In prehistoric times, a mix of mismatched bedtimes served an evolutionary purpose. The cycles are genetically set, with about half of people falling into the midrange - meaning they neither wake at dawn nor fall asleep past midnight - and the others evenly split as morning larks or night owls. A chronotype is an internal “body clock” that determines when people feel awake or tired during a 24-hour period. To feel sleepy requires a biochemical cascade of events to kick into action, and that timing is determined by a person’s chronotype. So why don’t such people just go to bed earlier? The answer is complicated. ![]() (The study is available as a preprint and has not yet been peer-reviewed.) On his podcast, Matthew Walker, a professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of California-Berkeley and author of “Why We Sleep,” said it was the difference of 6.6 hours a night versus more than 7 hours a night, leading night owls to accumulate a chronic sleep debt. They also pointed out an important theme that echoes other studies - that people who fall into the night-owl category regularly sleep less than early risers. More specifically, the researchers found evidence that evening-type people slept longer and better while working from home, with a corresponding decrease in symptoms of depression and insomnia. The findings: The pandemic’s work-from-home flexibility helped the participants better align their work and sleep schedules - many of them for the first time. They then used web-based questionnaires to discover the impacts of remote working on sleep health. Through social media, they identified 875 people who represented in-office and remote workers. In a recent study, they found that many Italians who don’t typically fit into a traditional daylight timetable thrived and their health improved when the pandemic’s remote working conditions allowed them to work later hours.įederico Salfi, a doctoral student at the University of L’Aquila and self-professed night owl, joined with colleagues late in 2020 to examine how the work-from-home trend influenced Italian sleep habits. Researchers in Italy are among those tapping into this question. ![]() Subscribe to KHN's free Morning Briefing. The pandemic “was an international experiment to understand how sleep changes when work hours and work environments change,” said Baron. Her research has found that keeping late evening hours can cause even healthy night owls to be prone to bad habits like eating fast food, not exercising, and socializing less.īut the covid-19 pandemic, which forced many people to telework, allowed more flexibility in work schedules, prompting sleep scientists to rethink assumptions about sleep and how to assess patients. ![]() “We would get better performance out of employees if they were allowed to work at their best working time.” She noted that poor sleep is also a driver of worker absenteeism and use of sick days. “It is harder for night owls to function in the world because they’re out of sync with the conventional schedule,” said Kelly Baron, an associate professor at the University of Utah who studies sleep health and clinically treats patients who have insomnia. Research also has shown that conventional timetables leave them vulnerable to physical and mental health issues. Research shows that “night owls” are hard-wired to sleep later, yet 9-to-5 work schedules force them to battle their physiology and wake up early.
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