If it is possible, it is best to go to bed and to get up the same time on the weekends as you do during the week, says a new study completed in the U.S. which established there was a link between sleeping schedule changes and metabolic disorders. Difficulty waking up Monday morning might mean we are storing up more trouble when it comes to metabolic disorders as well as cardiovascular disease.
Scientific research has demonstrated already that shift work raises the risk of having metabolic disorders. The reason is considered to be the deregulation of the body's internal circadian clock that drives the biological rhythms over a period of 24 hours.
Sleep disturbance is one of the biggest factors behind increased metabolic disorders like obesity and diabetes, even in some people that do not have health problems.
A team of health researchers from the University of Pittsburgh analyzed sleep schedules and cardio-metabolic risk for 448 males and females who had been participants in a study.
The group ranged in age from 20 to 54, worked a minimum of 25 hours each week and wore wristbands that measured the amount of movement as well sleep on a 24 hours per day basis.
Questionnaires were also filled out by the participants regarding their physical activity as well as dietary habits.
Close to 85% of the people participating had lags in sleep cycles, waking up later days they did not work, while 15% had shorter cycles, meaning they woke earlier on the weekend than Monday through Friday.
Those with the largest lag in sleep schedules between work and no work days had worse cholesterol levels, their insulin resistance was higher, a large waist and a body mass index bigger than others.
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