to 11 am

on weekends, you’re essentially putting your brain through jetlag. It’s the

equivalent of shuttling back and forth between New York and California.

And it’s one reason why so many people end up feeling terrible on Monday

m

ornings. Sleep researchers to this phenomenon as “social jetlag”--- when

work, school, or social obligations force your body away from its normal

sleep patterns. Not only can it explain why so many people feel awful on

Monday mornings,

but social

j

etlag seems to also have real health

consequences.Slide2

Tired on Monday mornings…

Recently researchers have been discovering that

when

you sleep can be as

important

as how much you sleep

. Even if you get your recommended 8+

hours a night,

you can still feel terrible if you are going to sleep and waking

up at different times over the course of the week.

…. EVERYONE IS WIRED TO SLEEP AT VERY SPECIFIC TIMES …

There are a few things that determine when your body should go to sleep.

One is exposure to light which reduces your body’s production of

melatonin

[the hormone that makes you sleepy.]

But the other major factor is determined by your own particular biology.

Some people are naturally early risers and some people are night owls

preferring to wake up later. Slide3

Tired on Monday mornings…

Neuroscientists have actually

studied

and

documented

the differences

between these types. Unfortunately, you can’t really choose to be one

or the other---your body chooses this.

To make things even more complicated preference for sleep times can

vary over a lifetime For example, many young children are naturally

early risers. Teenagers are naturally late risers. And adults can easily be

early birds or night owls. You probably have a good idea of which one

you are.Slide4

Tired on Monday mornings…

BUT SOCIAL NORMS OFTEN CLASH WITH YOUR BODY’S SLEEP NEEDS

Of course, not everyone gets to sleep and wake up whenever their body

tells them to. Night owls often have to wake up early to go to work. And

early risers often have to stay up at

n

ight if they want to hang out with

their night-owl friends.

And that can create real problems. Not only is being groggy on Monday

mornings a pain, but researchers have been beginning to compile evidence

that

shifts-in-when-people-are-sleeping affects their overall health

.

The most extreme example of this is with shift workers. Researchers have

found that

people who often work at night are at a higher risk for diabetes,

heart problems, and possibly even cancer

. Slide5

Tired on Monday mornings

People who naturally night owls seem to be particularly affected,

because their natural needs are so at odds with our 9-to-5 workdays,

which is geared to early risers’ needs. A few

studies

have found that

night owls are more prone to depression and that obese- night owls

are more likely to have sleep apnea.

Of course, these are correlational studies, and they don’t prove that

social jetlag is necessarily causing all these problems. However, other

evidence

from sleep experiments in people and animals suggests that

links between sleep schedule, metabolism, and health problems are

quite plausible. Slide6

Tired on Monday mornings

HOW TO DEFEAT SOCIAL JETLAG AND FEEL OK ON MONDAYS

1]

Get more sleep during the week.

If you’re under-sleeping during the

week, you’re probably trying to catch up on weekends. But that catch-up

sleeping-in-on-weekends just sets you up for terrible Monday mornings.

2]

Wake up earlier on the weekends

. It sounds painful, but try it out for a

weekend, and see how you feel on Monday. [If you combine #1 and #2, you

can think of it as essentially shifting slee

p

from one time in your week to

another. You don’t actually have to loser any of your precious time doing

this.]Slide7

Tired on Mondays…

3]

Take smart weekend naps

. If you find you

need a nap on Saturday or

Sunday, do it between noon and 4pm for 30 minutes or less

, which should

help avoid interfering with your sleep at night. That’s according to Bernie

Miller, supervisor at the Sleep Disorders Center at Mayo Clinic in Arizona,

via

Popular Science

.

4]

Get sunlight on Monday.

If you are tired on Monday morning, get

outside and get some sunlight. Remember, your circadian rhythm is set by

your eyes’ exposure to light, which directly sends signals to your brain to

wake up. Even a cloudy day outdoors can be several times

brighter

than the

average office space [which is often on the darker side to accommodate

computer screens.Slide8

Tired on Monday mornings

5]

If all else fails, get some blue light

. If you absolutely can’t get outside

or you have been plagued with a work schedule that requires you to get

up before the sun rises, then crank up those

lightbulbs

indoors. Because

the circadian rhythm is specifically responsive to blue light, you also

might want to consider getting a lamp or

lightbulb

that shines blue-

ish

light. Several companies sell special lighting

apparati

for just these kinds

of purposes.Slide9

Tired on Monday mornings

But they’re not the only ones at

risk

. Over the past few years,

some

research has been indicating that

even

a modest

variation in

waking

and sleeping times can create health issues

.

In 2012, German researcher Till

Roenneberg

co-authored a

study in Current Biology finding that even the modest social jetlag that occurs between weekdays and weekends was correlated with increased body-mass index for overweight people. A lag of just one hour increases the likelihood of obesity by about one-third [33%]. [this was based on a huge internet survey of 65,000 Europeans.]Slide10
You don’t have to feel so tired on Monday mornings that you feel on the EDGE ….