Alternative Health Blog

Sleep is the most underrated health habit. Too many of us still regard sleep as a nuisance rather than a chance for renewal. But the evidence is growing that irregular sleep patterns—whether on a night shift or simply defying normal sleep patterns to, say, surf the Net—can disrupt the body’s hormonal and metabolic processes.

What that means is simple: Higher risk for heart disease, diabetes and becoming overweight. In fact, some of the most cutting edge research shows that the most efficient method for burning fat includes seven to eight hours of sleep each night.

A new study shows that night-shift work can be especially harmful. Adjusting up to 12 hours difference in the usual day-night schedule can wreak havoc with blood pressure readings (to the high side) and leptin levels (to the low side of the hormone that suppresses appetite). Another result of lowered leptin is that blood sugar skyrockets. Not good, time to grab that pillow.

Yet there is an even more sinister underlayer to not getting enough sleep or throwing your sleep to, well, sheets in the wind. Disrupting sleep leads to a significant spike in cortisol, which the body’s stress hormone.

In the new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers followed 10 healthy men and women, subjecting them to 28-hour days to disrupt usual sleep patterns and daytime waking hours. Circadian rhythms? Forget about it.

The swing from day to night shift—sleeping enough hours but during day and staying up all night—produced the least healthy effects. In fact, in less than two weeks three volunteers subjects tested at blood sugar levels associated with pre-diabetes symptoms.

Researchers wrote that shift work is not the only health culprit. They wrote that staying up extremely late and/or suffering from jet lag can produce similar effects, especially if those extremes are consistent week in and out.