Work should start at 10am, says sleep expert
A leading sleep expert said that working before 9am is like torture, as many employees will agree.
Dr. Paul Kelley from Oxford University people aged under 55 who work a nine-to-five job is exhausted because the schedule is incompatible with their body clocks. He suggests that work should start by 10am instead.
Younger children naturally wake up early, so children from the age ten should start school by 8.30am. But for 16-year-olds the best time to start school is 10am, and 18-year-olds should start school by 11am.
Dr Kelley, said: ‘We cannot change our 24-hour rhythms. You cannot learn to get up at a certain time. Your body will be attuned to sunlight and you’re not conscious of it because it reports to hypothalamus, not sight.
‘This applies in the bigger picture to prisons and hospitals. They wake up people and give people food they don’t want. You’re more biddable because you’re totally out of it. Sleep deprivation is a torture.
‘
Dr Kelley, an honorary clinical research fellow at Oxford University’s Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute, said there was a need for society to change work and school starting times to fit with the natural human body clock.
Lack of sleep has been found to affect attention and long-term memory and to encourage drug and alcohol abuse.It can also acause anger, anxiety, frustration, impulsive behaviour, weight gain, high blood pressure, stress and mental health problems.
The Department for Education said schools in the UK are free to set their own start and finish times.
A spokesman said: ‘We have given all schools the freedom to control the length of the school day because they are best placed to know what’s best for their communities.
