According to a study just presented at the annual sleep congress Sleep 2017, going to bed later on the weekend is far from recommended for our health. This “social jet lag“disrupts the circadian rhythm (our sleep-wake rhythm), which has effects on our mood, our feeling of fatigue but also on the cardiovascular health.
Researchers at the University of Tucson, Arizona (United States), followed sleep rhythms weekdays and weekends for 984 adults aged 22 to 60. Previously, participants had completed a questionnaire about their overall health and chosen from the options “excellent”, “good” or “poor / poor” to define it.
Regular sleep is good for the heart
At the end of the study, the researchers found that for every hour of sleep delay between the week and the weekend, the likelihood of developing heart disease increased by 11.1%. In addition, each hour of delay was associated with an increase of 22.1% and 28.3%, respectively, in the likelihood of having “good” or “poor / bad” health, compared to “excellent” health.
“These results indicate that the regularity of sleep, beyond the sole sleep duration, plays an important role for our health. This suggests that regular sleep can be an effective, relatively simple, and inexpensive preventive treatment for heart disease, “ says Dr. Sierra Forbush, lead author of the study.
Read also :
Infographic: what lack of sleep is doing to your body
Obesity: jet lag makes us fat