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'Social Jetlag' May Be Making You Fat

Posted by timothy on from the it-certainly-is-making-me-dopey dept.

sciencehabit writes "A new study suggests that, by disrupting your body's normal rhythms, your alarm clock could be making you overweight. The study concerns a phenomenon called 'social jetlag.' That's the extent to which our natural sleep patterns are out of synch with our school or work schedules. When we wake up earlier than we're supposed to — or spend all weekend sleeping in and then get up at 6 am on Monday — it makes our body feel like it's spending the weekend in one time zone and the week in another. For people who are already on the heavy side, greater social jet lag corresponds to greater body weight."

7 of 197 comments (clear)

  1. Thank God! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Thank God! All this time I thought it was the Coke and Fritos doing it to me!

  2. Just one more round... by Defenestrar · · Score: 4, Funny

    And here I thought it was staying up late (and eating snacks) while doing things online with friends in a different time zone.

  3. I don't have a cosmo account by 0racle · · Score: 3, Funny

    What's going on here? The url says slashdot but the summary looks like cosmo.

    --
    "I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
  4. I owe someone an apology by NonUniqueNickname · · Score: 1, Funny

    You hear that Super-Sized French Fries? It's not your fault I'm fat. It never was! I'm so sorry, please forgive me and let's get back together again...

  5. Re:Not Much You Can Do About That by SomeJoel · · Score: 4, Funny

    Same here, if only the days were longer. We need to find some way to slow the rotation of the earth.

    That sounds like a lot of work, and I'm pretty tired.

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  6. Re:Not Much You Can Do About That by Chrisq · · Score: 5, Funny

    It happened to me with kids. I haven't slept-in in years because my kids get up right after the sun comes up.

    Wait until they're teenagers - it will be you telling them its time to get up.

  7. Re:Mod parent up. by V.+P.+Winterbuttocks · · Score: 3, Funny

    I hold a pair of 20 pound weights and step up to the second step of my basement stairs and then back down

    Getting out of your parents' basement... you're doing it wrong.

    --
    I'm the real Vorokrytin P. Winterbuttocks.