• Night owls, or people who tend to go to bed late, may be at higher risk for heart attack and stroke.
• Night owls have worse cardiovascular health than people with traditional sleep schedules, and this is largely due to smoking, sleep, and lifestyle factors, according to a new study.
• Most of these risks are modifiable, so night owls and shift workers can take concrete steps to protect their heart health.

Self-proclaimed “night owls” may have poorer cardiovascular health and a higher risk of heart attack and stroke than those with traditional sleep patterns, a new study suggests.

Chronotype is a broad category that describes people’s sleep and wake patterns based on their body clock, also known as chronotype. circadian rhythm.

Researchers have long known that disrupted or inadequate sleep can have an impact. Widespread effects on the bodyincluding those related to heart health, but it’s less clear whether a person’s chronotype plays a role.

A minority of people who identify as “night owls” – people who prefer both bedtimes and wake-up times – appear to be associated with poorer cardiovascular health. This effect was even more pronounced in women. On the other hand, morning people, or “larks,” generally had better heart health.

But there are also bright spots. Most of that risk appears to be due to modifiable factors rather than the individual’s chronotype itself. In other words, no matter when you go to bed, there are meaningful steps you can take to improve your heart health.

“The important point is not that your chronotype is ‘good’ or ‘bad’, but that being a ‘night owl’ is often associated with less favorable heart health.” sheena kianersiDr. DVM, a postdoctoral fellow at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School and lead author of the study, told Healthline.

Kristen KnutsonDr. AHA, a volunteer expert and associate professor of sleep medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine who was not involved in the study, said the study results are “good news.”

“This means there are ways for night owls to reduce their risk of CVD,” she told Healthline.

This study has broad implications for improving heart health for night owls as well as shift workers, highlighting the importance of addressing modifiable risk factors.

Researchers looked at health data from more than 300,000 UK adults. UK Biobank.

The cohort included adults aged 39 to 74 who had not had a heart attack or stroke at baseline. The majority of participants were white, just over half were women, and the average age was 57.

The data included self-reported chronotypes, with participants asked to describe themselves as “definitely morning,” “definitely evening,” or somewhere in between. Most participants (67%) identified themselves as the latter, or intermediate chronotype. Approximately one in four people identified as a morning person, but only 8% identified as a night owl.

Individuals were also assigned a heart health score based on Life’s Essential 8, a framework developed by the American Heart Association that uses eight modifiable factors to define cardiovascular risk. This includes behavioral factors such as eating and sleeping, as well as biological measures. blood pressure and cholesterol. Using this framework, individuals receive a score indicating their risk of cardiovascular disease based on these factors.

After nearly 14 years of follow-up, night owls in this cohort were 79% more likely to have poor overall cardiovascular health as defined by Life’s Essential 8 compared to intermediate chronotypes. Additionally, this led to a significantly increased risk of heart attack and stroke, which was 16% higher than the intermediate group. Night owls had worse scores on six of the eight risk factors that make up Life’s Essential 8.

In contrast, “always morning risers” had a 5% lower prevalence of poor heart health scores compared to intermediate chronotypes.

The study does not attribute cardiovascular disease risk or poor heart health to an individual’s chronotype, but rather points out that staying up late is more closely associated with unhealthy behaviors.

Nicotine use had the greatest impact on heart health. It accounted for more than one-third of the cardiovascular disease risk associated with night owls. Sleep deprivation is behind this, contributing to about 14% of the risk.

“If someone identifies as a night owl, our findings suggest that it’s especially important to pay attention to their overall cardiovascular health,” Kianasi said. “For an individual’s risk, the biggest factors remain the basics: blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar levels, nicotine exposure, physical activity, weight, diet, and sleep health.”

Knowing your chronotype can be helpful as part of your cardiovascular disease prevention strategy, especially if you consider yourself a night owl. This study suggests that it is risk factors associated with being a night owl, rather than bedtime, that worsen cardiovascular disease outcomes.

“We can’t change the circadian rhythm, because it’s intrinsic and we can’t really change it. Instead, we can focus on these modifiable risk factors,” he said. Eleanor LevinDoctor of Medicine, Clinical Professor of Cardiology, Stanford University. Levin was not involved in the study.

Life’s Essential 8 shows you exactly how to achieve heart health. These recommendations are even more important for night owls.

Life’s Essential 8 provides the following recommendations for reducing CVD risk:

Making lifestyle changes to support heart health makes a difference. new Report from AHA estimates that an optimal Life’s Essential 8 score could prevent up to 40% of cardiovascular disease-related deaths in the United States.

Experts have some additional tips for shift workers who have to work hours that interfere with traditional sleep schedules.

“A nighttime schedule can cause a circadian rhythm misalignment, meaning your body clock is out of sync with your sleep, eating, and daily routine,” Kianasi says.

Levin warns that shift workers need to be aware of and compensate for sleep deprivation.

“If you’re in sleep debt over several nights, you need to get extra sleep at some point during the day,” she said.

Additionally, she recommends ensuring healthy food and snack options and limiting junk food at home and at work. wearable fitness tracker In addition to tracking daily steps, Levin says it can also alert users to heart conditions such as: atrial fibrillation. However, they are not a substitute for medical evaluation and care.

“The practical message is to get enough sleep as consistently as possible and be proactive about your overall cardiovascular health,” Kianasi said.

“We are also actively studying whether mismatches between chronotypes and work schedules further increase cardiovascular risk, but more research is needed before we can draw firm conclusions about specific chronotypes and shift work combinations.”