Social jet lag doesn’t involve flying

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A friend messaged me about a recent article on CBC on waking up without an alarm. Sure, I thought, as though that’s likely to happen. But on reading and reflecting, I can see a lot that can be incorporated into a more rewarding on-line course life, and I’d like to share some of the applicable highlights with you.

The reporter outlined clinical research that demonstrates how building up a specific type of sleep debt called social jet lag interferes with our health, productivity, economic and cognitive functioning–we’ve all been there, especially as deadlines approach.

Very briefly, social jet lag is the difference between our own personal natural sleep cycle and the sleep cycle we’re actually living. If we can reduce our social jet lag, we can see greater productivity while feeling less tired from our efforts. Note: the goal is to reduce, not eliminate the lag, as seasons change, life happens, and others have schedules we need to integrate with.

Here is where COVID-19 enforced online course work provides a bonus: Working from home, we have greater flexibility in our wake up and sleep time. The only time we have no control over is when we must log on for our ZOOM classes. Other COVID-19 affected workers from Vancouver to Switzerland have actually seen these claimed gains, just from working at home.

The first step to reducing your social jet lag is establishing what your natural sleep cycle actually is. When do you wake and go to sleep on the weekend (party weekends not included) or when you’re on a low-stress vacation. Shifting that cycle to be naturally more in line with your life requirements involves changes that are basically adjusting the timing and type of light you are exposed to. You achieve this by

  1. Getting two hours of light exposure every day–morning light is best, outdoor light is best.
  2. Using a sunlight lamp if it’s dark when you wake up. You’ll get up earlier, and get sleepier earlier in the evening.
  3. Watching the colour temperature of your light: warm light rather than blue light in the evening, and start dimming down the light a couple of hours before bedtime. Smart lights and LED lights can help here.
  4. Pulling the blinds after dinner, and raising them after it’s dark–simple, but it means the right kind of light at night, and the right kind of light in the morning.

These changes are all simple, and inexpensive. I am all for more energy, less fatigue, and seeing a net greater result for the same amount of effort. Will they work for you? Let me know if you try it for a few weeks, and what the results are [email protected] .

(Of course if you are currently experiencing what is undue fatigue for you, see your doctor.)