CANBERRA, July 9 (Xinhua) -- Almost one-third of Australians suffer from "social jetlag", a University of Adelaide study published on Monday showed.
The survey, published in the journal Sleep Medicine on Monday, revealed that 31 percent respondents were suffering from "social jetlag", a condition whereby a person wakes at least an hour too early to meet obligations such as turning up to work on time.
Robert Adams, a professor of medicine specializing in sleep at the University of Adelaide and lead author of the study, found that people suffering from social jetlag were more likely to contract serious illnesses or fall asleep at work.
They were also more likely to go to bed late, wake up tired, go to work when sick and be late to work.
"This suggests that people with social jetlag are either less able to recognize their sickness signs or they feel a degree of pressure to work despite being unwell or just plain tired," Adams told the Australian Associated Press on Monday.
"Either way, it's time we considered the consequences of these employees driving, operating dangerous machinery and potentially spreading contagious illness in the workplace."
Adams identified computers and smart phones as a major sleep disruptor with the blue light emitted by the devices disrupting melatonin cycles and keeping people awake.
Dorothy Bruck, chairwoman of the Sleep Health Foundation, said inadequate sleep was becoming a health crisis.
"We now have a dire situation where millions of Australians are failing to get the sleep they need to live happy, healthy lives," Bruck told Fairfax Media.
Night workers, evening shift and rotating shift workers were excluded from the survey.
