Expert says sleep deprivation is 'torture,' calls for later work day

If you need validation that being at work before 10 a.m. feels like "torture," here it is.

Early schedules go against the body's natural "clock" and can impact learning and health, Paul Kelly, an honorary clinical research fellow at Oxford University's Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute said, BBC reported.

Kelly addressed a crowd at the British Science Festival in Bradford, England, and said making people under age 55 work before 9 a.m. is not conducive to a productive work force.

'We cannot change our 24-hour rhythms," Kelly said. "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 the hypothalamus, not sight."

He noted that staff and students are usually sleep deprived and called the problem an "international issue."

Kelly and researchers at Oxford University are currently recruiting 100 schools around the United Kingdom to take part in a study on delayed school start times and student performance.

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