The pandemic changed sleep habits.Maybe this is a good thing

A person’s genetic sleep characteristics combine to form a type of sleep. “Early bed type” is essentially a person who wakes up early, eager to wake up in the sun and go to bed earlier, while “late bed type” wants to stay up late to wake up later. People sleep in a wide range: A study found In the United States, they are nearly 10 hours apart. This means that for some workers, starting work at 9 in the morning may be a very different physical reality. “If you are a precocious person, this may be the noon of your day,” Witte said. But for others, 9 am may still be their physical night.

For example, a Recent research on the police A study conducted by Dutch and Canadian researchers in Quebec showed that people with different sleep types have different responses to morning, evening, and night work. Earlier sleep types are better suited to day shifts, and they sleep more when they have an earlier schedule. Conversely, officials on the night shift suffer from insomnia when they have to arrive early, but when shifts are late, their overall sleep time is longer than that of colleagues who wake up early.

Diane Boivin, a professor of psychiatry at McGill University and co-author of the study, said these findings indicate that a person’s sleep type is greatly affected by genetics. However, she pointed out that the role genes can play is limited, even for people who like to drive at night. “Even if you can find extreme night-type people, and even describe yourself as night owls, we will never become night owls to the point where we become nocturnal animals,” she said. For approximately 25% of the U.S. labor force to work in shifts—such as nursing, manufacturing, or hospitality—performing cemetery shifts can be difficult. “Only a few workers have actually adapted,” Boivin said.

But for the more typical nine-to-five work, perhaps the workplace can adapt. Boivin said the growth of telecommuting, especially during the pandemic, may help provide employees with more scheduling options. She is already experimenting with this. Bovin is the head of the Circadian Rhythm Research and Therapy Center at the Douglas University of Mental Health Research Institute. Her laboratory provides flexible working hours for students and interns. Although everyone must be in the lab from 10 am to 4 pm to encourage teamwork, they are free to enter early or work late. “In an ideal world, we would try to match the work schedule to the individual’s biological patterns, but this is not always feasible. There needs to be time for interaction, so you have to set some boundaries,” Boivin said . (Even for her Temporal Awareness Laboratory, it is not always possible to schedule sleep cycles. Some experiments require 24 hours a day monitoring, which means night shifts.)

Professor Chris Barnes, who studies how sleep affects employees at the University of Washington, said that in order to allow flexible working hours to work, companies also need to make some cultural changes in how they treat sleep. “People have stereotypes about work schedules,” he said.his research shows Those who choose to start the day early are considered to be more efficient and responsible than their night owl counterparts. If we do not change these assumptions, employees will be reluctant to take advantage of solutions that allow them to start working later. Boivin pointed out that even in workplaces that allow flexible working hours, some employees may prefer other emergencies, such as time spent with their families, rather than their sleep needs.

Barnes suggested that nap cabins or rooms can also help employees rest. “Rather than treating naps at work as laziness, it’s better to say Treat it as an investment,” he said. 15 minutes of downtime can help people increase creativity, efficiency and productivity-but people must accept this choice. Barnes said that company leaders should see these nap rooms being used and they should talk about working How important is a good rest. Instead of sending an email at 2 AM and expecting an immediate response — or praising employees who arrive at the office early or work late at night — managers should reiterate that sleep is a top priority .