I’ve always suspected this, and I’ve been waiting for science to catch up with my intuition on the subject. Now, a new UK study confirms that those who stay up late are more likely to develop cardio-pulmonary conditions and Type 2 Diabetes than those who rise early…
If you stay up til all hours, then sleep late and skip breakfast, you’re
courting an elevated risk of heart disease and Type 2 Diabetes…
A pan-European team of researchers data mined hundreds of previous studies on how your body clock effects your eating habits, and Dr. Suzana Almoosawi from Northumbria University, Newcastle, in the UK partnered with Dr. Leonidas Karagounis, of Nestle Health Science in Switzerland to analyse the information.
What they found…
Almoosawi reports: “We have found that your genes, ethnicity and gender determine the likelihood of you being a morning or evening type. In adulthood, being an evening chronotype is associated with greater risk of heart disease and Type 2 Diabetes, and this may be potentially due to the poorer eating behaviour and diet of people with evening chronotype. Our review also found that people who have a poorer control of their diabetes are more likely to be evening types.”
Among other things, the study revealed that night owls tend to consume more alcohol, sugary snacks, caffeinated drinks and junk food. They also have more erratic eating schedules, often missing breakfast and eating more later in the day. And they eat larger, heavier meals then. All those habits have already been proven to be manifestly unhealthy. Early risers, on the other hand, report eating more Fruits, Veggies and Whole Grains, which are generally agreed to be healthy foods.
To simplify: The Study found that, if you screw up your body clock by staying up late, you can also scramble your eating habits and dietary preferences, which can lead to a significantly higher risk of chronic diseases.
You start off on the right foot, but…
Almoosawi explains: “Most infants synchronise their body clock to that of their mother, [but] as they reach six-years of age, we observe that a large proportion begin to show signs of developing an evening chronotype. Whether physiological changes, school [schedule] timings or social schedules determine this change, we do not know. […] In teenagers, we also find that evening chronotype is related to more erratic eating behaviour and poorer diet. This could have important implications to health in adulthood as most dietary habits are established in adolescence.”
My take…
As I said… I’ve always felt it was healthier to rise early than to stay up late, just on general principles. But, reading the Almoosawi study results, I can now see why I feel better after I eat a hearty breakfast than after I eat a heavy, late supper. And I’ve become more aware, as I age, that a regular routine with set times to go to bed and get up in the morning contribute significantly to my overall sense of well-being.
I customarily bed down for the night at around 9:00 p.m. and rise at 5:00 a.m.
I usually eat a hearty breakfast, usually composed of leftovers from suppers past, which includes a good amount of Protein and Veggies. I lunch lightly, enjoy a moderate supper several hours before bedtime, and never feel tempted to have a late snack. I guess I’m doing things right, doing what comes naturally. Now, if I could just get more exercise into my routine…
~ Maggie J.