No, Night Owls Aren’t Doomed to Die Early

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/23/smarter-living/no-night-owls-arent-doomed-to-die-early.html

by brandonhall • 7 years ago

83 24 7 years ago

rzzzt• 7 years ago

This is about a study published last year in April in Chronobiology International: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07420528.2018.1...

News sites have picked it up and produced headlines on the same study with the complete opposite sentiment: https://news.sky.com/story/nocturnal-night-owls-risk-early-d...

My understanding is from the article that night owls are not doomed to die early in the literal sense, but not being able to work, eat and exercise in the "proper time" still makes them susceptible to diabetes, neurological, respiratory and cardiovascular problems, etc.

So yeah, still doomed.

thrav• 7 years ago

The book, “Why We Sleep” covers this and many other sleep topics at length and in far more depth. It’s fascinating.

dorchadas2• 7 years ago

It truly is fascinating. I'd recommend anyone to read this, as he also talks about the evolutionary benefits of morning larks versus night owls. It was, perhaps, the most influential book I read last year.

purerandomness• 7 years ago

Alternative hypothsis: People who stay up late have a higher probability of going out, enjoy more occasional drinks, are more probable to smoking or take recreational drugs and have more sexual partners and generally enjoy more riskier lifestyle choices, all of which contributes to the statistics showing a shorter life expectation.

barrkel• 7 years ago

And of course all of this sounds substantially more fun.

S_A_P2• 7 years ago

Which may also lead to a greater since of community and reduced loneliness which contributes to longer life.

cowsandmilk• 7 years ago

Because no one ever found a sense of community from their morning bike ride or running group or being monogamous and having a family... The idea that sexual promiscuity and doing drugs and drinking to lower social inhibition are what creates a sense of community is pretty misguided.

accnumnplus1• 7 years ago

So the choice is enjoy life or drag it out when you're falling apart.

_they• 7 years ago

"...warned against drawing conclusions based on simple correlation."

Can we just do this, in general?

herf• 7 years ago

Those who are forced to wake up too early, die early.

Those who sleep enough have no extra risk.

jedberg• 7 years ago

It wasn’t the conclusion of the study, or its researchers. But in the bombastic world of science reporting, it didn’t really matter.

This right here is the crux of the whole thing. Science reporting biases towards clicks and shares instead of accuracy. There is still some good science reporting out there, but it doesn't sell like the sensational headlines.

Simulacra• 7 years ago

I don't think it's when you sleep, but how much sleep you get on a consistent basis.

thatoneuser• 7 years ago

I really dislike this kind of clickbait. I've never heard anything of owls dying and now I have this condescending headline talking down to me.

ulisesrmzroche• 7 years ago

You know, back in Mexico, we had school in two shifts, rite? It was a morning shift & afternoon shift. It was a way to fix the problem of "too many students and not enough time".

I always took the afternoons. It was great. Life made sense. I wonder if we can ever pressure the bosses to make overlapping shifts? Or is that even possible? A 6-hour workday sounds like an opium dream to me at this point in our timeline.

k__• 7 years ago

Since I'm a freelancer I sleep from 2/3 - 11/12 without a alarm.

Feel much better now.

dmix2• 7 years ago

We don't have set hours at our office and about half the people come in early around 8-10am and the other half come in around 1pm. There's enough overlap for afternoon meetings and plenty of time when the office is quieter because half as many people are there.

fujipadam• 7 years ago

Can you please clarify? Is it like that in your company or is it the case with all of your country?

dontbenebby• 7 years ago

I suspect the issue isn't the time you wake up, it's if you're artificially waking up.

(Ex: if you stay up late on weekends then struggle on Monday due to lack of sleep vs simply choosing to wake at 10am daily because you have a flexible work schedule and sometimes like to go to events that are in the evening.)

m3kw9• 7 years ago

Yeah like sugar vs fat studies, this is profound, not.

No, Night Owls Aren’t Doomed to Die Early

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