Your Monday blues are actually jetlag
Get up at your usual time
That heavy Monday feeling is often just jetlag. A 5am night shifts your body clock the way a flight does, and the fix is keeping the shift small: get up within an hour or two of normal, even after going out, and get some daylight.
SOCIAL JETLAG, MEASURED
| A big weekend shift | Jetlag without the flight |
| Doing it every weekend | Chronic sleep loss |
| Bigger shifts | Higher body mass |
| Who gets it worst | Night owls and under-25s |
Your body clock sets itself to when you actually sleep, so a 5am night shifts it the way a flight does. Researchers call the gap social jetlag, and the Munich studies tie it to chronic sleep loss and higher body mass, hitting night owls and people under 25 hardest. The fix is boring: get up within an hour or two of your usual time and get some daylight.
Sources
Wittmann, M., Dinich, J., Merrow, M., & Roenneberg, T. (2006). "Social jetlag: misalignment of biological and social time." Chronobiology International, 23(1-2), 497-509. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16687322/
Roenneberg, T., Allebrandt, K.V., Merrow, M., & Vetter, C. (2012). "Social jetlag and obesity." Current Biology, 22(10), 939-943. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22578422/
