LONDON (Dispatches)-People who prefer to stay up late and sleep late have 10 percent higher risk of dying sooner than larks, people who go to bed early and rise early, reports a new study.
According to a new study from Northwestern Medicine and the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom (UK) on nearly half a million participants in the UK Biobank , 'owls' have higher risk of mortality and also suffer from more diseases and disorders than morning larks.
Previous studies in this field have focused on the higher rates of metabolic dysfunction and cardiovascular disease, but this is the first to look at mortality risk.
"This is a public health issue that can no longer be ignored," said Malcolm von Schantz, a professor of chronobiology at the University of Surrey. "We should discuss allowing evening types to start and finish work later, where practical. And we need more research about how we can help evening types cope with the higher effort of keeping their body clock in synchrony with sun time."
"It could be that people who are up late have an internal biological clock that doesn't match their external environment," Knutson said. "It could be psychological stress, eating at the wrong time for their body, not exercising enough, not sleeping enough, being awake at night by yourself, maybe drug or alcohol use. There are a whole variety of unhealthy behaviors related to being up late in the dark by yourself."
Scientists found owls had higher rates of diabetes, psychological disorders and neurological disorders.