Between the biological and social clock: Exploring the association between social jetlag and wellbeing

Abstract

The introduction of artificial lighting provoked a form of circadian misalignment called social jetlag: the misalignment between the biological clock and the social clock. The literature has focused on the association with negative mental health in students, while knowledge on the association with wellbeing in adults is limited.

The sample included 20.143 participants from the Netherlands Twin Register (NTR). Linear regression models were applied to assess the association between sleep-corrected social jetlag and the wellbeing factor score, and the interaction effects of age and week day. Additionally, a within-family analysis was performed to correct for the effect of the family environment.

We found a weak but significant negative correlation between social jetlag and the wellbeing scales (r = −0.05). The association between social jetlag and wellbeing was marginal (β = −0.05, R² = 0.22 %, p < 0.001, N = 7456) and did not depend on age or week day. The within-family design showed no confounding by family effects.

Our results indicate that social jetlag should not be a primary concern for wellbeing in adults. Future studies should focus on using objective measures for social jetlag and use longitudinal data to disentangle short term and long term results.