

“In addition, male night owls reported twice as many sexual partners than male early birds.” “Night owls, both males and females, are more likely to be single or in short-term romantic relationships versus long-term relationships, when compared to early birds,” Maestripieri said. Night owls-people who tend to stay up late and wake up late in the morning-are different in many important ways from early risers, he found. The research suggests that sleep patterns are linked with important character traits and behavior, said study author Dario Maestripieri, professor in Comparative Human Development. That means no television, laptop or smart screens unless you use a filter that turns the blue light into the amber or reddish orange range, which doesn’t suppress melatonin.Īnother tip: Eat much earlier in the evening than you might prefer, Zee said: “My rule: Stop eating within three hours of bedtime.” Move your exercise routine to the morning or early afternoon, and avoid heavy exercise in the evening, as well.Women who are night owls share the same high propensity for risk-taking as men, according to a recent study by a University of Chicago professor. You want to change things at night as well, Zee said, by removing bright sources of light much earlier to help your body begin to produce melatonin. You are also training all your rhythms, whether it’s sleep, blood pressure, heart rate or your cortisol rhythm to be earlier.”

“Light in the morning changes the oscillation of your circadian clock genes at both a cellular and molecular level. “The strongest reset for the circadian system is bright light,” Zee said. Use natural sunlight if possible, or turn on artificial lights, especially those in the blue spectrum, which tells the body to wake up.

If being a night owl worries you, there are things you can do to flip the switch from night to day - at least a bit, Zee told CNN previously: “It’s like if you have a gene for diabetes, right? You can modify that with your lifestyle, but it doesn’t change it.”įirst, start with light - lots of it, just as soon as the alarm goes off. “Several mechanisms have been proposed: sleep loss, circadian misalignment, eating later in the day and being exposed to less morning light and more evening light, which have all been shown to affect insulin sensitivity,” said Zee, who is also a professor of neurology at Northwestern. Phyllis Zee, director of the Center for Circadian and Sleep Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, who reviewed the 2022 study for CNN, said at the time “there is good evidence that being a late sleeper has been linked to a higher risk for metabolic and cardiovascular disease. Night owls also have higher levels of visceral body fat in the abdominal region, a key risk factor for type 2 diabetes and heart disease.ĭr. Studies have revealed night owls may take more risks and are more likely to skip breakfast and eat more later in the day. Night owls were also more likely to be insulin-resistant, meaning their muscles required more insulin to be able to get the energy they need, the study showed. A 2022 study found night owls were more sedentary, had lower aerobic fitness levels, and burned less fat at rest and while active than early birds. Night owls may be at higher risk for chronic disease, prior research has shown. In night owls, however, the internal body clock secretes melatonin much later, making early mornings sluggish and pushing peak activity and alertness later into the afternoon and evening. If you’re an innate early bird, your circadian rhythm releases melatonin much earlier than the norm, energizing you to become most active in the morning.Įarly birds tend to perform better in school and are more active throughout the day, which may partly explain why studies have found they have less risk of cardiovascular disease, experts say. Your personal sleep chronotype, which is thought to be inherited, may determine when that process occurs.
