2024-02-19 17:43:00
People who like to stay up late and get up late have a shorter life expectancy than morning people. But that has nothing to do with how long you sleep.
In popular sleep medicine, a distinction is often made between larks and owls – that is, between early risers and night owls. Even if not everyone can be clearly assigned to one type or the other: our biorhythm follows its own internal clock, which is difficult to disrupt.
Now a Finnish study shows: The night owl chronotype has a nine percent increased risk of dying earlier. So is staying awake late at night dangerous?
To find the answer, researchers analyzed data from a large-scale twin study. Between 1981 and 2018, almost 23,000 men and women were observed. At the beginning, the participants were asked whether they would “completely” or “more” see themselves as an early riser or a night owl.
Risk of death increased by nine percent
Based on just over 8,700 deaths, the researchers examined how high the proportion was in one group or the other. It turned out that night owls have a higher risk of death.
The researchers now took other parameters into account, such as body mass index, actual sleep duration and alcohol, drug and tobacco consumption. And the latter in particular revealed abnormalities.
Night owls tended to be younger and consume more alcohol and other drugs: “There is a reciprocal relationship between the reward system and the 24-hour biorhythm (the internal clock, Editor’s note), and the level of alcohol and substance consumption correlates with the preference to stay up later at night, i.e. in the evening.”
The habits are the problem
Translated: The reason for their increased risk of death was not that night owls stayed awake longer. The authors clarify: “Our results suggest that chronotype makes little or no independent contribution to mortality.”
Instead, activities during this waking period increased their risk of death. The evening habits such as drinking and smoking contributed to shortening their lifespan. If they neglected to do this, owls would die no earlier than larks.