Weird Habit is WRECKING Your Heart

But I raised three sons, so I know the strong gravitational pull that a warm bed can have on a Saturday morning.

This type of sleeping in… those lazy weekends where you slap at the snooze button for an hour or two…actually has a name.

It’s called “social jet lag” – and while it may seem innocent enough, it’s wrecking our health.

In fact, if you find yourself sleeping in an extra couple of hours a week, you could be setting yourself up for some serious heart disease.

A new study examined almost 1,000 people and found that for every extra hour you sleep in every week, you increase your risk of heart disease by 11 percent.

And, believe it or not, that makes perfect sense. Let me explain.

Say you typically go to bed at 10 p.m. and wake up at 6 a.m. But on a Friday night, maybe you go out to dinner and a movie with some friends, so you stay up until 12 a.m., and sleep in until 8 a.m.

You’re getting the SAME amount of sleep, so it’s not a big deal, right?

Well, actually, over time it can be.

Any change in your sleep habits throws off your body’s internal clock – called your circadian rhythm.

Your body DEPENDS on sticking to this clock in order to function properly.

That’s because it releases hormones that regulate energy, mood, sleep, and, you guessed it – heart health.

Even the slightest disruption in this critical life-cycle can wreak havoc on both our physical and emotional health.

So what’s the solution? Should you skip the fun date nights and turn into a hermit?

Pass on going to that Neil Diamond concert? Tell your kids you’re not up for a game night?

No way! For me, those things are part of what make life so full.

What I would recommend is that if you choose to stay up a bit later on a particular night, make sure you get up at your regular time in the morning.

Even better, make sure you get some outdoor sun exposure each morning shortly after you wake up – that helps set your circadian rhythm for the day.

You may be sacrificing an hour of sleep here or there, but sticking as closely as possible to your body’s internal clock is going to make you feel far better in the long run.

To a brighter day,

Dr. Richard Gerhauser, M.D.