It is common to feel tired and worried on a Monday morning, and that is especially true after a big weekend.
New research has mapped out how the quality of sleep changes throughout the week and has found patterns between fatigue and behavior.
It will be an estimated about a billion people worldwide obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a condition that influences their sleep quality.
Australian researchers have discovered that this underlying state is more common during the weekend than on weekdays, and they have labeled this phenomenon – ‘social apnea’.
It can influence someone even if you usually do not show OSA symptoms during the week.
So why is that the case?
‘Social Jetlag’
Professor Danny Eckert, an expert in the sleep health of Flinders University, was one of the main researchers in the study published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
He described social apnea as a kind of “social jet lag”, a feeling that can arise after the weekend, when our behavior often differs from that on weekdays.
“We know that people smoke smoking more at the weekend. We know that people who drink tend to drink more at the weekend,” he told SBS News.
“They are two kinds of lifestyles or social factors if you want, which are very influential in the way we sleep and breathe.”
Eckert said that another important change in weekend behavior is that our sleep patterns often change, which can cause problems with our sleep quality and overall mood.
According to the study, people who sleep at the weekend appeared to have a 50 percent higher risk of developing a sleep disorder.
“Our circadian rhythm, or our body clock, is slow to move; it takes a few days to adjust,” he said.
“So if we suddenly change our sleeping timing, and we have all this at different times with Jetlag and experienced things like this, we sleep out of what our body wants.”
What are the long -term effects?
According to the study, the weekend flow in sleep disorders can increase the risk of serious health problems.
This includes heart conditions, depression, dementia and extreme fatigue.
The research showed that people among 60 and men were more likely to suffer from social apnea. Although the exact reason is unclear, Eckert said that it is probably due to behavioral factors.
“We know that men tend to drink more alcohol than women and maybe they have later nights and they go to sleep after women,” he said.
“We also know that men get more sleep apnea, so they are primarily more susceptible to ‘social apnea’.”
Eckert said that it is also the search for clinical treatment for sleep apnea, there are some lifestyle changes that you can make to combat social apnea. In particular, going to bed and waking up at consistent times, can help to create a healthier sleep pattern.
“If people feel tired during the day, have some difficulty staying asleep, or maybe they wake up with morning headache, maybe they are told that they are snoring loudly; these are all warning signals that you might have sleep apnea, and it is worth a conversation with your doctor.”
#feel #depressed #weekend #kind #species #social #apnea