Attention, night owls:
Preliminary research from the University of Arizona finds that staying up later and then sleeping in on weekends is associated with poorer health, bad moods and increased likelihood of heart disease.
Add this to the growing list of simple pleasures that might be bad for you:
Preliminary research from the University of Arizona has found that staying up late and sleeping in on weekends is associated with poorer health, bad moods and increased likelihood of heart disease.
Specifically, each hour you stay up late is associated with an 11 percent increase in the likelihood of heart disease, the study found.
The results indicate that sleep regularity plays a significant role in health, said lead author Sierra B. Forbush, an undergraduate research assistant in the UA’s Sleep and Health Research Program. The recently published findings suggest that a regular sleep schedule may be a simple and free preventive treatment for heart disease and many other health problems, Forbush said.
“By waking up and going to bed at the same time every day of the week — Sunday through Saturday — the study suggests it would improve day-to-day health as well as long-term health,” she said. The theory is that shifting bedtimes interrupts the body’s internal clock, which regulates hormones and body functions. Researchers even have a name for staying out late on weekend nights and sleeping in the next day. They call it “social jet lag.”
The UA study found that 86 percent of participants surveyed experienced social jet lag. But their findings don’t
suggest you should never stay out late. Know that your body likes regularity, said senior author Michael Grandner, director of the UA’s Sleep and Health Research Program.
“The world is a scary and unpredictable place,” he said. “If your body is so busy constantly recovering from these slight disturbances, it makes it harder to maintain everything in working order.”
The UA’s findings were published in the journal Sleep and presented in early June at the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies in Boston.
The study examined 984 adults ages 22 to 60. Researchers surveyed them about their sleep patterns, overall health conditions and whether they had cardiovascular disease. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends seven or more hours per night for adults. The academy says that sleeping more than nine hours per night may be appropriate if you are a young adult, have an illness or are recovering from sleep deficiency.
“We live in a society that often sees sleep as unproductive time and sees sleep as rest and, therefore, you only take rest if you are tired,” Grandner said. “But sleep is not unproductive time. Sleep is very important.”
Sleeping less than seven hours on a regular basis is associated with adverse health, including weight gain, obesity and heart disease. It’s also associated with impaired immune function, increased errors and greater risk of accidents.