Night owls are more likely to develop diabetes and other heart problems compared to early birds or early risers even if they get the same amount of sleep. That is based from a study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism by Korean doctors.
Based on their study, the researchers found out that people who tend to sleep past midnight may have higher risk of developing arterial stiffening, the early stage of heart disease, than those who go to sleep earlier regardless of whether you may have the same number of hours of sleep.
The study was conducted in at least 1,600 people in South Korea who are ages 47 to 59. They provided information on their sleeping habits and they underwent a series of tests for health assessment, reported WebMD.
Previous studies have also tackled the same topic and incurred results but were only focusing on heart health. However, this study also dealt with other health problems.
"Many night owls don't get enough sleep because they go to bed late but still need to wake up early in the morning," senior author, Dr. Nan Hee Kim, an endocrinologist at Korea University Ansan Hospital told Live Science. "These results support the importance of circadian rhythms in metabolic regulation," he added.
The participants were grouped into two based on their answers. Based on the data, there are 480 people who were early risers and 95 who were evening people. Meanwhile 1,045 people were classified as neither.
They found out that evening people were more likely to have poor sleep quality, unhealthy traits like smoking, having inactive lifestyles and eating late at night compared to morning people. Furthermore, they discovered that night owls were more likely to have high levels of body fat and triglycerides even at a younger age.
Night owls also have higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome. The symptoms of these conditions include increased blood pressure, increased sugar levels, more abdominal fats and high cholesterol levels. All these signs may predispose them to cardiovascular diseases, stroke and diabetes. These are the leading causes of deaths around the world.
"Considering evening type is more prevalent in the younger age groups, these findings are important major health issue," Kim said. He added, "Night owls keen on an earlier bedtime can avoid exposure to lights late at night and take melatonin, a natural chemical that helps people sleep."