Is it OK to be a night owl?

If you're a night owl, some behaviors, such as consistently eating late dinners or exposing yourself to bright non-ambient light in the evening, may have helped train your internal clock to shift a bit later than normal. But, being a night owl may also just be in your genes.

Is being a night owl good?

The study found that the strength of morning people remained stable throughout the day, while night owls showed a burst of strength in the evening, the result of increased motor cortex and spinal cord excitability working together in the evening hours.

Do night owls have higher IQ?

Studies show that night owls and those who wake up later actually are smarter and more creative than their early rising counterparts. They also have higher IQs according to The Independent. Unfortunately, night owls have slightly lower academic scores than early risers (by about 8%).

What does it mean if you're a night owl?

A night owl, evening person or simply owl, is a person who tends to stay up until late at night, or the early hours of the morning. Night owls who are involuntarily unable to fall asleep for several hours after a normal time may have delayed sleep phase disorder.

What causes someone to be a night owl?

"The human clock is about 24 hours, thanks to Earth's 24-hour light-dark cycle," Sharkey says. "But some people have a slightly longer natural cycle, and some are slightly shorter." If your circadian rhythm is on the long side, you're more likely to be a night owl.

Is Being a Night Owl Harmful for Your Health?

Is it OK to be nocturnal?

But having night-owl tendencies may come with serious health effects. Recent studies have discovered that, regardless of their lifestyle, people who stay up late had both higher levels of body fat and an increased risk of developing other health problems, such as diabetes and low muscle mass, than did early birds.

Do night owls live longer?

In fact, a large study published in Chronobiology International (via Science Daily) found that not only do night owls have a higher risk of many diseases, they are 10% more likely to die early than early birds.

Are night owls less healthy?

In fact, a 2018 study analyzing the relationship between bedtime habits and health in almost half a million adults found that night owls are at more at risk for developing diabetes, when compared with individuals who identified as morning people. These sleep disturbances can have other consequences, too.

Is it better to be a morning person or night owl?

Although morning types may achieve more academically, night owls tend to perform better on measures of memory, processing speed and cognitive ability, even when they have to perform those tasks in the morning. Night-time people are also more open to new experiences and seek them out more.

How common are night owls?

According to researchers, while a third of the population doesn't have a strongly defined chronotype, 30 percent are ascribed night owls.

Are night owls lazy?

While the circadian rhythms of night owls are out of sync with the world as we have fashioned it, it does not mean they are lazy.

Was Einstein a night owl?

Einstein is said to have slept punctually for 10 hours each night, which is considerably more than the average sleep duration – added to this were daytime naps. All this points towards is that the personification of genius was also the personification of liberal sleep!

What are the disadvantages of being a night owl?

There's a risk of suffering from tiredness, eyestrain, stress, irregular heart beats, diabetes and even cancer. You become a pessimistic person and may develop depression or some other psychiatric conditions. Staying awake late at night or pulling an all-nighter can make you have erratic eating patterns.

Is it healthy to wake up late?

People who go to bed late and wake up late can often experience health problems because their body clock does not align with the regular rhythms of modern society. However, a new study suggests that a few easy routine adjustments could go a long way for night owls.

Why do I function better at night?

Studies prove that night owls show an increase in motor cortex and spinal cord excitability in the late evening hours. This is another good reason to buck tradition once again and exercise at night instead of in the morning.

Why do I like night time so much?

Why is it that some people prefer the night? It could really be for many reasons. The peacefulness of nighttime makes high-concentration work much easier to accomplish. Because there are fewer stimulants and distractions, one is able to work with virtually no interruptions.

Do night owls have depression?

The research

According to the study, those with an inconsistent sleep cycle, a trait that is usually associated with night owls, are more likely to report anxiety and depression.

Are night owls more likely to be depressed?

Accumulating evidence suggests that adults predisposed to be night owls are at a higher risk of major depressive disorder. A study reports that going to bed one hour earlier and getting up an hour earlier may reduce a night owl's depression risk by 23%.

What time of day is your brain the sharpest?

That said, science has indicated that learning is most effective between 10 am to 2 pm and from 4 pm to 10 pm, when the brain is in an acquisition mode. On the other hand, the least effective learning time is between 4 am and 7 am.

Do night owls have shorter lifespans?

Apparently, being a definite evening person was “significantly associated with an increased risk of all-cause mortality over 6.5 years” by about 10%. Translation: Night owls were about 10% more likely to die during this period than morning people.

What time should night owls go to bed?

Usually, people who are night owls stay awake past midnight, and extreme night owls may stay awake until just before or even after dawn. Night owls tend to feel most energetic just before they go to sleep at night. Some night owls have a preference or habit for staying up late, or stay up to work the night shift.

Is it unhealthy to stay up late?

Staying up very late disrupts the body's natural sleep-wake cycle, which can affect a person's mental functioning and energy levels the next day. Frequently staying up all night may lead to sleep problems and can have long-term effects on health.

Does staying up all night shorten your life?

The researchers discovered that those who consistently stayed up late had a whopping 10% increased likelihood of early death.

Does going to bed late shorten your life?

Sleeping less than six hours a night spells trouble for individuals with increased heart risks, based on a recent study linking a short sleep duration to increased risk of death.

How do I stop being nocturnal?