Night Owls at Higher Diabetes Risk
A new study from Brigham and Women's Hospital suggests that being a night owl can mean you are more likely to develop diabetes. Going to bed late and waking up late is associated with a nineteen percent increased risk of diabetes.
In general, according to the study, people who go to bed late and wake up late lead less healthy lifestyles compared to early-bird sleep habits. One of the researchers recommends night owls pay more attention to their lifestyle.
In a previous study, the researchers found that people with irregular sleep schedules are at a higher risk of developing diabetes. People with evening chronotypes are more likely to have irregular sleep patterns.
Data from 63,676 female nurses was analyzed. Between the years 2009 and 2017, nurses reported whether they believed themselves to be morning or evening people, along with their diet quality, body mass index or BMI, and physical activity.
Only 11 percent of participants labeled themselves as definitely night owls. Those with evening chronotypes were more likely to drink alcohol in high quantities, eat unhealthy foods, smoke, and weigh more.
The majority of participants were white, female nurses, so the researchers acknowledge that future studies will need to be expanded to include other genders and ethnicities. The researchers also plan to investigate the link between chronotypes and their association with cardiovascular disease.
//Questions//
1. What did one of the researchers recommend?
Answer: One of the researchers recommended that night owls pay more attention to their lifestyle.
Reason: (2nd Paragraph) One of the researchers recommends night owls pay more attention to their lifestyle.
2. What did the nurses have to report?
Answer: The nurses had to report whether they believed themselves to be morning or evening people, along with their diet quality, body mass index or BMI, and physical activity.
Reason: (4th Paragraph) Between the years 2009 and 2017, nurses reported whether they believed themselves to be morning or evening people, along with their diet quality, body mass index or BMI, and physical activity.
3. Why will future studies need to be expanded?
Answer: The majority of participants were white, female nurses, so future studies will need to be expanded to include other genders and ethnicities.
Reason: (6th Paragraph) The majority of participants were white, female nurses, so the researchers acknowledge that future studies will need to be expanded to include other genders and ethnicities.
//Discussions//
Q1
Do you think it's essential to go to bed and get up at the same time every day? Please share your thoughts.
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Yes, I think finding a life cycle that suits the person is essential.
Because I believe this is the best health method that brings out a person's potential.
For example, I need seven and a half hours of sleep.
Of course, light exercise and a good diet are also important.
If I follow the correct cycle, I won't need an alarm clock when I wake up.
Q2
Are you more of an early bird or a night owl? Please support your answer.
->
I'm more of an early riser.
I usually wake up at 6:30 and go to bed at 11.
However, when I was young, I always came home after midnight. That's because I had to work a lot of overtime and couldn't go home early.
I was so tired from the weekend that I slept until the afternoon.
I remember living a very unhealthy lifestyle and being in a bad mood all the time.
Q3
Do you think doctors should prescribe gym memberships to people with unhealthy BMIs? Please discuss.
->
I think it's a good thing if that inspires that person to go to the gym.
However, I think unhealthy people have a hard time changing their ways of thinking.
Rather than recommending exercise, I think suggesting a more psychological solution would be better.
Q4
Should all studies include a range of people from different genders and ethnicities? Please explain.
->
Naturally, I think that various types of people should be the subject of research.
This is because the truth cannot be obtained by researching only a few types of people.
Until now, I think that various studies and drug prescriptions have been biased against racial groups.
However, from now on, various types of people will become customers, and I think the number of customers will increase.
Q5
Which do you think is more unhealthy, eating junk food or drinking alcohol? Please support your answer.
->
I think eating junk food is unhealthy.
Alcohol can be a drug up to a certain amount.
This is because drinking alcohol warms up your body and helps you relax.
Eating junk food can be dangerous sometimes, but I think it's okay if you understand that and then get back to a healthy diet.
Q6
Should smoking be made illegal? Please share your thoughts.
->
Yes, I think so.
I wouldn't say I like cigarettes and have never smoked.
Because I have a weak respiratory system and am very sensitive to smells.
However, I can understand to some extent that some people find smoking essential.
They may have some comforting or relaxing routine.
I think it's important to understand their psychological state and create an environment where they don't have to smoke.
Night Owls at Higher Diabetes Risk
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'Night Owls' Are Often Less Healthy, Upping Diabetes Risk
TUESDAY, Sept. 12, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Staying up late comes naturally to some folks, whether working or relaxing deep into the night.
But being a night owl might come at a cost to one’s health.
1)
People who are night owls have a higher risk of developing diabetes than early birds, a new study has found.
"We found that night owls had a 72% increased risk of developing diabetes compared to early risers," said lead researcher Dr Sina Kianersi, a postdoctoral fellow at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
A big part of that is lifestyle, the researchers found.
2)
"We found that night owls were generally more likely to have an unhealthy lifestyle," Kianersi said. "They were more likely to have a poor diet, an unhealthy weight and less physical activity. They were more likely to be current smokers, to drink a lot of alcohol, or even to have poor sleep."
But even when these lifestyle differences were considered, night owls still had a higher risk of diabetes, Kianersi said.
3)
"That increased risk dropped from 72% to 19% when we adjusted and accounted for their lifestyle," he said. "There's 19% that's not due to their lifestyle, which could have public health and clinical implications."
For the study, the researchers analysed data from nearly 64,000 female nurses who participated in the long-term Nurses' Health Study, which collected their health data from 2009 to 2017.
4)
The data included the nurses' self-reported chronotype or the extent to which they considered themselves an evening or a morning person.
About 11% of the nurses said they were night owls, while 35% were early birds. The rest were somewhere in between.
The results showed that, in general, a healthy lifestyle is affected by being a night owl.
5)
Only 6% of nurses with the healthiest lifestyle were night owls, but 25% of those with the unhealthiest lifestyle were night owls, the study found.
However, the research also found that when a person's work schedule matched their night owl tendencies, the increased risk of diabetes decreased.
6)
The increased risk of diabetes was only apparent in those night owls who had worked night shifts for less than ten years.
"The association between being a night owl and an increased risk of diabetes is stronger in people who have worked fewer night shifts," says Kianersi.
He added that the findings could mean that some people are genetically predisposed to being night owls, and trying to go against that predisposition could be bad for their health.
7)
"We could, for example, develop policies that advocate flexible working hours or personalised working hours that are more appropriate," Kianersi suggested.
He noted that about 350 genetic markers are associated with human chronotype, and this research suggests that understanding these genetics could help protect the health of night owls.
8)
"This is something that needs further research to see and understand if these genes play a role in the development of diabetes," Kianersi said.
The study results were published on Sept. 12 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
In addition to genetics, more research is needed on the lifestyle effects of a person's chronotype, said Kehuan Lin, a doctoral student in epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston.
9)
The findings "may suggest that lifestyle may act as a potential mediator in the association between chronotype and diabetes," said Lin, who co-wrote an editorial accompanying the new study. "However, we hope to emphasise that it is still unclear why there are such strong associations between chronotype and lifestyle. In other words, is chronotype a causal risk factor, or does it simply reflect the clustering of lifestyle and other factors?" she said.
10)
"For example, students with a heavy workload might report an evening chronotype because they tend to work and are more alert at night. At the same time, they may also experience increased stress and feelings of being semi-depressed, have trouble sleeping and have a poor lifestyle," Lin continued.
"Years later, when these stressful conditions subside, they may transition to the morning or intermediate chronotype and have improved lifestyle behaviours," Lin said. "It is possible that life circumstances serve as a common cause for both chronotype and lifestyle."
11)
Suppose someone is worried about the health effects of being a night owl. In that case, Kianersi said, some clinics and doctors offer chronotherapy, "which is changing your chronotype to be more appropriate to your environment, to be more suited to your lifestyle.
However, it's much harder to change your chronotype than to eat better, exercise and get plenty of sleep, Kianersi noted.
12)
"Chronotype needs the attention of a doctor," he said. "It's more complicated, and I think one of the implications or one of the general messages of our work for night owls is that now that they understand that they may have an increased risk of diabetes, they should make sure that they are even more committed to maintaining a healthy lifestyle."
