Why night owls are more likely to suffer heart disease

Night owls are much more likely to suffer from heart disease—but if this is you, there’s plenty you can do about it.

People who stay up late are 79 percent more likely to suffer poor cardiovascular health and have a 16 percent greater risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke over the following 14 years—and the risk is greatest in women.

But it’s not just about going to bed late that’s the problem, it’s the poor habits that seem to go with it, say researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital.  Night owls are more likely to have poor sleeping habits, smoke and eat a poor diet.

They examined health data from more than 300,000 adults, with an average age of 57, in the UK Biobank study. Around 8 percent described themselves as ‘definitely evening people’, meaning they typically went to bed very late, often at 2 am).  Around 24 percent said they were ‘morning people’, who tended to wake up earlier, and go to bed around 9 pm.  Most were categorized as having an “intermediate” chronotype who went to bed around 10pm.

The intermediates’ lifestyle didn’t impact on their heart health either way, but the ‘morning people’ had a 5 percent lower risk of heart disease

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