Sleep scientists reveal the best time to start work

By Kate Hassett

Sleep scientists reveal the best time to start work
Staff should start work at 10am, to avoid the 'torture' of sleep deprivation, according to study.

While some people are naturally early risers and relish the thought of waking with the sunrise, others among us are more nocturnally inclined.

Now studies have shown that our constant struggle to lift our heads from the pillow in the morning – is very real.

“Staff should start at 10am” Paul Kelley, an honorary clinical research fellow at Oxford University’s Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute, told attendees at the British Science Festival, according to The Telegraph.

“We’ve got a sleep-deprived society. It is hugely damaging on the body’s systems because you are affecting physical emotional and performance systems in the body,” he added.

Whilst studies have attested to the same result for teenagers and school times, scientists have been wary to point out that the same could be said for the adult, working population – until now.

Sleep deprivation has very real consequences, and when studies were conducted into how taxing early mornings were for teenagers, they were working under the assumption that their circadian rhythms weren’t aligned with a 9-5 schedule.

On the other hand, adults above the age of 55 have been proven to react more positively to waking early – due to their circadian rhythm shifting forward as we age.

However, a large majority of the working population don’t fit into these age brackets – so what about them?

Dr Kelley believes that by simply moving the work day forward, companies could improve productivity and overall health for their employees. Similarly, forcing employees to start before they should naturally be waking can adversely affect their productivity, leading to a variety of health and mental wellbeing problems.

“Your liver and your heart have different patterns and you’re asking them to shift two or three hours. This is an international issue. Everybody is suffering and they don’t have to.

“We cannot change out 24-hour rhythms. You cannot learn to get up at a certain time. Your body will be attuned to sunlight and you’re not conscious of it because it reports to hypothalamus, not sight.”

“There are major societal problems that are being caused by that. But the opportunities are fantastic. We have an opportunity here to do something that would benefit millions of people on Earth.”

Need some help getting to sleep? Why not try our top tips that sleep specialists swear by.

Would you like to see the work day start at 10am?

 

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