I was part of an international study that explored this very question. Nearly 15,000 adults from 14 countries participated. Almost half of these respondents reported that their pandemic schedules more closely aligned with their natural sleep-wake cycles<\/a> than their pre-pandemic schedules did.<\/p>\n Read more about sleep:<\/strong><\/p>\n Social jet lag (SJL) is the gap between social schedules and natural sleep-wake cycles. People with high SJL \u2013 who have big variations in their schedules \u2013 are more susceptible to insomnia, depression, anxiety and lower wellbeing than those with consistent schedules.<\/p>\n For example, night owls (people who prefer to sleep later in the morning and go to bed later) who must wake early on weekdays but can sleep in on weekends have significant SJL. Early birds (those who get up early in the morning and go to bed earlier) who rise early during both weekdays and weekends have little or no SJL.<\/p>\n In our study, which was published in the journal Nature And Science Of Sleep <\/em>in October 2021, 46 per cent of respondents reduced their SJL during the pandemic. Almost all accomplished this by shifting their schedules later \u2013 waking later, eating dinner later, going to bed later. Only 20 per cent of respondents increased their SJL, and the rest reported no change.<\/p>\n The research showed that nearly half of the population follows a schedule that betrays their natural, later chronotype. What\u2019s surprising, however, is that the people who reduced their SJL experienced more insomnia and stress during the pandemic than those who maintained a consistent SJL. This is probably because spending too long in bed reduces sleep efficiency, making it harder to sleep throughout the night.<\/p>\n More research is needed to learn if the changes that spurred these new schedules \u2013 perhaps ones that affected job status, family relationships, finances and health \u2013 overrode the potential positive effects of decreased SJL. What public health benefits may exist if this group could reduce their SJL, apart from the stressors created during COVID-19?<\/p>\n While work-from-home arrangements have sparked debates about where<\/em> we should work, far fewer have focused on when<\/em> we should work. This research shows that the \u2018when\u2019 conversation might hold as much bearing on health and happiness than the \u2018where\u2019. Aligning schedules with our personal biology is crucial. This isn\u2019t simply about bedtimes and alarm clocks; it\u2019s about physical and mental health.<\/p>\n Our study shows that forcing people to align to a single schedule only works for about half of us. What we need to study next is how more flexible schedules and new patterns may help the other half. These new findings would likely have significant implications for our sleep, as well as our mental and physical health.<\/p>\n Read more about COVID-19:<\/strong><\/p>\n By Prof Colin Espie Published: Thursday, 10 February 2022 at 12:00 am Sleep thrives on a pattern, and, clearly, the pandemic hasn\u2019t been kind to pre-pandemic patterns. COVID-19 has imposed its own schedules, and workplaces, schools and bedtimes have struggled to keep pace. A recent study offers insight into how those changes affected us \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":6167,"template":"","categories":[54],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"3"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/02\/what-happens-when-we-let-people-sleep-when-they-want-to.jpg",1200,804,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/02\/what-happens-when-we-let-people-sleep-when-they-want-to-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/02\/what-happens-when-we-let-people-sleep-when-they-want-to-300x201.jpg",300,201,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/02\/what-happens-when-we-let-people-sleep-when-they-want-to-768x515.jpg",768,515,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/02\/what-happens-when-we-let-people-sleep-when-they-want-to-1024x686.jpg",800,536,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/02\/what-happens-when-we-let-people-sleep-when-they-want-to.jpg",1200,804,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/02\/what-happens-when-we-let-people-sleep-when-they-want-to.jpg",1200,804,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Prof Colin Espie Published: Thursday, 10 February 2022 at 12:00 am Sleep thrives on a pattern, and, clearly, the pandemic hasn\u2019t been kind to pre-pandemic patterns. COVID-19 has imposed its own schedules, and workplaces, schools and bedtimes have struggled to keep pace. A recent study offers insight into how those changes affected us \u2013…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/6166"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\""Young\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/4\/2022\/02\/Young-woman-asleep-in-bed-in-daylight-df0c10c.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C405"\" "\\"\"Young\\"\/")
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