Your workplace might be torturing you if you work 9 – 5

An Oxford University academic and sleep expert has claimed that work hours should be altered, describing a 9am to 5pm workday as “torture”.

Dr Paul Kelley, an honorary clinical research fellow at Oxford University’s Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute, said that the circadian rhythms of adults under the age of 55 are not in sync with nine-to-five working hours, leaving them sleep-deprived and posing a “serious threat” to individual performance and mental health.

He suggested that the starting times of work and school should be shifted so as to fit the natural body clock. His research has indicated that “altering education times can both improve learning and reduce health risks”.

“This is a huge society issue; staff should start at 10am,” said Kelley at the British Science Festival in September. “You don’t get back to [the 9am] starting point until 55. Staff are usually sleep deprived. 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.”

“We cannot change our 24-hour rhythms. You cannot learn to get up at a certain time. Your body will be attuned to sunlight and you’re not conscious of it because it reports to hypothalamus, not sight,” he added. “This applies in the bigger picture to prisons and hospitals. They wake up people and give people food they don’t want. You’re more biddable because you’re totally out of it. Sleep deprivation is a torture.”

A recent survey released in May this year indicated that eight in ten Singaporeans are sleep deprived. 82 per cent of the 1,000 respondents reported not getting the recommended eight hours of sleep every night. 59 per cent attributed their mediocre sleep to stress from work or personal reasons.

A lack of sleep has been shown to have an impact on performance and long-term memory, and can lead to anxiety, high-blood pressure and stress.

Kelley suggested that schools stagger their start times, arguing that this would help students perform better. When he was the head teacher of a middle school, he changed the start time from 8:30am to 10am, and said the number of top grades rose by 19 per cent.

GCSE students from 100 schools across England will take part in a four-year experiment by Oxford University to examine whether starting classes later can improve exam results.

Do you think later start times for school and work is feasible in Singapore? Why/why not?