Being A ‘Night Owl’ Could Kill You, Study Finds (Video)

A new study says night owls have a higher mortality rate than those who so to bed and wake up early. TC Newman has more:

I (Honor Whitman) wake up at 5.15 a.m. each day to get to work on time, so going to bed at a reasonable hour is a must for me. According to new research, it’s also beneficial to my health; scientists found that “night owls” have a higher risk of early death.

Being a “lark,” as morning people are commonly referred to, has its downsides; I love the idea of staying up late to watch movies, or even going to a club until the early hours and stumbling to bed at 6 a.m. Sadly, I’m usually asleep on the couch by 10 p.m.

Reading the results of this latest study, however, has made me realize that being a lark may not be so bad, after all — for my health, at least.

Kristen Knutson, from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, IL, co-led a study that looked at the effects that being a night owl might have on health and mortality.

Their results are now published in the journal Chronobiology International.

By assessing the bedtime habits of more than 430,000 adults over a period of 6.5 years, Knutson and her team found that night owls are more likely to develop diabetes and neurological and psychological disorders.

And that’s not all; the study also found that night owls are 10 percent more likely to die early than morning larks.