Study Reveals Why You Should Go To Sleep At The Same Time All Week

A new study has said that irregular sleep patterns may be linked to harmful bacteria in your gut. The study, published in The European Journal of Nutrition, has found a link between social jetlag and poorer diets. Social jetlag is the shift in internal body clock - when sleeping patterns change between workdays, weekends and holidays. The study says that heavily-disrupted sleep can have negative impact on health. The researchers have advised that keeping bed times and wake times consistent and eating balanced diets may reduce our risk of disease.

"Social jetlag can encourage microbiota species which have unfavourable associations with your health," Kate Bermingham, study author and senior nutrition scientist at health science company Zoe, is quoted as saying by the BBC.

The new research is based on a study of nearly 1,000 adults by King's College London. It found that even a 90-minute difference in the midpoint of your night's sleep over the course of a normal week could influence the types of bacteria found in the human gut.

Researchers analysed the sleep pattern, and blood and stool samples of participants and recorded everything they ate in a food questionnaire.

Dr Bermingham said that poor quality sleep "impacts choices and people crave higher carb or sugary foods".

Before this, research suggested that working shifts disrupts the body clock and can increase risk of weight gain, heart problems and diabetes.

But the new study shows how lack of sleep can develop specific species of bacteria in the gut, as per a Sky News report.

The researchers found that three out of the six microbiota species more abundant in the social jetlag group are linked with poor diet quality, indicators of obesity and cardiometabolic health.