Plus, tips from sleep
experts for a healthier bedtime routine.
Are you a night owl? If you’re the type of person who feels wide
awake every night and tired every morning, you know how your internal
circadian rhythm—also known as your chronotype—can feel out of whack
with the rest of society. Being a night owl in a world where the workday starts
at 9 a.m. and restaurants stop serving dinner by 9 p.m. can be annoying, to say
the least. But
mounting evidence also suggests that there are real health risks associated
with sleep-wake cycles that don’t line up with the norm. We spoke with experts,
and compiled the latest research, to find out all the ways being a night owl
might be bad for your health.
It's linked to higher blood pressure: In a 2013 study in the journal Chronobiology International, researchers found
that “evening
types” were 30% more likely than “morning types” to have high
blood pressure, even after they controlled for participants’ total amount of
sleep and sleep quality. Andrew Varga, MD, assistant
professor of medicine, pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine at Icahn School of
Medicine and Mount Sinai Health System, says
that lifestyle
patterns like unhealthy eating or lack of exercise may contribute to night
owls’ higher likelihood of hypertension. Stress—both physiological and
psychological—may play a big role, as well.
You're less likely to get your workout
in: Self-described night owls spend more time sitting than people
who consider themselves early birds, according to a 2014 research
abstract in the journal Sleep; they also report
having more difficulty finding time to exercise and maintaining a regular
exercise schedule. The people in the study weren’t lazy; they were highly
active adults averaging 83 minutes of vigorous activity a week. Still, waking
up late or being an evening person made exercise seem much more difficult.
Night owls in less active populations would likely find it even harder to get
moving, the authors hypothesized. Most fitness experts agree that
the best time of day to exercise is different for everyone, and that optimal
timing will depend on a person’s schedule and preferences. But getting up early and working out first
thing does have its advantages: A morning workout can give you energy to power
you through the rest of the day, and your routine won’t get derailed if
something unexpected comes up later on.
Late-night eating may lead to weight
gain: “When
people go to bed late, they’re up living their lives—and one of the things
they’re often doing is eating,” says Dr. Varga. “If your bedtime
is 3 in the morning, you’re probably eating around 11 p.m. or midnight, and
that’s been known to create problems with the way your body handles and
metabolizes food.” Some experts believe that eating after dark disrupts the
body’s natural overnight fasting period, which can interfere with its ability
to burn fat. Night owls also happen to consume more calories per day than early
birds, according to a 2011 study in the
journal Obesity–248 more, on average–perhaps because willpower
is lower when you’re tired and we tend to crave unhealthier foods late at
night.
Night owls have a higher risk of
developing diabetes: Several studies
have also found that night owls are more likely to have type 2 diabetes than
morning people. This may be linked to weight gain, unhealthy behaviors, and
getting less sleep overall—but experts also think that just the act of staying
up late can affect the body’s metabolism, as well. “The main role of
circadian rhythm is to anticipate what you’re going to be doing at certain
points of the day,” says Kristen Knutson, PhD,
associate professor of neurology and sleep medicine at Northwestern
University Feinberg School of Medicine. “When there’s a mismatch and you’re not
doing what your biology expects at a certain time, your body may not handle it
as well; it may not process food or glucose as rapidly, for example.”
In one 2015 study, published in the Journal of
Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, men with evening chronotypes were more likely
to have diabetes or sarcopenia (a condition in which the body loses muscle
mass), compared to men with morning chronotypes. Female night owls, compared
with their early bird counterparts, tended to have more belly fat and a greater
risk of metabolic syndrome—a cluster of conditions (like high blood pressure,
high blood sugar, and high cholesterol) that increase a person’s risk for heart
disease and diabetes.
And a harder time controlling their
diabetes, too:
For those who do go on to develop
diabetes, being a night owl can make the condition more difficult to manage.
A 2013 study in Diabetes Care found
that, for people with type 2 diabetes, having a later bedtime is associated
with poorer glycemic control—even after researchers controlled for total sleep
duration. “We know that the amount of sleep you get
is important, but this research is also suggesting that when
you’re sleeping matters, too,” says Knutson, who co-authored the study. Other research in
people with diabetes has also shown a link between evening chronotypes and
unhealthy cholesterol levels.
Night owls get less sleep: Speaking of the amount of sleep you get: Night owls also tend
to get less overall than those who are early-to-bed, early-to-rise.
“If you can’t
fall asleep until 2 or 3 in the morning and you have to be at work at 9, you’re
not going to be able to get as much good-quality sleep as you really should,”
says Dr. Varga. Night owls with weekday jobs tend to make up for some of that
lost sleep on the weekends, when they can sleep in. But research suggests that
this type of “sleep
debt” isn’t
that easy to catch up on—and that shifting your sleep schedule on the weekends
may come with health risks of its own.
Night owls are bigger risk takers: Staying up late and sleeping in every morning is also
associated with a greater tendency for risk-taking, according to a 2014 study in Evolutionary Psychology. While men in the study took more financial
risks than women overall, women who were self-described night owls were more
daring than those who were early birds. Female night owls also had higher
levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which the study authors suspect is a
driving mechanism behind high-stakes behavior. And while taking risks isn’t
always a bad thing, it can sometimes lead to dangerous or unhealthy situations,
like gambling, substance abuse, or unprotected sex.
They're also more likely to be single: That
same 2014 study also found that night owls, both male and female, were more
likely to be single or in short-term romantic relationships. Early birds,
meanwhile, were more likely to be married or with long-term partners. Male
night owls also reported having had twice as many sexual partners compared to
male early birds. There’s nothing wrong with being single, of course—but
research does suggest that, when it comes to health benefits, happily married
people often have a leg up. Partners in long-term relationships may motivate
each other to stay healthy and visit the doctor, experts say, and the
companionship they provide each other is also valuable for mental and physical
health.
Early-morning driving may be dangerous: It
makes sense that night owls tend to be more tired and less alert in the
morning, compared to how they feel during their prime evening hours. But a
small 2014 study in the journal Accident
Analysis and Prevention suggests there may be real risks to that a.m.
sleepiness. The
research, which tested 29 graduate students on driving simulators, found that
evening types were less attentive and more prone to errors at 8 in the morning
than they were at 8 p.m. Morning types, on the other hand, were more consistent
and drove relatively well during both times of the day. The authors say their
findings suggest that employers should tailor individual work schedules around
employees’ chronotypes to cut back on people having to drive or perform
work-related tasks during “non-optimal” times.
Teenage night owls perform worse in
school: It’s not uncommon
for teenagers to have trouble falling asleep before 11 p.m. School
responsibilities and social distractions are two big reasons, but hormonal
changes around puberty can also have a lot to do with teens’ shifted sleep
schedule. Unfortunately, teens aren’t immune to the hazards of staying up late. A
2013 study in the Journal of Adolescent Health
found that teens
who went to bed later than 11:30 during the school year had lower grade-point
averages and were more vulnerable to emotional problems than those who went to
bed earlier. The study underscores the importance of parents enforcing bedtimes and
discouraging the use of electronic devices at night, say the
authors.
It's been linked to depression and poor
mood: In a 2015 study published in Depression and Anxiety, people with a late chronotype were more likely
to have depression and anxiety disorders, compared to people with an early
chronotype. Late sleepers were also more likely to report significant mood
variation throughout the day, with worse mood occurring in the morning. Other
research suggests that the link between chronotype and depression may be
especially prevalent in people with diabetes. That’s not the first time being a
night owl had been linked to negative mood and personality traits.
In 2008, a study in Personality and Individual
Differences found that “morningness”
correlated with agreeableness
and conscientiousness, while “eveningness” was related to neuroticism in women and adolescents. Recently, researchers have suggested that night
owls may have a harder time regulating their emotions. In a 2017 study in the Journal
of Biological Rhythms, scientists found that night owls are more likely to suppress
their feelings and less likely to practice cognitive reappraisal (the ability
to change the way one thinks about something—to “look on the bright side,” for
example) than morning people.
It's associated with alcohol and
tobacco use: A night-owl
lifestyle often goes hand-in-hand with other unhealthy behaviors: People who
consistently stay up late tend to use more alcohol and tobacco products than
those who go to bed early, for example. Of course, that’s not true for all
night owls, and there’s also no evidence that staying up late actually leads to
these behaviors. “It’s not clear whether staying up late is a cause or a
result of these other lifestyle issues,” says Knutson. “In fact, if
you’re staying up late because you can’t fall asleep, these unhealthy behaviors
might be a big part of the problem.”
Night owls die sooner than morning
people: Even with
all of this research, it hasn’t been clear whether the health risks associated
with being a night owl are substantial enough to make a measurable difference
in people’s lives. But Knutson’s most recent study took a big step toward
answering that question. In a paper published in April in Chronobiology International, Knutson and her
colleagues followed
about half a million people, ages 30 to 73, for about six and a half years.
Over that time, they found that those who identified themselves as “definite
evening types” at the start of the study had a 10% higher risk of dying than
those who were “definite morning types.” “People who were
definite night owls were also more likely to have pretty much every health
problem we looked at,” says Knutson. (Those problems included diabetes, neurological
problems, and respiratory disorders, to name a few.) “And now we have evidence to show that staying up late
also seems to be connected to early death or mortality, as well.”
It's not all bad news, though: There are some upsides to being a naturally late sleeper.
Night owls tend to have bigger social networks, and some research has found
them to be more productive and creative than morning birds. One 2011 study even
suggests that night owls have higher levels of cognitive ability, even though
they tend to perform worse on academic testing. Dr. Varga also points out that plenty of night owls lead healthy lives, and
that more research is needed to determine the real-life consequences of staying
up late. “The true data on this is not very strong, and a lot of it
is extrapolated from people in extreme situations, like shift workers,”
he says. “It’s
still not clear how serious the risks are for people whose patterns may be just
a few hours off, so I think some caution is warranted when you’re interpreting
these studies.”
What night owls can do: Your chronotype may be ingrained in your DNA, says Knutson, but that doesn’t mean you can’t change it. “About 50% is genetic, but that leaves another 50% where there’s opportunity for shifting your clock,” she says. “But it does require vigilance and consistency with your schedule, which can be a challenge to maintain.” Night owls can gradually acclimate themselves to an earlier bedtime by turning in a few minutes earlier every night, she says. (Don’t rush it too quickly, or you’ll lie awake for hours.) It’s also important to avoid bright light at night, and to wake up at the same time every day. Exposing yourself to bright light first thing in the morning can also help reprogram the brain to wake up—and subsequently fall asleep—earlier, says Dr. Varga. You can also ask your doctor about taking melatonin, a synthetic version of the brain’s sleep-inducing hormone, key in regulating your internal clock. But will shifting the body’s natural chronotype actually protect against some of the health risks of being a night owl? “We don’t know the answer to that yet, and that’s where the research needs to go next,” says Knutson. “For now, I think it’s most important for night owls to recognize that there are health problems associated with their lifestyle,” she adds. “They seem to be more vulnerable to the consequences of a less healthy lifestyle, so they need to be even more vigilant about making smart choices.”
Amanda MacMillan, Health
Magazine, May 11, 2018
Much Love, Dr.Shermaine #InformativeRead
#PleaseShare
#HealthyBodySoulAndSpirit
#IWantYou2Live
"It's Not Selfish to Love Yourself, Take Care of Yourself
and to Make Your Happiness a Priority. It's a Necessity." (Mandy Hale)
"Self-Care is Not Selfish. You Cannot Serve From an Empty Vessel." (Eleanor Brown)
The contents of the Health Magazine and Self-Care With
Dr. Shermaine Sites, such as text, graphics, images, and other material
contained on the Health Magazine and Self-Care With Dr. Shermaine Sites
("Content") are for informational purposes only. The Content is not
intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or
treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health
provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never
disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of
something you have read on the Health Magazine and Self-Care With Dr. Shermaine
Sites!
If you think you may have a medical emergency, call your doctor or 911 immediately. Health Magazine and Self-Care With Dr. Shermaine does not recommend or endorse any specific tests, physicians, products, procedures, opinions, or other information that may be mentioned on the Sites. Reliance on any information provided by Health Magazine, Health Magazine employees, others appearing on the Site at the invitation of Health Magazine, and Self-Care With Dr. Shermaine or other visitors to the Sites is solely at your own risk.
If you think you may have a medical emergency, call your doctor or 911 immediately. Health Magazine and Self-Care With Dr. Shermaine does not recommend or endorse any specific tests, physicians, products, procedures, opinions, or other information that may be mentioned on the Sites. Reliance on any information provided by Health Magazine, Health Magazine employees, others appearing on the Site at the invitation of Health Magazine, and Self-Care With Dr. Shermaine or other visitors to the Sites is solely at your own risk.
No comments:
Post a Comment