Quiz
Your Social Jet Lag Score
The gap between your weekday and weekend sleep is jet lag you give yourself every week. Four inputs, and you get the number of hours your body clock travels each weekend.
If you wake at 6:30 on weekdays and 10:00 at weekends, you have shifted your body clock by three and a half hours — the physiological equivalent of flying a few time zones on Friday and back on Sunday. Every week.
Researchers call it social jet lag, and it is associated with worse sleep quality, daytime sleepiness and poorer metabolic markers. It is also the reason Sunday-night insomnia is so common. Four inputs below.
Common questions
What is social jet lag?
The mismatch between your body clock and your social schedule, measured as the gap between your sleep mid-point on work days and free days. A three-hour gap shifts your clock about as much as flying three time zones.
Is sleeping in at the weekend bad for you?
It trades a small acute gain for a larger chronic one. You recover a little sleep debt and push your circadian clock later, which produces Sunday-night insomnia and a harder Monday — and the loop is self-sustaining.
How do I recover sleep without shifting my clock?
Go to bed earlier rather than waking later. An earlier bedtime does not move your circadian phase; a later wake time does. A short nap before 3pm also recovers alertness without moving the clock.
Not medical advice. This is a self-assessment for general information, not a diagnostic test. If you snore loudly, have witnessed pauses in breathing, gasp awake, or feel exhausted no matter how long you sleep, see a doctor — those warrant a proper assessment rather than a questionnaire.