Are You Suffering From Social Jet Lag?
Sleeping in late on Saturday and Sunday mornings may not be beneficial to your health according to modern science. In fact, it may actually cause negative long-term health effects and hinder your daily performance.
Social Jetlag is a term that may be foreign to you, but it is a real problem that is thought to affect 2 in 3 people. Social Jet lag occurs when you fight your body’s natural circadian rhythms by creating the habit of sleeping short periods during the week and longer time spans on the weekends.
During the week you probably set an alarm in order to wake up and arrive at work on time. For most people, this is a habit that they do not particularly enjoy but one that they have become accustomed to over time. When the weekend arrives many of us simply avoid setting our alarms and instead opt to wake up at a later time, often one that is closer to our body’s natural rhythm.
Although it may seem like a blessing to be able to sleep in on the weekends, it may actually be detrimental to your health. Oversleeping on weekends can lead to reduced performance at work, an increased likelihood of obesity, greater caffeine consumption and even higher rates of depression.
In the majority of the population social obligations interfere with our natural sleep preferences. These social obligations, such as school and work, often cannot be avoided; leaving us to adapt our sleep patterns in order to fit the required needs. Unfortunately, this practice can cause unhealthy, and even serious, consequences long term.
Ideally, social obligations would be adapted to fit our natural cycles but since this is not a possibility for most, many people instead turn to Light Therapy and the Feel Bright Light for a safe, healthy treatment option.
Our internal clocks function on a 24-hour cycle, relying on equal amounts of light and darkness to regulate our body clock naturally and effectively. When these periods are out of balance we can develop circadian rhythm problems, which lead to long-term sleep issues.
Light therapy is used to naturally adjust sleep patterns and circadian rhythms through exposure to bright light immediately upon waking. This exposure, over time, will lead to a more regulated wake time and advance onset of sleep at night.
Using the Feel Bright Light, Sunlight enters the eye from above and triggers a response in the brain that helps regulate circadian rhythms. The synthetic light of the Feel Bright Light [link to product page ] was created to mimic this natural sunlight and help to synchronize your body to the natural 24-hour clock, thus eliminating social jet lag and possibly preventing the associated long-term effects.