Night Owl or Early Bird – Who Lives Longer?

Health Wellness

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We all know people who we would describe as night owls. They stay up late and love to sleep in, often getting up late.

My youngest daughter has always been a night owl to the extreme. Even when she was in grade school, we had to force her to go to bed. Many a night we would wake around midnight to 1am and find her bedroom light on with her awake, usually reading a book. It was great she loved to read but midnight wasn’t the time for reading. In the mornings, it was always a battle getting her up, ready for school and out the door.

These days, she is still a night owl, often staying up to wee hours of the morning reading or watching TV. Sadly, she has a teenaged daughter who is being raised to be a night owl just like her mom.

A number of my work colleagues and employees over the years were night owls and they were the ones that were habitually late for work of barely able to function on the job until noon. Some of them got reprimanded and sadly, in most cases, they didn’t change their habit and were eventually let go from their jobs because of excessive tardiness.

We all know people who we would describe as early birds or morning larks. They like to go to bed early and get up early.

Our oldest daughter was and still is an early bird. Back when she was a preschooler, we would often find her in bed asleep as early as 8:00pm to 9:00pm. She would put herself to sleep. She didn’t stay up late reading and she was much easier to wake up in the morning, generally with a smile on her face and ready to go.

I have always been an early bird. I had to get up early to tend to chores and animals before going to school. One of the jobs I had, started at 5:00am in the morning during the hotter half of year and it was no problem for me to go to bed early and get up early.

I’m sure these scenarios apply to many of you or members of your family or close friends.

Is there a health benefit or risk associated with either being a night owl or early bird? Does one group live longer than the other?

According to a new study:

“‘Night owls’ might pay a price when it comes to their health and longevity, a new study reports.”

“Folks who stay up late and struggle to wake in the morning have a 10 percent higher risk of dying sooner than so-called ‘morning larks’ who are early to bed and early to rise, said lead researcher Kristin Knutson. She’s an associate professor of neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.”

Knutson’s study involved 433,000 British adults. They were asked to categorize themselves into 4 groups or types – definite morning, moderate morning, definite night or moderate night. The researchers then tracked the health of all of the participants for 6.5 years. They checked on sleeping patterns that were associated with increased risk of illness or death.

In addition to finding out that night owls had a higher risk of illness and death, they discovered:

“Night owls also had more health problems — twice the risk of psychological disorders, 30 percent more risk of diabetes, 25 percent increased risk of neurological problems, 23 percent higher risk of gastrointestinal disorders and 22 percent increased risk of respiratory disease.”

Knutson commented:

“It is important for people who are night owls to learn there may be health consequences, but there may be things they can do to help overcome those problems. There’s hope, but it may take some effort.”

If you or someone in your family is a night owl, you may to make an effort to change that habit or pattern. Try going to bed earlier and getting up earlier. Move your alarm clock away from the bed to force getting out of bed to turn it off. Don’t use the snooze button. Once up to turn off the alarm, start your day. It will be hard at first but perseverance should pay off. They say it takes a minimum of 28 days to break a habit and establish a new habit. The longer you had the old habit, the longer it can take to change, but repeated effort will cause your brain to form new signal routes (this is what creates and keeps habits). In time, you may be glad you made the effort and so will those around you.

Early Bird Life Expectancy Night Owl

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