Night owls face earlier death

♦ Night owls – individuals who stay up late and struggle to get out of bed in the morning – are more likely to die sooner than morning larks, the first study into their death rates has found.

New research by the University of Surrey and Northwestern University in the US found that 10 per cent more people who naturally stayed up late died within the period covered by the study, six-and-a-half years, than those who preferred the morning.

Researchers said that the stress of operating in a traditional nine-to-five society was having a huge impact on millions of people and could be shortening their lives.

“This is a public health issue that can no longer be ignored,” said Prof Malcolm von Schantz of 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.”

The research, involving nearly 500,000 Britons aged between 38 and 73, found that around 9 per cent considered themselves evening people, while 27 per cent identified as morning types. If extrapolated to the entire UK population it would mean some 5.8million people were at greater risk of early death because they were out of sync with the environment.

“Night owls trying to live in a morning lark world may have health consequences for their bodies,” said Kristen Knutson, associate professor of neurology at Northwestern University and the co-lead author.

The study was published in the journal Chronobiology International.