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Recent research reveals that individuals who favor staying awake late into the night and subsequently adopting unhealthy habits from this lifestyle are at a higher risk of premature mortality. This sleep pattern, often referred to as 'being a night owl,' can have adverse consequences on long-term health.
“When we looked at the relationship between chronotype and diabetes we found night owls had a 72% increased risk of developing diabetes over the eight years of our study,” stated Sina Kianersi, the primary author of the study and a postdoctoral research fellow at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School located in Boston.
“Night owls overall were more likely to have a poor diet, to be less physically active, to use alcohol in higher quantities, to have an unhealthy BMI (body mass index), to smoke and to sleep less or more than the seven to nine hours that’s recommended each night,” continued Kianersi.
Experts have suggested that individuals who naturally lean toward becoming early birds tend to exhibit superior performance in educational settings and showcase increased levels of activity throughout the day.
This may serve as a contributing factor to the results observed in various studies, indicating a lesser susceptibility to cardiovascular disease among this group.