Studies have shown that being a night owl can carry health risks, including increased risk of metabolic conditions due to a tendency to make poor dietary choices.
But new research from the University of Birmingham in the UK is providing details about how night owls’ brain activity can impact their lives, especially productivity.
Studying night owls
The new study divided 38 healthy volunteers into two groups: 22 night owls (who, on average, went to bed at 2:30 a.m. and woke up at 10:15 a.m.) and 16 early risers.
The groups were determined based on melatonin and cortisol circadian rhythms, not just self-reported descriptions. The research team had the volunteers fill out questionnaires about their rhythms, but also monitored all the participants’ sleep and wake patterns. They watched the volunteers’ brain activity under MRIs and measured their performance on various tasks throughout the day to determine how their ability to function was affected by sleep-wake cycles.
This is your brain with jet lag
The researchers discovered some major differences in the two groups, including:
• The night owls had lower resting brain connectivity in the brain regions associated with maintaining a state of consciousness. This was linked to slower reaction times, shorter attention spans and lower energy levels.
• Early risers said they were less sleepy during morning tasks and they performed better and had faster reaction times during these challenges.
• Night owls performed best around 8 p.m., but even though this is when they showed their best reactions times, they didn’t do much better at 8 p.m. than the early risers did at 8 p.m.
“This mismatch between a person’s biological time and social time—which most of us have experienced in the form of jet lag—is a common issue for night owls trying to follow a normal working day,” explains Dr. Elise Facer-Childs. “Our study is the first to show potential intrinsic, neuronal mechanism behind why night owls may face cognitive disadvantages when being forced to fit into these constraints.”
