Are you a night owl who likes to stay up late? You might want to rethink your sleeping habits. A new study has found that night owls are more likely to die at a younger age, but not because of their bedtime.
By Mashable ME
The study analyzed data on 22,976 Finnish adult twins who identified their chronotype - their tendency to want to sleep or be active at certain times. The researchers followed them for 37 years, from 1981 to 2018.
They found that the chance of dying from any cause was 9 percent higher in those who declared themselves definite evening types than those who were definite morning types. But the reason was not their chronotype itself.
Instead, the main reason was their lifestyle choices. Night owls were more likely to smoke and drink more, which increased their risk of dying from tobacco-related diseases and alcohol poisoning.
Non-smokers who also didn’t drink much in this night owl group were at no increased risk of dying from any cause. The researchers concluded that there was little or no independent contribution of chronotype to mortality.
The researchers also did not find any increase in cardiovascular-related mortality risk among night owls, unlike a previous study. They suggested that the differences in the population samples and health status might explain this discrepancy.
The researchers advised that public health recommendations related to sleep and chronotype should take into account the associations of chronotype with lifestyle factors that are known to increase the risk of premature morbidity and mortality.
So, if you are a night owl, you might want to pay more attention to your smoking and drinking habits, rather than your bedtime. And if you are a morning person, you might want to keep up your healthy lifestyle intact.