As Scott Fitzgerald wrote (I am paraphrasing) "Comes midnight, then thirteen o'clock, fourteen o'clock". Yup, me too.
I suspect that the night owls who did poorly health wise were actually sleep deprived. If your natural rhythms keep you up til after midnight, you need to sleep until after eight o’clock in the morning to get a proper rest. Good luck with that if you have a regular job - you need to be at work at eight! On the other hand if you perk up at around six each morning it’s not so difficult to get to sleep by ten in the evening - lots of my friends have regular ten o’clock bed times. We know there’s a huge problem with sleep deprivation in this country. And we know that sleep deprivation leads to all kinds of health problems, both physical and mental. It’s hard to believe this well known and important factor was not taken into account.
One could argue that the problem is not with night owls, but with the way society is geared towards morning people. When we are forced to fight our natural circadian rythms, it can be harmful to health.
There's more to this story than the lead author (Knutson) is implying.
3
Jonathan Richman sings, "At night, at night, at night, that's when I get my bright ideas." I get up earlier than I used to, but it's still a drag, and every night never ends—I merely surrender earlier than I would have at a younger age. I could pine for an article in counter-point, about how night people live their wonderful wild lives, but I've already had therapy. God bless morning people, with their reasonable beaks; I love you, too.
1
We're all going to die. I'll do so after a late, lazy morning in bed with a good book and a steaming cup of joe. Enjoy your darkness and early AM productivity.
1
Correlation is not causation.
4
Probably because they're not forced to medicate themselves to fall asleep when early birds fall asleep like I have to. My natural sleep schedule is 2AM-10AM. Good luck getting a job that lets me have that sleep schedule. Glad to know I'm sacrificing my health so I can better conform with early birds.
7
I wonder if it’s more a question of flexibility or inflexibility that’s key to this. Maybe the night owls are less able to cope with changing their natural patterns. Getting up early every morning takes great discipline. Having a flexible wake up time for me is much less stressful and pushes me into the night owl arena.
I am not a morning person but my swim team practices at 7:30 am. I love a good workout in the pool more than I love my bed so I go 3 times a week. The rest of the time I enjoy sleeping late .
I am not a "morning person," and I have looked into why. I have tried, with no success, various programs to change to a "morning person." What I have learned is that serotonin is the body's wake up call. In the morning, mine kicks in quite late. This affects my state of mind, makes my digestion and bowels sluggish in the morning, and makes it challenging to exercise that early. When I was a child and late for school, it was a constant source of frustration (and anger from my parents that I could not bounce out of bed in the morning).
And like teenagers, my serotonin does not "shut down" early enough in the evening (or my body's melatonin does not kick in soon enough) to allow me to fall sleep, although I eschew blue-light devices and food before bed.
What does work for me is SUNLIGHT in the morning, as it stimulates serotonin. (Florida is urging the US Congress to pass Daylight Savings Time year round for Florida will be a disaster for those of us with serotonin issues.)
We are not lazy. We have a different chemical makeup than "morning people," and studies have shown that any number of forced sleep training programs do not work long term. Our bodies just revert to their natural patterns.
I think so long as people eat well, get enough sleep, exercise regularly, and reduce stress, we likely have the same potential for longevity as morning people. I believe the problem may be in trying to force ourselves into unnatural sleep patterns.
10
I'm a certified night owl. yes, my sleep doctor actually diagnosed me thus. I have found that when I'm allowed to actually live my life as a night owl, I'm happier and healthier. however, when I'm *forced* into a "morning lark" routine - by parents, school, spouses, work, stupid magazine article that tell me how "easily" I can change my diurnal clock - I become quite ill. I suspect that may be why these "researchers" came to the conclusions they did. and I remember back to when left-handed children in school were verbally abused, physically constrained, and mocked into becoming right-handed.
15
Did this study take into account things such as drinking, smoking, activities that may have adverse effect on health, and take place more often in the evening (such as barhopping). If you weed out these risk factors, what difference would there be between the roosters and the owls? By the way, I often question the benefit of making “column/byte” space for all these “health porn” studies. I am reminded of my grandmothers, both of whom were punctual night owls, smoked, worked full-time into their late 70s, and died at age 94 and 96.
4
Until someone comes up with the actual cause for the apparent discrepancy, it's just another "urban legend."
7
If you are happy with your natural "assignment" of morning person or evening person...you are who you are....you will most likely live long. No resistance, just "that is who I am". Acceptance instead of wishing to be another way promotes longevity.
4
I suspect that the healthiest are those who are able to live their lives according to the sleep/wake cycles that are natural for their body. Being forced to sleep and wake on some other schedule is very stressful. And stress is very hard on your health.
29
No doubt! I've had to force myself out of night owl mode for decades because I have a "real job". Hate it.
15
I'd be interested in supplementary data about how often the "definite evening" disposition is heredity, and whether the health issues cited here also hold true for people that scenario.
I come from a family where the night owl quirk spans generations. We all experience it the same way: our best thinking is done between 10 PM and about 4 AM. Regardless of when we make ourselves go to sleep or wake up, there's a direct correlation between that time of night and a greater ability to concentrate, absorb new information, generate solutions to stressful problems, etc. We all additionally find it challenging to fall asleep in a setting that's still and quiet, yet have no trouble napping when people are clattering around and conversing nearby.
I've wondered for some time if there isn't a primitive, evolutionary use for this abnormality. From the earliest and most primitive societies until fairly recent history, a small number of people keeping watch all night was necessary for everyone's survival. The ability to remain alert during those hours and sleep soundly in the noisy light of day indicates someone is impervious to the sun-related cues that help dictate and streamline our circadian rhythms. Perhaps for some people – whose night-oriented schedules are not in any way linked to recreation or job necessities – it's a feature, not a bug?
17
As a working person, I had to awake at 6:15 A.M. and was in bed by 10:30 PM. Since retiring, I have modified my bed time to around midnight and awake around 8:OO AM. People who need to eat dinner by 6 and in bed by 9 are off my evening social calendar list. They have given in to the old age schedule, of which I can never see myself doing. I do enjoy a light nap or rest late afternoon, if possible. Such a luxury!
10
Ugh, this will just further reinforce the unjustified moralism of morning people. I love getting up at a time when the world has been busy for a while and my email inbox is ready for attention over a noontime brunch. As an academic I have the good fortune of some control over my teaching times, and can usually set them for afternoon and evening, when I'm firing on all cylinders. And then there is the delight of working out late and dining even later and then avoiding indigestion by staying up even later still, through those tranquil beautiful early morning hours in which I'm writing this. My youthful years in a 9-6 pm bureaucracy felt far less like living. I suspect the explanation for worse all-cause mortality is some combination of the chronic sleep deprivation theory, the unhealthy recreation indulgence theory (the least healthy of these actually being couchpotatoing for long hours of television), and the pathologies of loneliness -- people who live with others have trouble maintaining night owl practices because of the need to fit with others' routines, so most practicing night owls probably live alone, but living alone correlates with many unhappy causes and effects. Those of us who aren't especially lonely and are relishing the nightlife can hope to have many nights to come.
39
What happens when you’re both a morning person and night owl like me? *sigh*
1
"...age and sex, smoking, body mass index, sleep duration and other variables"
Does those "other variables" include that people who stay up late are more likely to be drink more alcohol, take more drugs (or take them at all), and are more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior? Coupled with that people who get up early not only are less likely to engage in those activities they are also likely to be getting exercise in those early morning hours? Because it seems to me those variables could likely account for the entire discrepancy between the two groups of people.
2
Those are some pretty big assumptions, I'm guessing not supported by scientific evidence.
7
These authors have demonstrated correlation, not causation.
Maybe changing your sleep pattern will improve your health. Or, maybe your underlying health issues are WHY you stay up late. In that case, changing your sleep patterns will add nothing to your health.
16
I concur...it's the first thing that jumped out at me. The "advice" from the researcher to make even gradual changes might create *worse* outcomes. There is absolutely nothing in the study that suggests changing your owlishness or lack thereof is beneficial. Giving behavioral advice based on a correlation is very poor "science"-and I abuse the word when applied this way.
15
when I started uni I was a night owl - staying up to 5am playing ouija boards – and would get up around 5pm to have the uni refectory dinner meal – as my breakfast
now I'm retired I'm more of a morning person - usually waking around 745am - thanks to the barking dog next door ...
5
From "Act One" by Moss Hart
"There is ample evidence, I am certain, that the early-morning hours are the golden ones for work, and the testimony of such loiterers as myself on the enduring joys of late-rising carries little weight with the folk who are up and about at dawn, busily improving those shining early hours. They continue to have my blessing from the depths of a warm and skeptical bed. I accept their data on the beauties of the early morning along with their thinly veiled scorn of my own pitiable indolence; but the truth is, I have never been able to understand the full extent of my loss. The Bay of Naples and the harbor at Rio de Janeiro were still there at one o'clock in the afternoon when I first laid eyes on them, and were even more beautiful, it seemed to me, for my being wide awake and thoroughly refreshed when I did look upon them. So far as I know, anything worth hearing is not usually uttered at seven o'clock in the morning; and if it is, it will generally be repeated at a much more reasonable hour for a larger and more wakeful audience. Much more likely, if it is worth hearing at all, it will be set down in print where it can be decently enjoyed by dawdling souls, like myself, who lumpishly resist the golden glow of dawn."
51
That is absolutely beautiful, N.
But in tropics and elsewhere, the birds greet the dawn with the most beautiful music, so there is something to hear along with the beauty of a sunrise. Of course, most mornings, on the way to work, there is little birdsong in my vicinity.
9
I personally disagree on that, usually morning people have a higher incidence of hypertension, which is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease
6
Citations for that claim, please.
6
As a night owl and a lifelong sufferer of anxiety, I am glad to see this article. This is an obscure topic and another reason I have been a lifelong reader of the NY Times.
Even when I got up early for work and school as a young man I was never productive or sociable before noon. Now I own a company and am always waiting (or medicating) to get myself in the mood to talk to colleagues and clients. My mood is better at night and I usually read 1-2 hours until 2-4am.
My article doesn't touch on mood but that is a key element of my rhythm. I hope to see more articles on morning person/night owl insights and have a few more to share of my own
12
I never go to bed before 9 AM. This way I'm always active in early morning hours and expect to live forever.
21
Hmm..., I've been a night person for most of my life, but as I've been getting older I'm finding it easier to go to bed earlier and get up earlier. (Don't sleep as soundly as I used to -- common enough when you get older -- and that may have something to do with it). I wonder, is this sort of change typical?
I also have to object to the idea that night people ought to try to adjust their schedules. Even if it's true that there is increased mortality associated with being a night person (on average, always remember!), it doesn't follow that forcing yourself to a different schedule will change anything.
27
Actually, the same thing has happened to me -lighter sleep, and waking up in the morning, at a time that would have seemed torture in the past. And I get sleepy at night much earlier. At one time if I thought my circadian rhythm was out of whack (as required by a day job) I would intentionally stay up for a 24 - ish hours to get tired enough to sleep through the night, and start over... sort of like fighting jet lag. But i think this is a new normal.
3
At age 82 I agree totally. In order to get the 8 to 9 hrs I require to be rested and not to continually wake up in the morning hours I now go to bed at 830 and wake about 5 or 530 and once in a while at 430. I sleep soundly through the night without the previous wake and sleep cycles from 4 on.Of course, my prostate still briefly requires me to get up at 1 or 2. I make coffee in my bathroom, have a piece of coffee cake and read the Times until the rest of the house wakes up.
2
"my time of day is the dark time
A couple of dews before dawn"
I am a confirmed morning person, but I am sure all my other bad habits will balance out any advantage I get - plus how aggravated I get at daylight savings time I am sure will knock years off my life..
8
Always have been a morning person, I was conditioned growing up to wake early for morning newspaper routes and school. Always struggled to stay up late even during college years or late night parties - I'd be the first to leave. With the widespread use of high caffeine "energy" drinks and speed like adderall now and the use of sleep aids like ambien, i wonder what the long term effects are on its users. Is "forced" sleep as effective or beneficial as a natural sleep cycle?
5
The resounding oversight here in determination of morning or evening identity is the consideration of birth time. People born late and night and up to nearly dawn will be night people. After the "Hour of the Wolf", the hour before sunrise, the births will produce day people. Time of birth is more the determining factor of day or night activity and rigorous daytime schedules punish night people more than their daylight active companions. You are most likely to most enjoy the time of day during which you drew your first breath.
Silver Bill, Missouri
6
I've wondered about whether birth time is a factor. However, I was born at 7:48 am and have always been a night person.
We are all mortals.
12
Good! I am a morning person and have always loved my private early morning time and getting the most out of every day. I think it is much healthier to be a morning person.
11
As a night person I have also alway loved my private early morning time, and getting the most out of every day.
35
There are 24 hours in a day. Unless you decide on sleeping less, there is no way of "getting more out of a day". Nothing against your morning preference. Matter of personal preference.
37
There is a wonderful time at night, when things are darkened and quiet, and you can fully concentrate on your reading or work, with no threat of an interruption in the flow.
49
At age 82, I hit the pillow at about 3:30 am. I picked up this routine when I retired from full-time work. With no reason to get up at any particular time, I let my body figure it out. After a year of this experiment, my chronological clock set itself at hit the sack at about 3:30 and rise about 8 hours later. And so that is what works for me.
59
This finding is easily explained. Night owls are chronically sleep deprived due to the early start times often required in business and industry.
95
I was about to say just that. Morning people get to have their lives revolve around their natural schedule. Most night owls are forced into chronic sleep deprivation patterns by society, so *OF COURSE* they are less healthy.
34
Thank you! It is such an injustice to night owls that they have to be shoe-horned into a schedule that doesn't work for them. When I worked in a regular office job, it was always a struggle to get in before 10 and so I there was a sense that I wasn't a dedicated worker. I would happily stay later but it didn't have same impact.
24
True!
7
I suspect that Dr Knutsen, who claims that night owls can move themselves out of the night owl range, is not a night owl. For a true night owl, attempts to shift to more of a daytime focused schedule reduce productivity and leave your mind feeling dull. It’s also hard to make it through the day or enjoy life. The biggest problem for a night owl is that other people think it’s straightforward to get up at ungodly hour. They somehow think that anyone who can’t or won’t do so is lazy or not motivated or has some other character flaw. If someone were 7 feet tall no one would suggest that they just adapt to living in a house with 5 foot ceilings. So why force night owls to live by an equally constrained and uncomfortable sleep wake schedule?
102