What time should you go to sleep to preserve mental health?

In the community of those who study human sleep, people who tend to stay up very late are known as “owls.” The term is derived from the nocturnal habits of these birds, which can hunt in the dark.

New research by scientists at Stanford University in the United States revealed that following the natural inclination to stay awake into the wee hours of the morning may be a poor choice for mental health. The study was published in the journal Psychiatry Research, which recommends turning off the lights before 1 in the morning.

Last year another study found that night owls had a higher risk of diabetes. Now, in a survey of nearly 75,000 adults, researchers compared participants’ preferred sleep schedule, known as chronotype, with their actual sleep behavior.

A study by scientists at Stanford University in the United States recommends turning off the lights before 1 in the morning (Illustrative image Infobae)

Regardless of preferred bedtime, researchers found that everyone benefits from going to bed early.

Both morning larks (as people who wake up early are called) and night owls tended to have higher rates of mental and behavioral disorders if they stayed up late.

“We found that alignment with chronotype is not crucial in this case and that staying up late is not good for mental health. The question is why,” said Jamie Zeitzer, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and lead author of the study.

A previous study by Zeitzer’s team suggested that women with cancer who slept against their chronotype had a shorter life expectancy. “There is a lot of data that indicates that living according to your chronotype is very important. That was our expectation,” she commented.

The researchers set out to study alignment with chronotype in a broader population. They looked at middle-aged and older adults in the United Kingdom, asking them about their sleep, including their preference for morning or evening sleep.

The study investigated the chronotype alignment of middle-aged and older adults in the United Kingdom. They were asked about their sleep, including their preference for morning or night (Illustrative Image Infobae)

They were sent a wearable accelerometer (basically a fancy activity tracker, according to Zeitzer) to track their sleep for seven days. The mental health of the participants was determined through their medical records. The researchers took into account any mental or behavioral disorders included in the International Classification of Diseases.

Of the 73,880 participants, 19,065 self-identified as morning people, 6,844 as afternoon people, and 47,979 as intermediate people.

Their sleep behavior was assessed by the entire group. The first 25% were considered to sleep early, the last 25% to sleep late, and the second 50% to sleep in between.

Categorizing sleep behavior this way, Zeitzer explained, rather than by specific bedtimes, is more meaningful because different populations may have different sleep norms.

They found that night owls true to their chronotype were 20% to 40% more likely to be diagnosed with a mental disorder, compared to night owls who followed an early or intermediate sleep schedule (Illustrative Image Infobae)

When the researchers analyzed the data, they were surprised to discover that aligning with one’s chronotype was not the best option for everyone’s mental health.

The results were clear: both those who went to bed late in the morning and those who went to bed at night had higher rates of mental disorders, such as depression and anxiety.

“ The worst case scenario is, without a doubt, that of night owls who go to bed late,” Zeitzer highlighted. Night owls true to their chronotype were 20% to 40% more likely to be diagnosed with a mental disorder, compared to night owls who followed an early or intermediate sleep schedule.

Night owls who followed an earlier schedule fared better. The morning ones that followed a later schedule suffered, but not too much.

People who rose with the sun tended to have the best mental health of all study participants (Getty)

Morning larks who rose with the sun tended to have the best mental health of all, much to everyone’s surprise.

The researchers found that sleep duration and consistency of sleep schedule could not explain these differences in mental health. They also tested the possibility that poor mental health was the cause of people staying up late, rather than the other way around. They followed a subset of participants with no prior diagnosis of mental disorder for the next eight years.

During that time, night owls who stayed up late were the most likely to develop a mental disorder.

There may be many explanations for the relationship between sleep time and mental well-being, but Zeitzer believes it is probably due to the poor decisions people make in the wee hours of the morning.

In the early hours of the morning, worse decisions would be made than at other times of the day (Illustrative image Infobae)

Many harmful behaviors are more common at night, such as suicidal thoughts, violent crime, alcohol and drug use, and overeating.

One theory, known as the “after-midnight mind” hypothesis, suggests that neurological and physiological changes late at night may foster impulsivity, negative mood, impaired judgment, and increased risk-taking.

Another explanation could be a social mismatch with the dominant chronotype. “There may be fewer social constraints late at night because fewer people are awake,” Zeitzer said.

Although Zeitzer advises night owls to go to bed before 1 a.m., he knows that’s easier said than done. Getting sun in the morning and following an earlier routine every day of the week might change sleep patterns, but it doesn’t change chronotype.

People who are night owls should sunbathe in the morning and follow an earlier routine every day of the week. That would help improve sleep patterns (Getty)

“From a biological point of view, it’s a lot like a rubber band: you take a day off and you go back to the point where your body wants to be,” he explains.

His team plans to examine whether certain nighttime behaviors, rather than the schedule itself, are linked to poor mental health.

In dialogue with Infobae, Dr. Daniel Cardinali, an expert in neuroscience and sleep and professor emeritus at the University of Buenos Aires, commented on the study published by Stanford researchers: “It is an interesting investigation. “It suggests that people with a morning preference who go to bed early tend to have better mental health than morning people who go to bed late.”

Also mentioned by Cardinali, it is observed that people with a nocturnal preference who sleep late have worse mental health. That is, people who get up early have an advantage.