The GMB presenter who also takes hosting duties from Lorraine Kelly when she takes a break from her morning show Lorraine, has been working on early morning TV since the start of her career and has appeared on ITV Breakfast and Daybreak before joining GMB in 2014. But after seven years of early starts the presenter has become concerned how it may be affecting her health. Ranvir was even advised by a doctor to “give up her job”.
Making the admission on Loose Women Ranvir discussed that her lack of sleep may be dangerous for her health.
Already describing herself as “sleep-deprived” she continued to say: “I did a sleep documentary and they were saying that one of the problems with shift workers – and essentially getting up at three am is shift work – is that it sends your circadian rhythm into a shock.”
The mum-of-one continued to say: “So the temperature of your organs drops a little bit… you know when pop science tells you in the papers that [shift workers] lose years off [their] life, it’s because your organs are continually being slightly shocked.”
After hearing the research, Ranvir went on to ask one of the leading experts in the field if they had any helpful advice for how she could organise her sleep pattern to keep her health in check.
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Pleading to the Oxford University sleep expert for some help, Ranvir was disappointed with the advice she was given.
“I asked a sleep expert from Oxford ‘what can you do to help me?’, thinking he’d have some advice and he said, ‘You need to give up your job!'” Ranvir explained.
The concerning advice has caused Ranvir to become “genuinely worried” about her lack of sleep adding: “Because apparently when you sleep well and regularly it washes out the proteins from your brain, and there are studies that say a build-up of proteins is linked to Alzheimer’s.
“So I really do genuinely worry about it now in a health way.”
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When questioned further on her sleeping habits on weekends and days off by panellist Katie Piper, Ranvir suggested that the problem doesn’t disappear.
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“I always wake up at three am now, 3.17am. I can wake up for a GMB shift without an alarm – how mad is that?!” She said.
Earlier in the same show, Ranvir told viewers that she’d recently tested out a sleep app, which gives a detailed analysis of how much – or how little – sleep you are having each evening.
“I tracked mine last night,” she explained. “You put it on by the bed and you set what time you’re going to wake up, and somehow it tracks your breathing and how often you’re awake.”
“I woke up four times during the night and it took me 34 minutes to go to sleep, but apparently I had 83 percent good quality sleep.”
The NHS recommends that most adults need between six and nine hours of sleep every night.
In addition to this, adults should get into a regular bedtime schedule by working out what time you need to wake up – this should also help those who have trouble getting to sleep and preparing for bed.
The NHS also warns that a lack of sleep can put you at risk of serious medical conditions including obesity, coronary heart disease and diabetes.
After several sleepless nights, the mental effects become more serious. Brain fog will develop, making it difficult to concentrate and make decisions.
The NHS states that individuals will start to feel down, and may fall asleep during the day. Risk of injury and accidents at home, work and on the road also increases.
As Ranvir also explained, research studies have demonstrated that sleep deprivation may cause subtle changes in your body. Verywellhealth explains that these changes are important physiological markers that mark whether sleep deprivation is affecting your general health, which includes your:
- Body temperature
- Blood pressure
- Heart rate
- Breathing rate
Moreover, chronic sleep deprivation may adversely impact our metabolism, leading to impaired glucose tolerance (a risk for diabetes) and weight gain. There seems to be some evidence that sleep deprivation undermines our immune function, putting us at risk for frequent illness.
Source: Daily Express
