We’re doing everything wrong. We live on a schedule that does not suit us at all. The working day and classes in schools and universities start too early. This conclusion was made by researchers from the University of Oxford. They are sure that physical and psychological disorders are largely associated with constant lack of sleep, and this needs to be changed.
What time does your working day start? What time do you have to get up to arrive on time? In many companies, it is customary to come to the office early in the morning and stay late: it seems to employers that this way they can squeeze the maximum benefit out of the staff. However, scientists from the University of Oxford argue that the requirement to start the working day before 10 am leads to the fact that employees are more likely to get sick, more tired and live in constant stress.
The traditional work schedule of 9:00 am to 18:00 pm is not suitable for adults under the age of 55 because it does not match their circadian rhythms. This poses a serious threat to mood, personal effectiveness and mental health in general. Professor Paul Kelly even urges the public to push for a change in work and study patterns to synchronize with our natural clock.
Experiments on the study of circadian rhythms have shown that the majority of students are not able to concentrate on classes until 10 am. So, a ten-year-old student begins to think only after 8:30, a sixteen-year-old – after 10:00, and a university student finally wakes up by 11:00. Dr. Kelly is very confident that small changes in the curriculum will bring tangible benefits and help improve academic performance. What makes him think so?
Irreparable harm is caused to the body, the activity of all vital systems is disrupted
In his time as a high school principal, Kelly shifted the start of classes from 8:30 to 10:00 and found that the performance of the best students increased by 19%. It turns out that companies that rely on the early arrival of employees will ensure their success are hurting themselves. It’s not just about reduced productivity: sooner or later, this situation will affect the health of the staff.
“This is a huge social problem. Work should begin no earlier than 10 am and stick to this schedule until the age of 55, Kelly is sure. “Now most of those who work in the office can’t get enough sleep. We are becoming a chronically sleep-deprived society. Irreparable harm is done to the body, the activity of all vital systems is disrupted, emotional and physical disorders arise and develop.
The working rhythms of the liver and heart are fundamentally different, and we confuse them by forcing them to simultaneously turn on two to three hours earlier. We are not able to change the course of the daily biological clock, we cannot automatically set the wake-up time we need. The activity of the body depends on sunlight, and the hypothalamus, not vision, reacts to it. This applies not only to office workers, but also to people who, for example, are in the hospital. They are forcibly awakened and fed breakfast, which literally does not fit into them. We have to obey, because they do not belong to themselves. Sleep deprivation is torture.”
Almost all students lack at least 10 hours of sleep per week because they have to get up early
Just one week without normal sleep (less than six hours every night) causes a huge number of gene disorders – 711. Lack of sleep is detrimental to productivity, long-term memory, concentration, provokes addiction to drugs and alcohol, leads to the development of anxiety, irritability, uncontrollable anger, impulsive behavior, weight gain and high blood pressure.
According to neuroscientists, teenagers are biologically programmed to fall asleep no earlier than midnight. They cannot fully wake up and feel a surge of energy until 10 am.
Dr. Kelly believes that almost all students lose at least 10 hours of sleep a week because they have to get up early. “It is enough just to change the start time of the working day to improve the quality of life of entire generations. The current routine has led to colossal social problems. But we have fantastic opportunities ahead of us. We can do something for which millions of people on Earth will be grateful to us.”
Source: Endro Riot.