Therapists research Australians with sleep patterns

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Sleep therapists and researchers are examining Australians hardwired to be up through the night and have mused they would have "tended the campfire while the tribe slept" in times past.

Transcript

00:00Some people are definitely hardwired to be night owls, but that's a really small percentage

00:06of the population.

00:09Most of us actually, our body clocks actually change a little bit, and it depends on what

00:16we're doing and on our lifestyle.

00:20And definitely over the last few years, as people are spending more time on their phones

00:24and being up later, we're shifting our circadian rhythm, or our normal body clocks are starting

00:30to shift later.

00:32What tends to happen is our normal body clock isn't 24 hours.

00:37It's actually slightly longer than that at 24.2 hours for most of us, and in some people

00:43it's even longer than that, it can be even up to 24.5 hours.

00:47So in most of us, if we tend to stay up later and later, our body clocks will shift to be

00:53later and later.

00:54And so we're shifting our body clock to be up later and then getting up later in the

00:59morning.

01:00Is there any research behind why some people are hardwired to be up later?

01:09Well, some people are definitely more sensitive to light, so that's number one.

01:14And we obviously at night are spending more time in bright lights.

01:19They're also exposed to a lot of blue light with computers, phones and televisions.

01:26So there's a couple of different things why people are hardwired.

01:30But some people really are just hardwired to be slightly different, that their body clocks

01:35don't shift all that well.

01:37Is it possible to change your natural sleep patterns, do you think?

01:43In most people, yes it is.

01:45In most people we can change their body clocks.

01:48And you see it actually, I suppose with teenagers, they go to bed later and later and their body

01:53clocks shift.

01:54So you can, and then what we, when they actually, when school time starts and they have to start

01:59getting up earlier, we can slowly shift it back again.

02:03So in most people, yes, we can shift our body clock.

02:06In some, it isn't shiftable at all.

02:09And obviously some people are more sensitive to light.

02:12And so therefore, and they tend not to shift their body clocks very easily.

02:17How long would it take to try and shift your body clock?

02:21Say you're someone who is, tends to be up late at night, but wants to be the kind of person

02:27that gets up early in the morning, how, how long do you need to sort of get yourself into

02:32that routine before that becomes your, your sleep pattern?

02:38It does take a while.

02:40So if you want to shift your body, it's much easier to advance your body clock than it is

02:44to actually get it to go backwards.

02:47So, you know, it's a bit like jet lag, if you're going over to, if you're traveling

02:51eastward, you know that you, your body clock changes quite quickly with traveling over eastward.

02:57When you come back to Australia and traveling westward, we get terrible jet lag and things.

03:01So it does tend to take a while to shift your body clock, um, backwards, or what some people

03:07do is they stay up overnight, one night and just try and quickly, rapidly change their

03:12body clock so they're awake the next day.

03:15Are there any, um, particular periods, Linda, in your life where your natural rhythm changes?

03:22You mentioned earlier there, teenagers, like, is there some, is it a period of time when your

03:28body does sort of start to change its sleep pattern?

03:31I think shift workers tend to change their body patterns, particularly if you have one shift.

03:39So if you're always on night shift, um, you tend to change your body clock.

03:44Uh, teenagers tend to change their body clock quite easily.

03:48And then people who, um, don't have a set routine.

03:52So do, they can change their body clock quite quickly as well.

03:56So there are particular stages of life where, and I suppose students who are studying late,

04:01your body clock will shift in to adjust for those habits.

04:05So you definitely want to be able to change their body clock to that.

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