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This is the real reason you're tired all the time

And it's nothing to do with how long you're sleeping

This is the real reason you're tired all the time
06 June 2017

Sometimes, there’s only one thing getting you through the drudgery of a week at work: knowing you can get plastered on Friday night, wake up late and spend most of the weekend in bed, only moving to get food and occasionally inform Netflix that no, actually, you are in fact still watching. 

Unfortunately, that is now cancelled. 

According to a new study from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, this kind of behaviour may be giving you “social jetlag” – a condition linked to “poorer health, worse mood, increased sleepiness and fatigue”. Every hour of “social jetlag” is also associated with “an 11% increase in the likelihood of heart disease,” which is just great. 

The phenomenon has been named because of its similarity to actual jetlag: some experts have even said it mirrors “flying from Paris to New York on a Friday evening and flying back on Monday,” which is a pretty extreme impact. 

You’re also more likely to drink too much alcohol and caffeine if you suffer from social jetlag, and more likely to become depressed. 

“These results indicate that sleep regularity, beyond sleep duration alone, plays a significant role in our health,” lead author Sierra B. Forbush said. “This suggests that a regular sleep schedule may be an effective, relatively simple, and inexpensive preventative treatment for heart disease as well as many other health problems.”

So there we have it: everything you love will eventually, inevitably kill you. Sorry about that.