Up with the larks? You’ll live longer than the night owls

‘There is a romance,” wrote Robert Louis Stevenson, “about all those who are abroad in the black hours.” By romance, I assume he meant of the dashing highwayman or smuggler ilk rather than the hanky-panky variety, because I don’t know a single couple who go to bed at the same time.

For my part, I am an insufferable lark married to an inveterate night owl. We don’t so much roost side by side as swap places entirely. I think of it as hot nesting; like hot desking but without the previous incumbent’s coffee stains. I’ve often thought we could downsize to a single bed – perhaps with a mirror and a bell at the end – without too much upheaval.

But given that new research from the University of Surrey and Northwestern University in the US has revealed owls pop off their proverbial perches sooner, I’d prefer to make the most of any precious pre-dawn moments we do spend together.

Apparently people who prefer to stay up late bingeing on box sets have a 10per cent higher risk of early death due to daytime exhaustion and the pressure of adapting to their external environment.

Owls also have increased likelihood of depression, diabetes and neurological disorders. This is clearly no time to crow that “early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise”, not least because other studies have shown owls to be more creative and intelligent whereas we sensible larks make reliable civil servants and accountants.

I could also point out that in nature most owls are crepuscular not nocturnal, but that’s just not the sort of smartass thing even an unreliable accountant would say.

The good news is that with patience and application owls can alter the circadian rhythm that governs sleep.

But how would I feel about my spouse joining me in the mornings? At present I can preen, flutter and chirrup away to my heart’s content; I am the Lark Ascending and one per household is more than enough.