Your Alarm Clock May Be Hazardous to Your Health.docxVIP

Your Alarm Clock May Be Hazardous to Your Health Switching up your sleep schedule is wreaking havoc on your body’s natural rhythm |Tweet||Share on redditReddit|Share on diggDigg|Share on stumbleuponStumble|Share on emailEmail|More Sharing ServicesBy Claudia KalbSmithsonian magazine, January 2013, SubscribeView Full Image ?A 15th-century French calendar depicts the natural cycle of day and night. (RMN-GRAND PALAIS / ART RESOURCE, NY) More from SWhy Time is a Social ConstructOne overlooked culprit in the world’s obesity epidemic may be the alarm clock, according to Till Roenneberg, a professor at the University of Munich’s Institute of Medical Psychology.He studies “social jet lag,” a term he coined, perhaps not surprisingly, on an airplane. But unlike the jet lag you get from shifting time zones, social jet lag is the chronic clash between what our bodies need (more sleep) and what our lives demand (being on time). And his research suggests that it’s playing havoc with our biological clocks.In a study, published in May, Roenneberg and colleagues analyzed the sleep habits of more than 65,000 adults. Two-thirds of them suffered from social jet lag, experiencing at least a one-hour disparity between how long they slept on workdays and weekends.The researchers also found that, over the past decade, people have been going to bed later but still getting up at the same time, losing about 40 minutes of sleep on workdays. They are also spending less time outside, which could account for why their circadian rhythms have become so late.Previous studies have linked sleep deprivation with excessive weight, but Roenneberg’s team concludes that it isn’t just how much sleep people get that matters—it’s how much they mess with their internal clocks. For every hour of social jet lag accrued, the risk of being overweight or obese rises by about 33 percent. Obesity results from a host of influences, but Roenneberg says “one contributing factor is not living according to your biological