Study Shows Night Owls Have Increased Risk of 2 Major Health Issues
Studies have shown that being a night owl can have a negative effect on your mental health—and now, a new study is showing that it could increase the risk to your heart, too: The study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, showed that creatures of the night may have a 16 percent higher risk of heart attack and stroke.
The study looked at more than 320,000 participants in the UK Biobank between the ages of 39 and 74 who did not have known cardiovascular disease. Their chronotypes—the “natural preferences of the body for wakefulness and sleep,” according to the Sleep Foundation—were identified by answering if they were a “definite morning,” “definite evening,” or “intermediate” person. Around a quarter of participants considered themselves early birds, while around 8 percent said they were night owls.
Next, researchers determined the health of each participant’s heart based on the American Heart Association’s list of Life’s Essential 8, which the association calls “the key measures for improving and maintaining cardiovascular health.” They include having a healthy diet, not smoking, getting enough sleep, and exercising, as well as controlling cholesterol, blood sugar, blood pressure, and weight.
Night Owl Sleeping Habits Tracked With Health Problems
The researchers determined that those who identified themselves as night owls “were associated with 79% higher prevalence of an overall poor LE8 score,” according to the study. Over the next 14 years, those participants had 17,584 incidents—11,091 heart attacks and 7,214 strokes.
“Compared with participants with an ‘intermediate’ chronotype, those with a ‘definitely evening’ chronotype had a 16% higher risk of [cardiovascular disease (CVD)],” the study notes. Morning people, on the other hand, were not at a higher risk “after adjustment for age, ethnic background, sex, Townsend deprivation index, education, family history of CVD, and employment/shift work status.” Women tended to have lower LE8 scores than men but did not show an increased risk of disease, according to ABC News.
Much of the increased risk to heart health came from the use of nicotine, which accounted for 34 percent of the link between being a night owl and cardiovascular disease. It was followed by sleeping less (14 percent), blood sugar (12 percent), weight (11 percent), and diet (11 percent).
“It comes down to the problem of a night owl trying to live in a morning person’s world,” Kristen Knutson, an associate professor of neurology and preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine (who was not involved in the study), said in a statement. “They’re getting up early for work because that’s when their job starts, but it may not align with their internal rhythm.”
That would be their circadian rhythm—the internal 24-hour clock we all have that dictates our sleep-wake cycle and differs from person to person. The difference between when night owls want to be active and the world wants them to be active makes it difficult for them to engage in behaviors that keep their heart healthy.
What Experts Recommend
So what’s a night owl to do?
“It is not like, that, night owls are doomed,” Sina Kianersi, research fellow at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, who led the study, said in a statement. He recommends going to bed and waking up at regular times—and, above all, quitting smoking: “Focus on the basics, not perfection.”