New sleep study shows early morning risers have better mental health than night owls

A new study shows that if you are someone who wakes naturally in the morning, rather than a night owl relying on an alarm, you will have better mental health outcomes. Photo / Getty Images

If you are one of those people that wakes naturally and bounces out of bed with a spring in their step in the morning then that's great, for you. It seems that the rest of us, those that come into their own in the evening and shy from the morning sun like a vampire, are not faring quite so well.

A new study, published in the Journal of Molecular Psychiatry, revealed that night owls experience more mood disorders and are at higher risk for anxiety.

The study looked at the sleep data of 85,000 Brits, based on wrist activity monitors. The data showed that people who go to bed later report higher rates of mood disorders and anxiety. Researchers believe that the mood problems could be driven by poor and inconsistent sleep patterns, which are more common in the nocturnally attuned.

"The health problems associated with being a night owl are likely a result of being a night owl living in a morning person's world, which leads to disruption in their body's circadian rhythms," sleep specialist Kristen Knutson, an associate professor of neurology and preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, told CNN.

Teenagers and twenty-somethings are most likely to be impacted by the discord between sleep cycles and societal norms, as research shows that sleep patterns move more to the mornings as we age.

"Generally, as we get older, our cycles shift toward the earlier hours. Teens are more likely to be night owls, and octogenarians are more likely to be early risers," Dr Neil Kline, a sleep physician and representative of the American Sleep Association, told USA TODAY.

Author of the study, Dr Jessica Tyrrell, says that a misaligned body clock can have serious long-term consequences and the more severe the disconnect the more severe the symptoms of depression.

Tyrell recommends trying to keep your sleep schedule as regulated and consistent as possible, even on the weekends.

"If you're a morning person, then you are less likely to have depression and more likely to report a higher wellbeing. This may in part be due to people who are morning people are less likely to have 'social jet lag'," Tyrrell told CNN.

Social jet lag refers to the system shock we get on a Monday when we have to return to a weekday sleep schedule. Our bodies like routine and so those languorous weekend sleep-ins are not doing us any favours after all.