Why Starting Work Before 10AM Is Equivalent To Torture, According To Research
This confirms ALL of our suspicions.
Alex Master/ShutterStock When I saw this study, I knew I had to write an article about it, though I decided immediately that it would definitely have to be written after 10 AM.
Dr. Paul Kelley, a researcher at Oxford University, has scientifically corroborated the claim that nearly every worker to ever live has made: that it sucks to work before 10 AM.
In an interview, Kelley said, "Before the age of 55, the circadian rhythms of adults are completely out of sync with normal nine-to-five working hours, posing a 'serious threa' to performance, mood and mental health."
With that information, Kelley has determined that there needs to be a global shift in the way we work — not only starting our work days later, but starting our children's school days later as well.
Studies have shown that the average 10-year-old struggles to focus on school work if it happens before about 8:30 AM, and that the best educational results happen at around 11 AM.
Dr. Kelley asserts that the overall educational experience children receive, if it were to happen in the afternoon instead of morning, would result in an overall grade increase by 10 percent across the board. But of course, starting mid-morning doesn't just help kids.
"Staff are usually sleep-deprived," Kelley asserts. "We've got a sleep-deprived society. It is hugely damaging on the body’s systems, because you are affecting physical emotional and performance systems in the body. Your liver and your heart have different patterns, and you're asking them to shift two or three hours."
He continues, "If we look at the connections between the human body, Earth, and the light from the sun's natural rhythms, it isn't really possible to change its 24-hour cycle. Later start times should affect every aspect of society, including prisons and hospitals. In these settings, people are usually woken up and given food they do not want.
You're more biddable because you're totally out of it. Sleep deprivation is a torture."
With that being said, would you benefit positively from working later in the day?