'Social Jet Lag' Called Potentially Hazardous

If you're a weekday early riser, sleeping in on weekends could be hazardous to your health, researchers reported here.

Going to bed and waking up later on weekends than weekdays -- the common sleep pattern recently dubbed social jet lag -- was associated with a host of poor health outcomes, including chronic fatigue, poor mood and even an increased risk for heart disease in a preliminary analysis reported this week at SLEEP 2017, the joint annual meeting of the American Society of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society.

Sleeping in on weekends is a luxury that seemingly would translate to a net positive for health, rather than a negative. But Sierra B. Forbush, of the University of Arizona in Tucson, said the disruption to the body's circadian clock caused by late-night bedtimes followed by later weekend wake times appears to be an independent risk factor for poorer health.

"These results indicate that sleep regularity, beyond sleep duration alone, may play a significant role in overall health," she told MedPage Today, adding that keeping a regular sleep schedule throughout the week may prove to be an effective intervention for reducing cardiovascular risk and the risk of other health problems.

The misalignment of biological and social time that defines social jet lag has been suggested in earlier studies to be associated with a higher risk for substance use, especially smoking, and for obesity. But Forbush said the previous research on social jet lag has typically not controlled for shorter overall sleep and insomnia.