Being a night owl might not be a bad thing – for your brain, at leastDepositphotos ‘Night owls’ traditionally get a bit of a rough time of it, with numerous studies linking staying up late to poor health outcomes, inadequate sleep and a fair amount of shame that comes with not being able to function as well in the mornings as others. And, in a world where work hours generally favor early risers, the late-night folk can feel a little out of step with society.
But there’s finally some good news for those who can’t, or don’t want to, go to bed at a ‘reasonable hour,’ with Imperial College London (ICL) scientists finding that night owls have significantly greater brain function than their early-rising counterparts. So, if you’re in that camp of believing the day doesn’t truly start until 5pm, this one is for you.
“Our study found that adults who are naturally more active in the evening (what we called ‘eveningness’) tended to perform better on cognitive tests than those who are ‘morning people,’" said the study’s lead author Raha West, from the Department of Surgery and Cancer at ICL. "Rather than just being personal preferences, these chronotypes could impact our cognitive function."
Previous studies have associated ‘eveningness’ to detrimental health outcomes, including putting them at greater risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease , and even a 10% higher risk of early death compared to ‘morning people.’ Night owls have also been linked to having a higher rate of psychological and neurological disorders .
Genetics studies have indicated that morning-night sleep preferences is closely tied to our biology , with variants associated with a shift in circadian rhythms that play a big role in when we feel we need to sleep. This is, of course, still very much a work in progress, but we do know that night-owl behavior is complex and not just governed by personal choice or willpower.
Recently, it’s even been tied to evolution, linking attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and ‘eveningness’ with something deemed the Watchman Theory . It suggests that for the nearly three quarters of ADHD sufferers […]
‘Night owls’ have 13.5% better brain function than early risers
