- Social jetlag is a condition that arises partially due to rising at an “unnatural” time on weekdays.
- People who switch often between day and night shifts are more likely to develop Type II diabetes.
- Those who suffer from social jetlag have a higher risk of heart disease, depression, and obesity.
- See more stories on Insider’s business page.
I loathe the sound of my alarm clock. It makes absolutely no difference which sound I set it to, I’ve tried everything: my favorite song, birdsong, a relatively neutral ringing.
I simply cannot stand the sound.
I’m not a serial “snooze button-pusher” nor am I the sort to leave a smartphone ringing for three minutes before getting up to switch it off. There really is no sound I dread more than that of my alarm clock.
I’m pretty confident I’m not the only one who feels that way; I imagine many late risers who regularly have to get up early feel similarly.
That’s precisely why I want to know what it’s like to get up without an alarm clock in a normal working week.
I’m doing this not just for fun but also because I want to prove something: I wrote an article about how a year of getting up at seven in the morning from Monday to Friday (an hour earlier than I’m used to) had been bad for my health and had prompted people to write to me from all over the world – from New Zealand to the Netherlands.
I’ll admit that some went to the effort of writing to me just to let me know how much of a whiny millennial I was but the majority seemed to feel the same: people were saying their productivity was adversely impacted when they had to get up earlier.
Don’t fight your body clock
The good news is that we’re not imagining these problems; there’s a scientifically recognized phenomenon called “social jetlag” that’s responsible for your symptoms.
Every human being has a body clock and everyone’s ticks differently.
That’s why some of us are “early birds” and some of us are “night owls”.
If we constantly work against our body clock, it can have negative health consequences.
What happens when you finally listen to your body clock?
My self-test was based on an experiment conducted by Kenneth P. Wright from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2013.
He took 13 participants to camp in the Rocky Mountains for a week.
The aim of the study was not simply to get people out of their everyday lives and allow them to get up without an alarm; it was also to minimize the influence of artificial light.
Wright came to the conclusion that the participants’ “social jetlag” saw an improvement after just one week and that their sleep rhythm had adapted to sunrise and sunset (although I should probably start clarifying now that I didn’t sleep in the forest for a week then go to work every morning).
What I did was this:
- I tried to get up without an alarm clock.
- I kept light pollution to a minimum (i.e. no television and typing on the mobile phone after sunset, as little lighting as possible)
- I kept the blinds open so daylight would enter the room.
I warned my boss and colleagues I might be late for work in the morning but I assumed I wouldn’t suddenly sleep past 11.00 am the next morning.
I usually get up at eight in the morning, or so I thought. When I’ve set my alarm after 8.00 am in the past, I’ve often woken up before the alarm has even started going off. But then again, maybe I’ve been wrong all along.
Monday
I was in bed at 11.00 pm and woke up on Monday at 8.06 am.
When I arrived on time at nine that day, a colleague asked me if I’d started my experiment. When I said I had, most couldn’t believe it, with some saying: “You’re more punctual than you are getting up with an alarm clock!”
In truth, I did cheat, just a little: I didn’t quite rely on my body clock.
When I awoke to the sight of bright sunlight in the morning, I flinched and checked the clock.
It said 7.05 am, so I turned over and dozed off for another hour. I decided not to check the clock until I felt ready to get up.
The first morning didn’t go too well: it turns out it’s just as hard to do without artificial light as it is to get up without an alarm clock.
I just couldn’t resist the temptation to turn on the light in my room in the evening.
There are perks to steering clear of your smartphone or skipping TV in the evening: you automatically go to sleep sooner because the artificial light doesn’t keep you awake (or perhaps you just fall asleep because you have nothing to do?)
Our body follows a biological rhythm that’s centered around daylight and this rhythm can vary from person to person – and even from animal to animal and plant to plant.
“There is hardly a single function in the body that isn’t centered around the rhythm of the day. Our body clock regulates all of our internal processes – be it the concentration of calcium, magnesium or potassium in the blood up or the presence of enzymes,” says Till Roennerberg, professor at the LMU and considered one of the leading experts in the field of the human body’s internal clock.
Roenneberg distinguishes between two types of sleepers: larks (early risers) and owls (as the name suggests, more nocturnal people), in between which there are many varying degrees.
Tuesday
On Tuesday, I’d gone to bed at 11 the night before and woke up at 8.03 am.
I cheated, but again, it wasn’t deliberate! At half-past seven, I briefly woke up, checked my watch and then dozed for another half an hour.
I don’t know why I kept waking up – I think it may have been fear of oversleeping and not turning up at the office until past 11.00 am.
There’s a simple reason for waking up without an alarm clock: it’s healthier because the hormone melatonin regulates our body’s day-night rhythm.
When the melatonin concentration in the blood rises in the evening, we get tired. When it dips again in the morning, we wake up.
The problem with alarm clocks is they often pull you out of sleep, even though your body’s melatonin level isn’t at a high enough level for you to wake up naturally. That’s why we often feel shattered all day long.
Of course, it’s still only my second day of the “no alarm clock” routine, but I feel uncannily fresh and awake. Tuesday is also my weekly barre-workout day (it’s essentially a mixture of ballet and workout).
At the end of the lesson, we always do about 100 different forms of sit-ups and two minutes of planks.
Normally I’m completely exhausted during the last set of exercises and can barely hold my arms up, but my workout was easier than ever.
The dance class ends at 9.00 pm and I already know it won’t be easy for me to fall asleep today – I usually have that problem when I do sports in the evening.
Wednesday
On Wednesday, I woke up at 8.00 am exactly after going to bed the previous night at about 11.30 pm, prior to which I’d been awake for quite a while.
I’d done it. I hadn’t looked at my watch in the morning. I got up when I thought I felt rested and awake, and only checked the time afterward.
My colleagues say it’s possibly the most boring experiment of all time, mostly as I wake up so consistently. However, this also confirms what I’d predicted: 8.00 am is my time and I need at least eight hours of sleep.
To prep myself for the experiment, I actually took part in a conference on chronobiology.
Chronobiology is the study of the internal clock and has been a serious subject for some time. Three scientists received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in October 2017 for their research in chronobiology. They succeeded in deciphering the genetic mechanisms that emanate from the internal clock of fruit flies.
Not only did I learn at the conference that we are more similar to fruit flies in terms of our internal clock than we think; I also learned that the internal clock changes according to age (older people sleep less and usually get up earlier) and that it ticks a little differently in men and women. Our internal clock even determines how effective medicines work for us.
After a day with scientists from LMU, Harvard, and Oxford, I almost had the feeling that our whole life was ultimately determined by our inner clock. Those who permanently fight it are more susceptible to diseases.
I’m so optimistic that I’ll be able to get up at eight o’clock without an alarm for the rest of the week that I arranged to meet an eBay seller at nine in the morning the next day to pick up a vacuum cleaner.
Thursday
As it turns out, I was a little too optimistic the day before. I woke up at 8.48 am after going to bed at midnight.
When I made the appointment with the eBay seller, I was unaware that I would end up in a cocktail bar with my colleagues later that evening.
When I drink alcohol, even if very little, I sleep very poorly. I only had a small beer and a gin and strawberry cocktail and yet there I was in bed, lying awake until well past midnight.
When I woke up in the morning, I still assumed it was probably around eight o’clock again. But then came the shock: it was 8.48 am. Not only was that day the first I would get into work after 9.00 am, I was also late to pick up the vacuum cleaner.
I showered, brushed my teeth, got dressed and put on my makeup in less than 12 minutes (I’m setting a personal record for that by the way).
Thankfully, the seller wasn’t in any hurry that morning and was waiting for me.
Friday
On Friday, I went to bed at 11.30 pm and woke up at 8.35 am. I slept a little longer than on the first days of my experiment, but on Fridays, it’s not a big deal as I work from home.
I feel now as though I have a pretty good idea of when I’m asleep in the morning and when it’s time to wake up. When I opened my eyes in the morning, I could sense it was about 8.30 am.
Maybe it’s also something to do with getting used to daylight in the room after five days. I’ve noticed I barely felt tired during the week. Usually, I find myself very lethargic after lunch or in the late afternoon and notice that I often have to yawn.
The week left me feeling very rested every day and feeling tired around half-past ten at night
Saturday
I went to bed on Friday night at about midnight and ended up waking up on Saturday at 8.17 am.
Isn’t that remarkable?
Even though it’s a Saturday and I have the chance to sleep for as long as I want, I feel totally rested and awake at 8.17 am – much to the chagrin of my boyfriend who had come home from a business trip on Friday and probably would have liked a lie-in.
This Saturday I’m Facetiming my family in Austria. My mother tells me – without knowing about my experiment – that I look very fresh and that the dark shadows under my eyes, which I often have, have almost disappeared.
The fact that I’d been waking up almost every day at the same time – without an alarm clock – shows I have found my inner clock, to some extent. And it shows my current lifestyle fits well with my inner clock but, of course, this isn’t always the case.
In March, researchers at the University of Colorado published a study according to which people who frequently switch between day and night work are 40 percent more likely to develop Type II diabetes. Previous studies have concluded that people who suffer from social jetlag have a higher risk of heart disease, depression, and obesity.
German researcher Till Roenneberg, therefore, advises companies to create working time models that fit their employees’ internal clock.
Sunday
Business Insider Deutschland
On Sunday, I went to bed at 00.55 am and woke up at 9.38 am. I’d gone to the cinema for a late show, meaning I went to bed later than usual the day before. Sunday was the only day that week I didn’t wake up before nine.
My week without an alarm clock had a definite effect on my fitness. My boyfriend and I went to the mountains for lunch to go hiking. We decided not to take an easy walk, but to climb a summit of 1,668 meters. We managed to cover 580 meters (or 170 floors according to my health app). And I realized how easy everything was. Even the steepest passages, I climbed with such ease that my boyfriend – who was just a little envious – was panting behind me. I’d been hiking the previous week and had found hiking trails that were much flatter were much more difficult for me.
Back to using the alarm clock
I woke up at 5.40 am after having slept at 22.15 pm. Welcome back to reality. Being rudely awoken at that time to catch a train after the experiment I’d done, now I remembered how terrible the sound of the alarm clock was.
But it’s not just that. I noticed how fatigued I was all day after having to get up so early. It’s like the day is running away like a blurry film before my eyes. I’m already looking forward to going back to bed in the morning yet when I go to sleep at night, there’s no salvation.
Luckily, I already know I don’t have to get up until eight the rest of the week. The fact that this time matches my internal clock has been clearly demonstrated over the past week.
I usually woke up naturally between eight and half-past eight – even without an alarm clock and at the weekend when there was no compulsion to get up.
Of course, Till Roenneberg and other experts in chronobiology would probably criticize me, as my self-test would not be suitable for a scientific journal.
I can only speak from my personal experience this week but it’s showed me I’m much fitter and more productive when I listen to my body clock.
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