Chances are, you have a morning alarm that blares at a consistent time, at least on workdays. But if you have a flexible or changing schedule and tend to rise whenever your body feels like it, or you vary your wake times on purpose, sleep in a ton on weekends, or are just a big fan of the snooze button, sleep doctors would like to have a word. All that wiggle room with your wake-up time can wreak havoc on the quality of your rest.
Over the years, many sleep doctors SELF has spoken to have harped on the importance of maintaining a consistent sleep-wake schedule—it’s among the top habits sleep doctors themselves uphold, it can help you get out of bed more easily in the depths of winter, and it can even keep the clock change this time of year from wrecking your sleep.
As for why? To put it simply, “the body functions best when it runs on a rhythm,” Jade Wu, PhD, a board-certified behavioral sleep medicine specialist and author of Hello Sleep, tells SELF. And the best way to fall into that regular sleep-wake pattern is to make a point of getting up at the same time every day—yes, ideally, even on weekends. Read on to learn the merits of a routine wakeup time and how to work toward adopting this habit.
Waking up at the same time every day can help you sleep more soundly.
Your body clock, or circadian rhythm, is the system that regulates your sleep-wake cycle. It’s heavily dependent on clues from your environment, Dr. Wu says, particularly light exposure: Lots of light signals to your brain that it’s time for wakefulness, prompting it to release alertness-boosting cortisol and slow down the production of sleepiness-promoting melatonin. As light tapers off at dusk and is replaced by darkness, that hormonal process reverses.
When you open your eyes—and give your brain that light cue—at a consistent time, you’ll anchor your 24-hour body clock, Dr. Wu says. Over time, your body will automatically know when to stop producing melatonin in the morning and, in turn, when to kick it back into full gear at night, which can make dozing off and waking up feel more seamless.
Inconsistent wake-up times can mess with your body clock.
If you wake up at different times each day—or even if you keep a pretty consistent sleep schedule during the week but sleep in every weekend—your brain will get confused and start to release melatonin at weird hours. It’s kind of like constantly traveling to different time zones and getting jet-lagged, Dr. Wu explains. Losing your rhythm will then make it tougher to fall and stay asleep, which can trickle into issues with waking up and concentrating.
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