Last week we provided subscribers with access to one of our replays discussing Jet Lag.

We really hope you gals and guys got a lot out of it.

That’s because we like to give our subscribers some extra free shit now and again.

And as you may have seen, these replays are available to WINK Members because we wanna give them tonnes of value.

And another reason we provided the replay on Jetlag was to set the scene for this week’s blog.

But first …

Jetlag > Social Jetlag

Put simply, one of the major reasons we fall asleep when we do - and wake when we do - is because of the timing of our body clock.

And for most of us, our body clock timing is bonza (Aussie slang for ‘great’).

But when we go overseas - travelling across multiple timezones - our body clock timing takes time to adapt.

For example, whenever I’ve travelled to the Biennual Pediatric Sleep Medicine conferences in Florida for a week, I fall asleep at my usual Australian time, which is equivalent to 4 AM in Florida.

That’s one major component of Jetlag when travelling Eastward - falling asleep really frickin late!

And because I don’t want to miss out on the free breakfast buffet in Florida, I had to get up at 7 AM.

Which is the other major component of Eastward Jetlag - difficulty waking up and not getting enough sleep.

This would usually create a dangerous environment - but hey, when in Florida …

Most people who know me know I’m a night owl. I love the nightlife. The quiet and the peace to do the things you like to do. To relax at the end of the day.

I was like this since I was teenager. It’s the way I’ve been built.

Indeed, my sleep pattern in my final year at high school consisted of:

• Studying until 1 to 3 AM

• Waking at 7 AM

• Getting on the school bus at 8:55 AM

• Going through that painful experience of the morning sun piercing through my close eyelids on the bus trip

• Crashing after school (ie, napping from 4 PM to 6 PM

• Dinner, and then study till 1 to 3 AM.

• I think you get the picture?

It was my first experience of Eastward Jetlag. Yet I never left the shores of Australia. Indeed, I was in the same timezone.

This … is social jetlag.

Social Jetlag > Negative Social Jetlag

As per my example above, many teenagers experience social jetlag - a term coined by the great Prof Till Roenneberg.

His work on chronotypes has provided the first scientific suggestion that the end of adolescence may occur when their experience of social jetlag changes.

He and his team recorded the times when 10,000s of people of all ages fell asleep and woke up on free days (eg, weekends).

As can be seen from the Figure below - from ages 10 to 20 yrs, humans become later chronotypes.

Then at around 20 years of age, there’s a U-Turn. That is, the direction of the black dots peak around 5 AM on the Y-Axis, and then turn around.

This is when humans’ chronotype begins to shift earlier.

This Figure is looking at the big picture. When you look at a huge number of people and see the ‘average’.

But there is still variations between people.

People like me have changed since the teen years, but we’re still a later chronotype than the masses.

And then there are some people who have changed over the years, but they’re usually earlier than the masses.

And it’s usually these people who experience Negative Social Jetlag.

What Is Negative Social Jetlag.

Damn, this blog is turning into one of those recipes on the internet where you have to scroll for ages before you get to the part that you wanna read …

Earlier I spoke about Jetlag that is experienced when flying Eastward.

The complete opposite occurs when people travel Westward.

For example, any Australasian or Asian that travels to Europe will find themselves waking up really early (eg, 2 AM) and struggling to stay awake early in the night (eg 8 PM).

In a similar way, some people can experience this sensation when they stay in their regular timezone. It’s the way they’re built. They’re the opposite of us night owls. They’re often referred to as morning larks.

After dinner, they struggle to stay awake.

They may inadvertently fall asleep on the couch (eg, watching TV).

Regardless, when they go to bed, they fall asleep really quickly (eg, on average between 5 to 10 minutes).

They often sleep soundly, but then wake in the wee hours of the morning (eg, 3, 4, 5 AM) - and never return to the land of nod.

But Wait. There’s More …

Just because a person is a morning lark, doesn’t mean that they immediately qualify for Negative Social Jetlag.

Social Jetlag often means that such people wake hours later on weekends than they do on weekdays.

Negative Social Jetlag means people fall asleep earlier on weekends than they do during the weekdays.

They may also wake earlier on weekends than on weekdays.

How common is Negative Social Jetlag?

Well once again we can refer to Prof Roenneberg’s work.

This next graph below shows how many people experience the different types of Social Jetlags.

Many people don’t really experience Social Jetlag (ie, the green and yellow bars). The variability between their weekday and weekend sleep is small-to-nothing.

The group who experience Social Jetlag are those who begin to have enough of a difference between their weekday and weekend sleep patterns (ie, the orange and red bars_.

And the smallest group are those who experience Negative Social Jetlag (blue bars).

What Can I Do About Jetlag - Whether It’s Negative or Not-so Negative?

Whilst there’s a genetic contribution to our type of social jetlag, there’s still hope to minimise it.

This requires some reasonably accurate measurement of our natural sleep timing, and then working with a professional to develop a detailed plan of how to gradually adapt over a period of a few weeks.

Fortunately, there are a growing group of professionals who are learning how to do that. You can find a lot of them - for example - in our Find An Expert section of our website.

These gals and guys have been trained how to spot a body clock issue, how to measure it, and how to provide a tailored plan (eg, by completing our certified Teen Sleep Course).

If you’re type of social jetlag is causing you some serious issues - they can help.

But even if your social jetlag isn’t serious, but you want to do everything to perform at your best - well, they can also help you with that too.

• Prof MG