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According to sleep experts, starting work at 9 o’clock is basically torture for the body, as it causes chronic sleep deprivation, which in turn leads to complex illnesses.
Oxford University researcher Dr. Paul Kelly says that circadian rhythms should be taken into consideration when creating the schedule for work, school, high school and university, because each age group has its very own comfort zone that has quite a significant effect on the overall state of health of the people.
Dr. Kelly pointed out that the classic 9 to 5 work day is not at all synced with the body’s rhythm and that this basically leaves the body 2 whole sleep hours short, which leads to sleep deprivation in time. This in turn affects the entire body, as it can lead to chronic depression and it can significantly increase stress, but also the body’s ability to deal with day-to-day stress.
“Your liver and your heart have different patterns” says Dr. Kelly. “It is hugely damaging on the body’s systems because you are affecting physical emotional and performance systems in the body”.
As for children, the Oxford researcher said that the ideal start of their school day should not be earlier than 8:30 A.M., because they are not going to be able to concentrate, which in time affects their overall school performance.
Teenagers should start even later, somewhere around 10:00 A.M. because it seems that their body rhythm is actually set to wake up even later.
Dr. Kelly said that introducing school schedules that would be in line with the students’ natural rhythms could actually improve grades with as much as 10%, because they could be properly rested and because they would be able to concentrate much better.
Dr. Kelly also said that the natural rhythm for people between the ages of 18 and 55 makes the ideal start time for university and work 11:00 A.M., which sounds like an amazing if you really think about it.
The Oxford researcher aims to being a project centered on how the 9 to 5 work schedule affects the human body, but also on the improvements that circadian rhythm synced schedules could bring to people’s day to day lives.
However, there are many more criteria that determine the ideal work and school schedule. There are many socioeconomic factors that should be taken into consideration before any change are made. This is precisely why it is highly unlikely that we will ever be able to make a change to the classic 9 to 5 work schedule.
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