<img class="gwt-Image" src="/photo/50823844.cms" /><br /> <keyword id="6372996" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="sleep">Sleep</keyword> patterns have been the topic of research for scientists for many ages. Though it is still a deep dark mystery, people have been broadly classified into two types depending on their sleep patterns- the early risers or the <keyword id="3229606" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="larks">larks</keyword> and the late nighters or the <keyword id="960549" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Night-Owls">night owls</keyword>. This sleep pattern is basically governed by our circadian rhythm or in layman’s term, individual biological internal clock. <br /><br />

	Sleep also influences our personality. Research indicates that people who stay up late are at higher risk of depression, more prone to alcoholism and consume less healthy diet. But it isn't all bad news for them. Studies have also shown that people who stay up late are more productive than larks and have more stamina throughout the length of their days. 
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	Based on these factors, we at Business Insider have categorised the pros and cons for you.<br />
	<br />
	(Image credits: psu.edu)
<br /><br />


Early bird catches
the worm. Err, not so much!<b></b>

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/580fa31fb28a6477058b4ab8-1614/56008005dd08956d5e8b4696.jpg" border="0" alt="insomnia sleep  woman" data-mce-source="Stokkete/Shutterstock" /><p class="source"><span>Stokkete/Shutterstock</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong>Being a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/night-owl">night owl</a> comes with a 10% higher risk of death than being a morning person, according to a new study.</strong></li><li><strong>The study also found that night owls have a higher risk for a variety of physical and mental ailments.</strong></li><li><strong>But being a night owl or morning person is largely a biological fact, not just a preference.</strong></li><li><strong>Because of that, researchers think that allowing people to have more flexible schedules that fit their internal body clocks could improve their health.</strong></li></ul><hr /><p><br />Being a night owl is a fact of biology, not a choice.</p><p>But unfortunately, it comes with a range of health risks. These include cardiovascular disease, higher rates of obesity and smoking, psychiatric disorders, and an overall 10% increased risk for death, according to a study newly published in the journal <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07420528.2018.1454458">Chronobiology International</a>.</p><p>We all have an internal body clock, known as a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/chronotypes">chronotype</a> or circadian rhythm, that determines when we feel most awake or sleepy. This is what defines night owls, larks - morning people - and those who fall in between, and this rhythm has a significant effect on how our bodies function.</p><p>This new study is one of the most extensive to see how much of a role chronotype has on risk for death and other health conditions. The researchers behind the study took a look at 504,642 people aged between 37 and 73 from the UK Biobank cohort. They initially assessed study participants between 2006 and 2010 and followed up on those people in an average of 6.5 years.</p><p>To figure out whether participants identified as a morning person or night owl, the study authors asked people if they were more of or definitely a morning person or if they were more of or definitely an evening person - and gave them a "don't know" option as well.</p><p>Asking people about their chronotype is a great way of assessing a person's body clock, with a very strong correlation to the major <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/chronotype-quiz-morning-person-or-night-owl-2017-3">questionnaire or quiz researchers use to tell what a person's body clock is</a>. (Most people know whether they are a morning person, night owl, or somewhere in between.)</p><p>Out of the 433,268 people that answered the chronotype question and provided sufficient health data, 27% were definite morning types, 35% moderate morning types, 28% moderate evening types, and 9% definite evening types.</p><p>Along with the 10% increased risk of death compared to definite morning types, the more people identified as evening people, the greater their risk for a variety of medical conditions. Definitive night owls had almost double the risk of suffering from psychological disorders, about a 30% increased risk for diabetes, a 25% increased risk for neurological conditions, 23% increased risk for gastrointestinal disorders, and a 22% increased risk for respiratory disorders.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5a295ea23dbef4ae448ba6f5-1151/millennials-concert-crowd-fun-cheering.jpg" border="0" alt="millennials concert crowd fun cheering" data-mce-source="Theo Wargo/Getty Images" data-mce-caption="CHICAGO, IL - AUGUST 05: Concert-goers attend 2012 Lollapalooza at Grant Park on August 5, 2012 in Chicago, Illinois." /><p class="source"><span>Theo Wargo/Getty Images</span></p><p class="caption">Young people tend to naturally be night owls, something that can shift throughout life.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>Why being a night owl takes a toll</h2><p>This is an incredibly large group of people to study and this is the first time a population has been studied with the intention of assessing how chronotype affects mortality from the start.</p><p>The big question to ask is why having a preference for sleeping in takes such a toll on health.</p><p>Most researchers agree that a large part of what defines your chronotype is genetic - both whether you are more of a morning person or night person and how much you have the ability to shift that "preference." In the study, the researchers say that estimates are that between 21% and 52% of what determines chronotype has genetic roots.</p><p>Most people <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/chronotype-biological-clock-circadian-rhythm-morning-person-2017-4">can change their chronotype to at least some extent</a>, especially if they are careful about light exposure, otherwise we'd never be able to adjust to a new time zone. But overall, the tendency to feel more alert and alive in the morning or evening remains, no matter how much people try to change it.</p><p>One of the main reasons researchers think evening people tend to have these health conditions is that their body clocks aren't properly aligned with society.</p><p>There's probably a variety of evolutionary reasons for a preference for night to exist, but many of these needs may not correspond with the demands of the modern industrial world. Everything from work time to meal time occurs at a time that doesn't feel right for night owls, a state that researchers call "social jetlag." Generally, if people prefer to go to bed later and wake up later on days they don't have to work, they're probably suffering from at least some degree of social jetlag.</p><p>Since it's only possible to shift body clocks so much, the authors of the study suggest that flexible work schedules that accommodate different body clocks could improve health - and probably productivity as well. Teenagers tend to naturally have later chronotypes (body clocks shift throughout life and most teens are night owls), and a growing body of research has shown that shifting school start times later improves school performance. That's been <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/school-start-times-are-finally-getting-pushed-back-2017-8">shown in the US</a> and also <a href="https://academic.oup.com/sleep/advance-article/doi/10.1093/sleep/zsy052/4960018">recently demonstrated</a> in a new study out of Singapore.</p><p>Getting some rest when your body wants it can improve your health - and probably your life, too.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/sleep-expert-naps-dangerous-health-science-matthew-walker-science-2017-12">A sleep expert explains why naps can be dangerous for your health</a></h3>        <div>            <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/9aEUJYh1-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script>        </div>    </div>

Night owls have an increased risk for death - and it may be society's fault

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/58dd13b18af57828048b4f02-1777/shutterstock446515393.jpg" alt="sleepy tired bored studying woman library" data-mce-source="CHAjAMP/Shutterstock"><p class="source"><span>CHAjAMP/Shutterstock</span></p></img></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Most of us know whether or not we are morning people.</p><p>Either you can spring out of bed alert and ready to start the day - without an alarm, even - or you curse the alarm and seek out copious amounts of coffee to feel alive.</p><p>But beyond that basic split, there's a lot of scientific research that looks at how our internal body clocks, or chronotypes, are defined - and how they influence our lives.</p><p>We all have an individual chronotype - the main biological trait that explains why some people have an easy time starting their day at sunrise and others hate waking up before 10 am.(it's largely determined by genetic factors).</p><p>There are a number of online quizzes that will categorize you as morning person (lark), night owl, or something else, but most of those are not backed up by scientific research.</p><p>The Munich Chronotype Questionnaire (MCTQ) is.</p><p>The MCTQ was created by chronobiologists Till Roenneberg and Martha Merrow to help them evaluate their research on circadian rhythms, or body clocks. (They also wanted to see how useful a questionnaire that evaluated chronotype could be.)</p><p><span>Roenneberg and Merrow's </span>questionnaire revealed data that corresponds with physical biomarkers of chronotype (levels of hormones like cortisol, which is related to stress, and melatonin, which is related to sleep). According to Roenneberg's book, "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Internal-Time-Chronotypes-Social-Youre/dp/0674065859">Internal Time: Chronotypes, Social Jet Lag, and Why You're So Tired</a>," the results backing up the validity of the questionnaire are "extremely encouraging."  </p><p>You can <a href="https://www.bioinfo.mpg.de/mctq/core_work_life/core/introduction.jsp" target="_blank">take the survey yourself</a>, and get an evaluation of your own chronotype by email.</p><p>You should know, however, that terms like "lark" and "night owl" are not scientific - chronotypes can't be split into categories like that. Those terms help us compare ourselves with each other, but there's actually a distribution of chronotypes, with some people biologically inclined to start (and usually end) their days early, and others naturally inclined to sleep late and stay up into the night. Most people, unsurprisingly, fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum.</p><p>However, the results of the test will tell you whether you have an earlier or later chronotype when compared to most of the population - earlier meaning you are more inclined to start your day early, later meaning you tend to feel more awake later.</p><p>There are a number of factors that influence this, including genetic traits that affect how much sleep you need and the times of day when you feel tired or alert. Some people's chronotypes can be easily modified by things like exposure to light, which makes it simply to shift to a new schedule (others have a much harder time doing so). Even the length of internal circadian rhythms vary - most people's natural "day" is slightly longer than 24 hours, though some have much longer or shorter internal days.</p><p>Roenneberg notes that it's best to take the quiz before reading his book, but here are a few helpful tips.</p><ol><li>To receive results, you'll need to enter your email address (which will also let the researchers contact you if you have a particularly interesting chronotype). Your personal information is protected and you are under no obligation to participate in any further research.</li><li>The survey is designed for people who have conventional work schedules (a questionnaire for shift workers who work at night or on rotating schedules appears to be under construction).</li><li>You need to list the times you sleep and wake on a 24-hour clock (if you go to bed at 11:30 pm, that's 23:30).</li><li>Be ready to list your height and weight in centimeters and kilograms (Google can help convert units of measurement).</li></ol><p><a href="https://www.bioinfo.mpg.de/mctq/core_work_life/core/introduction.jsp">Here's the link to the questionnaire.</a></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/melatonin-long-term-sleep-aid-supplement-health-2017-1">A sleep doctor reveals why melatonin isn't a sustainable, or safer, sleep aid</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="BtaGNpNTE6_IlVmRAxJRLtYqRbIpl3_f" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'BtaGNpNTE6_IlVmRAxJRLtYqRbIpl3_f',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

A science-backed online test can tell you whether you're a morning person or night owl

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/580fa31fb28a6477058b4ab8-1614/56008005dd08956d5e8b4696.jpg" alt="insomnia sleep  woman" data-mce-source="Stokkete/Shutterstock"><p class="source"><span>Stokkete/Shutterstock</span></p></img></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Early risers are often glorified - there's the well-known saying about the early bird catching the worm, and many <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2100242/Why-waking-5am-key-feeling-happier.html">articles</a>, <a href="https://medium.com/life-hacks-for-business/12-lessons-of-waking-up-at-4-30-a-m-for-21-days-90d1053c3634">blog posts</a>, and <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/selfimprovement/comments/3f0csi/getting_up_at_5am_11_reasons_why_you_have_to_do/">Reddit threads</a> about the benefits of getting up at 4:30 a.m.</p><p>But if rising early is so good for us, why don't all humans get up at the crack of dawn - or at least try to? Why do some of us consider ourselves morning people (also known as larks) or night owls?</p><p>The answer is simple: Everyone has a natural internal clock - a chronotype or circadian rhythm - that determines when they're most alert and most sleepy. That means that we're not all meant to be morning people. As chronobiologist Till Roenneberg explains in his book, "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Internal-Time-Chronotypes-Social-Youre/dp/0674065859?tag=bisafetynet-20">Internal Time: Chronotypes, Social Jet Lag, and Why You're So Tired</a>," the internal factors determining when we like to wake up are primarily genetic. The biggest external factor is exposure to light, especially sunlight.</p><p>Research into chronotypes helps explain why people have natural sleep patterns, how that changes throughout life, the differences in circadian rhythms between men and women, and what we can do to modify our schedules.</p><h2>What's my chronotype?</h2><p>Most of us think of ourselves as morning or night people, but those divisions aren't scientific - they're just ways of comparing ourselves to one another. </p><p>"Where you define owl or lark is really arbitrary," says <a href="http://profiles.ucsd.edu/david.welsh">Dr. David Welsh</a>, an associate professor studying circadian clocks at UC San Diego. Welsh says that if you look at large surveys of populations, you get a normal distribution of chronotypes - most people have fairly "average" chronotypes, some prefer to get up a bit earlier or later, and small groups naturally rise extremely early or late. There's no line that distinguishes different chronotypes.</p><p>Your chronotype is more than a feeling - it can be verified by measuring your body temperature and the levels of certain hormones in your blood at different times during the day, since those factors are regulated by our circadian clocks.</p><p>According to most research on the topic, we have a genetic predisposition for a certain chronotype, but the genetic factors that cause some people to feel alert and productive earlier versus later are complex. A number of different genes are involved, many of which are <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27494321">still being discovered</a>. </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5797e1dc88e4a794048baf0f-2400/gettyimages-579696178.jpg" alt="panorama festival" data-mce-source="Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images" data-mce-caption="A view of the stage during the ASAP Rocky set during the 2016 Panorama NYC Festival - Day 3 at Randall's Island on July 24, 2016 in New York City."><p class="source"><span>Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images</span></p><p class="caption">Young people prefer to be up late.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The broad range of human chronotypes also take several other variables into account. For most of their lives, men have slightly later chronotypes than women. And alongside preferences about when we go to bed, people also require different amounts of sleep. Most adults need between seven and nine hours, though some require slightly more or less, and a tiny number need far more or far less.</p><p>Most of our internal clocks also don't match the 24-hour cycle of our planet. Instead, they tend to be a little longer than 24 hours (though some people's clocks are far longer or shorter). Those whose internal clocks run short tend to be early risers - sleep pressure builds up for them more quickly, pushing them to fall asleep earlier and rise with the sun.</p><p>Roenneberg explains in his book that there might be an evolutionary explanation for why people have such varied body clocks. As humanity evolved, it was probably advantageous for some of us to be more alert at different times of day. That would have allowed members of groups to stay awake at night in order to watch for predators or hunt for food that was easier to catch in the dark. </p><p>The changes our internal clocks undergo throughout our lifetimes could also be related to this evolutionary legacy. Chronotypes start early for young children, become later in adolescence, then get earlier again as we age. Roenneberg notes that the shift toward a later schedule among adolescents tends to coincide with the time of life at which humans peak in athletic ability - around 20. The most physically capable people are therefore also most comfortable staying awake through the night. (In general, night owls can keep working longer in tests that require staying awake for long periods of time.)</p><p>Today, however, the observed chronotype changes that happen in teenagers have led many <a href="http://educationnext.org/do-schools-begin-too-early">sleep researchers to suggest</a> that high schools should simply start later. </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/58e40ae777bb7028008b64b1-1279/1204039968479c036da62h.jpg" alt="meditation" data-mce-source="Flickr/Tom Hart" data-link="https://www.flickr.com/photos/thart2009/12040399684/in/photolist-jkYcm1-6vixsb-6vdEpV-aPtQ7K-6vhNBL-bjzt7b-iq3GqP-71XTFo-aY7nw-6veuig-6vesWt-apAWzY-6veV8z-81sasc-7KPXFF-5vp7w1-8JAXbe-ato4Ut-4A8MmT-f6xuK5-9wXwzP-7pvWsb-4FNBNN-6vdF3Z-pTjw6L-b4z3kt-eVxyVY-mBmNr-zLqFP-bmZ6f5-qWvQdk-cCS2qf-qMU7aT-njukyo-6veA1c-gd15FC-E7fiv-9Kccwg-89eoMy-5kGfGe-6vj8TQ-5mvYn9-qwcFFJ-5WwbQh-rk1qJ-8q32FT-dWLo1P-uubQ3g-5RURDn-aP4A22"><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/thart2009/12040399684/in/photolist-jkYcm1-6vixsb-6vdEpV-aPtQ7K-6vhNBL-bjzt7b-iq3GqP-71XTFo-aY7nw-6veuig-6vesWt-apAWzY-6veV8z-81sasc-7KPXFF-5vp7w1-8JAXbe-ato4Ut-4A8MmT-f6xuK5-9wXwzP-7pvWsb-4FNBNN-6vdF3Z-pTjw6L-b4z3kt-eVxyVY-mBmNr-zLqFP-bmZ6f5-qWvQdk-cCS2qf-qMU7aT-njukyo-6veA1c-gd15FC-E7fiv-9Kccwg-89eoMy-5kGfGe-6vj8TQ-5mvYn9-qwcFFJ-5WwbQh-rk1qJ-8q32FT-dWLo1P-uubQ3g-5RURDn-aP4A22">Flickr/Tom Hart</a></span></p><p class="caption">Bright light helps people wake up.</p></img></div><p></p></div></div></p><h2>How do we reset the clock?</h2><p>Body clocks can be changed - when someone moves from Los Angeles to London, they eventually shift their schedule, after all - but only to a certain degree. So how much can we adjust our internal clock?</p><p>"You can't wish yourself to be a morning person if you're really an evening person, but what you can do is alter your light exposure," Welsh says.</p><p>Daylight naturally helps us feel alert, while darkness prompts the body to produce hormones that make us sleepy. That's how we adjust to new time zones.</p><p>According to Welsh, those who want to start waking up earlier should try to expose themselves to bright light first thing in the morning for at least half an hour, since early sunlight exposure acts a daily reset. (In experiments where people are kept away from clocks and natural light, internal clocks can run wild.) Maximizing the amount of natural light you get during the rest of the day and avoiding light at night will also help the brain and body adjust to a new schedule. To move your body clock in the later direction (for travel, for example, or if early risers are trying to sleep in later), Welsh recommends exposing yourself to bright light at night. </p><p>In a lab, Welsh says, it's usually possible to reset someone's body clock by carefully controlling light exposure, but it can be tough to create that kind of light exposure schedule in the real world. Plus, certain people simply find it easier to adjust their chronotypes than others do.</p><p>In some cases, it can be impossible to totally change our natural inclinations, which is why some people struggle with the daily schedule that work and school impose. The very fact that most people use alarms to wake up means that for the most part, our days begin before we're biologically awake, according to Roenneberg's book. Either that, or we're simply <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-happens-if-you-dont-get-enough-sleep-2017-3">not getting enough sleep</a>.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/melatonin-long-term-sleep-aid-supplement-health-2017-1">A sleep doctor reveals why melatonin isn't a sustainable, or safer, sleep aid</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="BtaGNpNTE6_IlVmRAxJRLtYqRbIpl3_f" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'BtaGNpNTE6_IlVmRAxJRLtYqRbIpl3_f',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

There's a scientific explanation for why you're a morning person or night owl - but it's possible to reset your internal clock

<ul class="summary-list"><li><a href="https://drmikedow.com/">Dr. Mike Dow</a> is a <strong>psychotherapist and New York Times bestselling author.</strong></li><li>Many powerful and important people wake up early — and they do it without alarms.</li><li>Waking up early has tangible benefits, but it may seem daunting to change up your entire <keyword id="6372996" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="sleep">sleep</keyword> schedule.</li><li>Stop watching the news before bed, and consider investing in some dawn-simulating lights.</li></ul><p>They say the early bird gets the worm. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tim-cook-wake-up-morning-routine-productivity-2019-8">Apple's Tim Cook springs out of bed at 3:45 a.m</a>.</p><p>The <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/17/10-highly-successful-people-who-wake-up-before-6-a-m.html">Vanguard Group's former chairman: 5 a.m</a>. <a href="https://www.insider.com/i-did-oprahs-morning-routine-for-a-week-2019-9#oprah-said-she-never-sets-an-alarm-so-i-didnt-either-1">Oprah: between 6 and 6:20 — without using an alarm</a>. Clearly, these ultra-successful people have mastered the art of the early rise and are enjoying the benefits.</p><p>Scientifically speaking, what are those benefits? Research shows <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2009.00549.x">waking up early is linked to an ability to take action that leads to your desired outcome</a>. Other research links <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/a0027071">waking up early with greater levels of happiness</a> — so if you can turn yourself into an alarm-clock-free early riser, you'll be as happy as a lark <em>and</em> get that proverbial worm.</p><p>Of course, knowing <em>why </em>you should want to do something and <em>how</em> you'll do it are two very different things. So, here are 5 simple and science-backed steps to spring out of bed at dawn:</p><h2><strong>Step 1: Minimize nighttime stress hormones</strong></h2><p>Most people recognize the power of melatonin as your nighttime sleep hormone, but many don't understand how it functions synergistically with the stress hormone cortisol. At night, melatonin should rise as cortisol falls. In the morning, melatonin should fall as cortisol rises. This morning cortisol spike is called the cortisol awakening response and is key to developing an inner alarm clock. To make sure cortisol surges early in the morning, you must mind the symphony of cortisol and melatonin at night.</p><p>Watching news just before bed is the worst thing you can do to disrupt this 24-hour rhythm. The stress of watching a car chase and the blue light from your TV increases cortisol and depresses melatonin, respectively. Invert these hormones by keeping your evening quiet, blue-light free, and peaceful.</p><p>To spring out of bed at 5 a.m., you'll need to start shutting down electronics by 7 or 8 p.m. Ditto for eating since you need all bodily rhythms to enter sleep mode. Trade the TV remote and chips for a book and cup of chamomile tea or a supplement with L-Theanine to help calm the mind.</p><h2><strong>Step 2: Use sleep compression</strong></h2><p>One of the most powerful techniques to realign your rhythms is called <a href="https://www.med.upenn.edu/cbti/assets/user-content/documents/btsd--sleepcompression-bsmtxprotocols.pdf">sleep compression</a>. You paradoxically sleep less temporarily to establish a new permanent sleep-wake cycle. For one week, wake up a little earlier — shaving off up to 30 minutes per day. By day seven, you may only be sleeping close to five or six hours, so don't drive or operate machinery near the end of this week. You should notice that the short-term sleep compression begins to make you tired much earlier than normal.</p><p>Then, you'll strategically add back half the amount of time nightly that you subtracted in weeks 2 and 3 on either end to land at your target bedtime and wake time. For example, add back 15 minutes of sleep nightly if you subtracted 30 minutes of nightly sleep in week one. By the end of week three, these two times should ideally be 8.5 hours apart — which allows for 30 stress-free minutes to fall asleep.</p><h2><strong>Step 3: Get early morning light</strong></h2><p>Remember: Early morning natural light is far more potent than afternoon light in aligning sleep-wake cycles and shutting down the pineal gland's natural secretion of melatonin. Take a brisk walk, or sip your coffee by a window that faces the rising sun. <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0748730410374000">Research shows that dawn-simulating lights can do this as well</a> — especially for people in darker climates. Even if you are genetically wired to be a night owl (e.g., having an aptly-named CLOCK gene mutation) remember that nurture trumps nature here. Morning light can help turn this gene off and begin to reprogram anyone's circadian rhythms.</p><h2><strong>Step 4: Keep that waketime stable</strong></h2><p>Consistency is key. If you wake up at 5 a.m. on weekdays but 8 a.m. on weekdays, that three-hour difference is the equivalent of flying from back and forth from LA to New York every week. If your weekend wake time is later than weekdays, you have social jetlag — and that will silence the inner, early-morning alarm clock you've been developing.</p><p>Keep your waketime stable seven days a week. When you do have to travel or disrupt your schedule, consider extended-release melatonin so that temporary changes don't fully reset your body's clock in the long run. When you do travel between time zones, take it 30 minutes before bed to combat the new zone's light patterns.</p><p>If possible, it's best to stay on your native time zone's clock when traveling. If that's not possible, you can also use extended-release melatonin to adjust to a new time zone and then adjust back to your native one.</p><h2><strong>Step 5: And finally, patience </strong></h2><p>Over the course of the weeks ahead, you may notice yourself waking up just before your alarm. After months, you may not need that alarm clock at all. Enjoy the sweet stillness of the wee hours, and then harness all those precious and productive morning minutes. Go and get <em>your </em>early-bird worm.</p>

Many highly successful people wake up early with no alarm — a sleep expert explains how anyone can learn to master the habit

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5b28c6fd1ae66249008b5366-1778/woman coffee.jpg" border="0" alt="woman coffee" data-mce-source="AH Images / Shutterstock" data-link="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/attractive-married-young-woman-hazel-eyes-1115342021?src=VzFFzQ1YA4x99CCIw5QWrA-3-9" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/attractive-married-young-woman-hazel-eyes-1115342021?src=VzFFzQ1YA4x99CCIw5QWrA-3-9">AH Images / Shutterstock</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul><li><strong>A new study found middle-aged nurses were less likely to develop depression if they were early birds, compared to those who were later risers.</strong></li><li><strong>There wasn't an increase in risk for night owls.</strong></li><li><strong>But the study has a fair few limitations, meaning it is not clear if their chronotype was the direct cause of new cases of depression.</strong></li><li><strong>Consistency is key when it comes to getting enough sleep, by sticking to a schedule that is in tune with your natural rhythm.</strong></li><li><strong>More research is needed to reach firmer conclusions about how our body clocks really affect our health.</strong></li></ul><hr /><p><br />There are a fair few benefits of waking up early. Morning people often say they get to experience the best part of the day, and they can get exercise and other chores out of the way before night owls have even surfaced.</p><p>There is increasing evidence that suggests morning larks could be healthier overall, too. According to a new study, <a href="https://www.journalofpsychiatricresearch.com/article/S0022-3956(17)31165-2/fulltext" target="_blank" rel="noopener">published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research</a>, women in particular who wake up earlier could be less likely to develop depression.</p><p>Researchers from the University of Colorado, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard, and the University of Vienna wanted to see if a woman's chronotype - whether they were an "early bird" or "night owl" - had any impact on their risk of depression.</p><p>They used data from a large study that assessed the health of more than 32,000 female nurses in the US, with an average age of 55, for nearly three decades. In 2009 they were asked to define whether they were a morning or evening person, then they followed up after four years to see how many of them developed depression.</p><p>During that time there were 2,581 new cases of depression, and those who were definite morning types were somewhere between 12 and 27% less likely to develop depression compared to the "intermediate types," who were neither early birds or night owls. There wasn't a clear pattern for the evening people.</p><p>The results show that someone's chronotype - or body clock - could be a factor in developing depression, but the risk is small. The study was based on a very specific group of people, who are in a highly emotionally and energetically demanding job, and so there is no certainty that the risk of depression is influenced by their sleeping habits. The results are not necessarily applicable to other women of the same age, or men, or children, either.</p><p>While the study had its limitations, it does raise some interesting points of discussion. For example, recent research found that <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/disrupting-body-clock-increase-risk-depression-2018-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">disrupting our body clock can increase our risk of mood disorders</a> like depression. Nurses work long hours, and often they work night shifts. It's not the best job for a regular sleep schedule, so if you know your internal rhythm doesn't adapt easily, that may have a psychological impact.</p><p>Also, the lead author of the new research Céline Vetter <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/depression-women-wake-up-early-daylight-exposure-benefits-study-a8400731.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told The Independent</a> that how much light you are exposed to can influence your chronotype, which in turn can increase the risk of depression. The study didn't look into the impact of light exposure, but it could be an area of further investigation, particularly as nurses may not see daylight as much as people in some other jobs.</p><p>Research has consistently found that a regular sleep pattern is key regardless of chronotype. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/its-bad-for-your-health-to-get-too-much-or-too-little-sleep-2018-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Too much sleep and too little sleep</a> are both likely to be bad for your health, and the best way to ensure you're getting the right amount is to stick to a schedule. That means that even if you have a late night, you should try and get up at the same time every day to avoid <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/sleeping-in-at-the-weekend-could-reduce-your-chance-of-early-death-2018-5" target="_blank" rel="noopener">something called "social jetlag."</a></p><p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07420528.2018.1454458" target="_blank" rel="noopener">In April, another study</a> appeared to show that night owls had a small increased risk of dying than morning types. But the researchers concluded that this wasn't due to late nights - rather it was probably because of the risk factors associated with staying up later, such as eating less healthily, taking more risks, and the impact of socially-imposed timetables, such as starting work early when their body clock is in tune with a different rhythm.</p><p>While the answer isn't as simple as early birds being healthier than night owls, as there are too many variables to come to a solid conclusion, what is clear is when it comes to how important <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-happens-when-you-dont-get-enough-sleep-2017-12" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sleep is for avoiding diseases</a> like cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimer's. The prevailing advice remains unchanged - make sure you get enough of it.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/panda-most-overrated-animal-ever-2018-5">Why pandas are the most overrated animals on the planet</a></h3>        <div>            <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/gXubbwrH-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script>        </div>    </div>

Women who wake up early may be less likely to develop depression, according to a new study - but the advice for optimum sleep remains unchanged

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right click-to-enlarge"><div class="image on-image"><a title_source="Walt Disney Productions/RKO Radio Pictures" title_caption="Morning people are more likely to lie at night." class="zoomin" href="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53a9e4bdecad04060d5eb9d3-960/pinnochio-2.jpg"><span class="sprites click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/53a9e4bdecad04060d5eb9d3-1060-795/pinnochio-2.jpg?maxX=480" border="0" alt="pinnochio" width="480" /></a><p class="source"><span>Walt Disney Productions/RKO Radio Pictures</span></p><p class="caption">Morning people are more likely to lie at night.</p></div><p></p></div>Feeling sluggish? Watch what you say. </p>
<p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">We not only become less alert and productive when we get tired, but we become more likely to lie, according to a new study.</span></p>
<p>It shows that morning people become more unethical at night, and night people do the same early in the day.</p>
<p>Christopher M. Barnes of the University of Washington's Foster School of Business, Brian Gunia of Johns Hopkins University's Carey Business School, and Sunita Sah of Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business wanted to build upon a previous study published in <a href="http://pss.sagepub.com/content/25/1/95.abstract">Psychological Science</a>. It concluded that the average adult has less self-control as the work day wears on, becoming more likely to act immorally by the end of the afternoon.</p>
<p>The team suspected that the main factor was not a long day of work that affected people but that it was their circadian rhythms, which are responsible for their sleeping habits.</p>
<p>Their full report will be published in <a href="http://www.psychologytoday.com/">Psychology Today</a> later this year, but they summarized their findings this week in <a href="http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/06/morning-people-are-less-ethical-at-night/">the Harvard Business Review</a>. The team conducted two experiments to test their theory.</p>
<p>In the first, they gathered participants identifying themselves as both <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/health-25777978">"larks" (morning people) and "owls"</a> (night people) into a laboratory one morning and gave them a simple problem set to solve. They were told they would be paid for every problem they completed. The team also told the subjects that their problem sets were anonymous, though they were actually tracking them to see who was honest. Unsurprisingly, more night owls than larks lied to make more cash.</p>
<p>For the second experiment, the research team randomly assigned their subjects to a laboratory session at either 7 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. or midnight to 1:30 a.m. They were given a die to roll and were told that they would be paid more for how high their average roll turned out to be. They were not monitored, giving them anonymity. And though the team had no way of proving what numbers were rolled, statistics showed that the average for each group should be around 3.5. The results once again fit the team's theory that the less favorable time of day would lead to more unethical behavior. Here are the averages:</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>Larks</strong></span></p>
<p><strong>AM: </strong>3.86, <strong>PM:</strong> 4.55</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>Owls</strong></span></p>
<p><strong>AM: </strong>4.23, <strong>PM: </strong>3.80</p>
<p>The team was focused on the practical ramifications of managing morning and night people, but previous neurobiology research found that the brain requires a significant amount of glucose, a type of sugar in your blood, to practice good judgment.</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://psr.sagepub.com/content/11/4/303.abstract">a 2007 Florida State University study</a> published in the Personality and Social Psychology Review, "Restoring glucose to a sufficient level typically improves self-control. Numerous self-control behaviors fit this pattern, including controlling attention, regulating emotions, quitting smoking, coping with stress, resisting impulsivity, and refraining from criminal and aggressive behavior."</p>
<p>And it turns out that in 2009 <a href="http://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2009/10/bodys-circadian-rhythm-tightly-entwined-with-blood-sugar-control.html">the Stanford University School of Medicine</a> found that circadian rhythms are directly tied to the mechanism that processes blood sugar.</p>
<p>Therefore, larks and owls in their less favored time of day will be operating with less glucose in their blood and will have less energy to practice self-control.</p>
<p>The research team who tested morning and night people think managers can use these findings in the workplace.</p>
<p class="p1">"Managers should try to learn the chronotype (lark, owl, or in between) of their subordinates and make sure to respect it when deciding how to structure their work. Managers who ask a lark to make ethics-testing decisions at night, or an owl to make such decisions in the morning, run the risk of encouraging rather than discouraging unethical behavior," the team writes in <a href="http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/06/morning-people-are-less-ethical-at-night/">the Harvard Business Review</a>.</p>
<p class="p1">They also advise employees looking to squeeze in an extra hour of work to add it to time of day that their body favors.</p>

Why You're More Likely To Lie When You're Tired

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/551c72f46bb3f7ff73282d98-1200-924/morning-burning-man.jpg?maxX=600" border="0" alt="morning burning man" width="600" style="float: right;"><p class="source"><span>stuckincustoms / flickr</span></p><p class="caption">Early bird.</p></img></div><p></p></div>Who do you think is better at keeping appointments - night owls or early birds? </p><p>Here's a hint: We recently learned that people who stay up late are <span style="line-height: 1.5em;"></span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/science-night-owls-are-more-manipulative-2015-1" target="_blank">more likely to be psychopathic</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">. </span></p><p>Now the news is that night owls are late to everything. </p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">In </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"></span><a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs12144-014-9246-1" target="_blank">a study</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> recently </span><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"></span><a href="http://digest.bps.org.uk/2015/03/morning-people-larks-are-more-punctual.html" target="_blank">cited by Christian Jarrett at the Research Digest</a><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">, German researchers tracked 300 students as they arrived for an 8:15 a.m. lecture.</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">The students filled out surveys on their personality type, how they got to class, and their "chronotype," or natural sleep schedule, which influences whether they were morning people (also called "larks") or night people (called "owls").</span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">"The students who were larks tended to arrive more punctually for their morning lectures," Jarrett reports. "As an owl myself, I thought it was a bit harsh to gauge punctuality with a morning lecture, but then the researchers did also ask the students about their general punctuality, and again chronotype was the key factor, explaining 12% of the variance."</span></p><p>Surprisingly, this was the first study to investigate the link between chronotypes and punctuality.</p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Other research regarding punctuality has arrived at startling conclusions, like: </span></span></p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/type-b-personalities-are-frequently-late-2015-2"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">  Chronically tardy people experience time differently than punctual people. </span></a></p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/type-b-personalities-are-frequently-late-2015-2"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">  <span>Chronically tardy people have different definitions of "on time."</span></span></a></p><p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span style="line-height: 1.5em;"><span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/type-b-personalities-are-frequently-late-2015-2">  <span>Chronically tardy people have a different personality type.</span></a></span></span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">While it might seem minor, punctuality signals a lot. </span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">According to <a href="http://www.amazon.com/No-B-S-Time-Management-Entrepreneurs/dp/1932156852" target="_blank">"No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs"</a> author Dan S. Kennedy, being on time is <a href="http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/230107" target="_blank">the single most important habit for becoming a successful entrepreneur</a>, since it signals integrity - and it gives you the right to demand that people respect your time. <br /></span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Early risers have been shown to have other advantages, too, <a href="http://digest.bps.org.uk/2010/01/early-risers-are-more-proactive-than.html" target="_blank">like being more proactive in their lives</a>, <a href="http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/news/20080609/early-birds-get-better-grades">getting better grades</a>, and <a href="https://hbr.org/2010/07/defend-your-research-the-early-bird-really-does-get-the-worm/ar/1">being more conscientious</a>, which has been found to be the only major personality trait that <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/conscientiousness-predicts-success-2014-4">consistently leads to success</a>. <br /></span></p><p><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">It seems that early birds really do get the worm.</span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/beauty-standards-family-values-china-2015-2">What the Chinese saying 'The ugly wife is a treasure at home' actually means</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="A2ZDA2czqSqbJOFG5SDDrvRmvRoUjAPm" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'A2ZDA2czqSqbJOFG5SDDrvRmvRoUjAPm',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

Here's more evidence that morning people are more successful

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5890b219dd08953c248b4c33-729/undefined" alt="drinking water" data-mce-source="Mbragion / Pixabay" data-link="https://pixabay.com/en/drink-water-hands-party-drinks-556764/" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://pixabay.com/en/drink-water-hands-party-drinks-556764/">Mbragion / Pixabay</a></span></p><p class="caption">Missing out of alcohol-fuelled fun wasn't the hard part.</p></div><p></p></div></div>After a heavy few months of drinking - thanks 2016 - I decided to quit alcohol cold turkey for the first time, and attempt "Dry January." Never again.</p><p>Lots of people give it a go when the new year rolls around to exercise their self-control, or perhaps start the year with a health kick. For me, it was that my tolerance had become worryingly high over December, and it was getting expensive.</p><p>But I was looking forward to some of the supposed health benefits too. I'd heard that a detox from booze could make my skin better, increase my energy levels, and even improve my sleep.</p><p>None of this happened. In fact, I'd say this month I'm poorer than every month before last year, and I have just as many zits as usual. I've also had the worst sleep of my life. Which made me wonder...Was I the only person who'd experienced something like this after trying a Dry January? Was there something wrong with me?</p><p>For me, giving up drinking wasn't the hard part of Dry January. After Christmas, I was having a tight month budget-wise, so going out and spending money every weekend wasn't really an option. It was the lack of sleep that made me question everything, especially since sleeping is one of my favourite activities. </p><p>In January, I didn't make any changes to my diet. I did, however, make it to about one extra exercise class a week thanks to all my new free time. At bedtime, I felt just as tired and ready for sleep as usual. But actually falling to sleep became a real chore almost immediately.</p><p>I don't know when the insomnia started exactly, but it was definitely early on in January, and since that point, I'd toss and turn for what felt like hours. My brain would be buzzing, with thoughts whizzing around, and I'd be unable to relax. It wasn't like I was particularly alert either; I'd be exhausted but unable to shut off the space behind my eyes.</p><p>Sleep hasn't been a problem for me for years either. I used to struggle when I was a teenager, but taking better care of myself and exercising more sorted it out. </p><p>Some physicians I spoke with suggested that the real reason for my disturbed sleep was that I was experiencing symptoms of withdrawal. I don't normally drink that much during the week, if at all, which is why this diagnosis was surprising. Could I really have had so much to drink over Christmas that I'd upset the balance in my body?</p><p>An addiction expert I spoke to who has an Msc in addiction studies and is a drug and alcohol recovery worker suggested my body was getting used to falling asleep naturally - without the relaxing state brought about with a drink - but she also suggested that for that to be happening, I would likely have to have developed <a href="http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/alcohol-misuse/Pages/Introduction.aspx" target="_blank">alcohol dependency</a>.</p><p>In severe cases, alcohol withdrawal <a href="http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/alcohol-misuse/Pages/Introduction.aspx" target="_blank">can cause insomnia and other sleep problems</a>. Studies suggest that difficulty sleeping may be part of the vastly more complex and multi-faceted picture of why someone who's become addicted to alcohol may be <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2935463/">unable to stop, even after successful periods of sobriety</a>. According to <a href="https://www.omicsonline.org/insomnia-the-neglected-component-of-alcohol-recovery-2155-6105.10000e2.php?aid=38691" target="_blank">one article in the Journal of Addiction Research &amp; Therapy</a>, insomnia can have a significant impact on a patient's cognition, mood, and ability to participate in alcohol treatment.</p><p>It has also been suggested that whenever we get hangovers, <a href="http://www.mineralmed.com.pt/documentos/pdf/b2067e6f-4a87-4647-a32e-0593821831a3.pdf" target="_blank">this is actually mild withdrawal</a>. This study <a href="http://annals.org/aim/article/713513/alcohol-hangover" target="_blank">in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine</a> puts forward the theory that hangovers as a milder form of withdrawal, called acute withdrawal, with symptoms that many of us are all too familiar with including headache, nausea, fatigue, sometimes along with anxiety, guilt, and depression. </p><p>Omitting the possibility that I have an alcohol problem, another possibility is that drinking may have been helping out my body clock. I've always been a night owl and I find getting up in the morning immensely difficult regardless of how much sleep I've had. It's also possible that alcohol played a part in helping my brain relax, when it wanted to be at its most alert at night-time.</p><p>Many studies have shown that people can be divided into morning people and night people, or larks and owls. It's not a myth. If you prefer to get up at the crack of dawn, or stay up until the early hours, <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/early-birds-night-owls-better-sports-different-times-2016-10" target="_blank">it's probably because you're wired that way</a>. </p><p>One study <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2564777/" target="_blank">in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine</a> saw subjects categorised into morning, intermediate, and evening chronotypes, and found that people who were described as night owls tended to have more irregular sleep-wake schedules than those who weren't. So maybe I was self-medicating without really knowing it. </p><p>Whatever the cause, I'd had enough. During the last weekend of January I packed it in and had a few glasses of wine. Needless to say I then had best night's sleep I'd had in weeks. </p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/alcohol-abuse-effects-liver-disease-cirrhosis-scar-tissue-2016-11">Here's what happens to your liver if you drink too much alcohol</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="I3bTc3NzE6CP_8YlbExNLhpIiuGL1Gxn" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'I3bTc3NzE6CP_8YlbExNLhpIiuGL1Gxn',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

I tried 'Dry January' for the first time, and all I got was insomnia

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54b83205eab8eacf6a6d5701-897-672/woman-sleeping-5.png?maxX=600" alt="Woman Sleeping" width="600" border="0"><p class="source"><span>Business Insider / Mike Nudelman</span></p></img></div><p></p></div>In theory, sleep takes up about 8 out of every 24 hours, one-third of our lives. But many of us don't actually sleep that much and are tired all the time - m<span>ore than a third of Americans </span><a href="http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/65/wr/mm6506a1.htm">don't get the seven to nine hours of sleep</a><span> a night that the CDC recommends.</span></p><p>Yet we spend additional time worrying about our sleep. According to a <a href="https://sleepfoundation.org/media-center/press-release/2015-sleep-america-poll/page/0/1">research by the National Sleep Foundation</a>, more than a third of Americans say their sleep quality is "poor" or "only fair."</p><p>But how much sleep do we really need?</p><p>First, let's get the bad news out of the way: there isn't going to be a one size fits all answer - sleep needs really do vary from person to person.</p><p>You could be <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/sleepless-elite-2011-4">one of those incredibly rare people</a> that can actually get by on a few hours of sleep a night (almost definitely not), or you could be on the opposite end of the spectrum, what doctors refer to as a "<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/whats-it-like-to-do-a-sleep-study-2015-1">long sleeper</a>," who might need 11 hours a night.</p><p>But there are some things we do know about sleep, and these can help you figure out how much sleep you actually need - and how to better get a night's rest.</p><p>Here are five facts that will help you figure out what your personal sleep patterns are and how they compare to the rest of the population.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image"><img style="line-height: 1.5em;" src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54b830ddeab8eac56a6d5701-620-341/internaltime2.jpg" alt="internaltime2" width="400" border="0"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Internal-Time-Chronotypes-Social-Youre/dp/0674065859/ref=la_B0071GRB80_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1421357266&amp;sr=1-1">Internal Time: Chronotypes, Social Jet Lag, and Why You're So Tired by Till Roenneberg</a></span></p><p class="caption">Notice, the vast majority of people need between seven and nine hours of sleep.</p></img></div><p></p></div><strong>1. There's a reason that doctors usually recommend seven to nine hours of sleep.</strong></p><p>The amount of sleep that people need falls into a bell curve type distribution, with the vast majority of the population needing between seven and nine hours of rest each night to be refreshed.</p><p>The chart to the right, from the book "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Internal-Time-Chronotypes-Social-Youre/dp/0674065859/ref=la_B0071GRB80_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1421357266&amp;sr=1-1">Internal Time: Chronotypes, Social Jet Lag, and Why You're So Tired</a>" by German chronobiologist Till Roenneberg, shows the general distribution of sleep needs. (Chronobiology is the <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword> of our internal clocks.)</p><p><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;">2. You have a natural chronotype, or body clock, that determines when you are most comfortable sleeping and being awake.</strong></p><p>Most of us think of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/chronotype-biological-clock-circadian-rhythm-morning-person-2017-4">ourselves as morning or night people</a>, but those divisions aren't scientific - they're just ways of comparing ourselves to one another. </p><p>"Where you define owl or lark is really arbitrary," says <a href="http://profiles.ucsd.edu/david.welsh">Dr. David Welsh</a>, an associate professor studying circadian clocks at UC San Diego. Welsh says that if you look at large surveys of populations, you get a normal distribution of chronotypes - most people have fairly "average" chronotypes, some prefer to get up a bit earlier or later, and small groups naturally rise extremely early or late. There's no line that distinguishes different chronotypes.</p><p>But we all do have an internal schedule that makes us feel awake or sleepier at different times of day. Because of factors including hormone levels, genetics, and light exposure, some of us are more alert in the mornings and some of us prefer times later in the day.</p><p>If your schedule isn't aligned with your chronotype, you will feel tired and out of sync.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5939b06ebf76bb1d008b46f4-951/strepchanges1.png" alt="sleep needs" data-mce-source="National Sleep Foundation"><p class="source"><span>National Sleep Foundation</span></p></img></div><p></p></div></div></p><p><strong>3. The amount of sleep you need changes throughout your life.</strong></p><p>The seven to nine hour recommendation is standard for adults, but kids need much more sleep, while some older people need less.</p><p>This chart by the National Sleep Foundation shows how these requirements change as kids grow up.</p><p>In addition to length of sleep needs changing, chronotypes change throughout life as well.</p><p>According to Roenneberg's book, young children naturally tend to be more morning oriented. Around puberty, they're more likely to shift into a night owl chronotype, which tends to shift back to an earlier chronotype after age 20.</p><p><strong>4. There are some things you can do to adjust your natural chronotype.</strong></p><p>While your sleep needs (both chronotype, when you are alert, and length, how much sleep you need) <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-much-sleep-people-need-2014-9">are mostly genetic</a>, there are certain things you can do to adjust your schedule and at least <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-get-up-early-2015-1">make it a bit easier</a> to get up earlier.</p><p>Our bodies respond to light, especially the powerful natural light of the sun. Being exposed to that light in the morning tells our body that it's time to be alert and moving. At night, sitting in the dark stimulates the production of the hormone melatonin, which helps us relax and fall asleep (we mess with this process by looking at <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/smartphones-effect-on-vision-and-health-2014-9">bright light from smartphones</a>).</p><p>But we can adjust this to a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/chronotype-biological-clock-circadian-rhythm-morning-person-2017-4">degree by controlling our exposure to light</a>. This process, called entrainment, is what our bodies have to do when we go to a different time zone - this is why we get jet lagged. But we can also use this to train our bodies to get up and go to sleep earlier by exposing ourselves to natural light in the morning and avoiding bright light at night.</p><p>This won't turn you into a morning person, but it can make prying the covers loose just a little less painful.</p><p><strong>5. Your sleep needs are personal; try to figure out what works for you.</strong></p><p>Sometimes new research will come out, and <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/sleep-experts-close-in-on-the-optimal-nights-sleep-1405984970?autologin=y">people will claim</a> something like "studies have found that seven hours is the optimal amount of sleep - not eight."</p><p>But as interesting as any sleep research is, we do know that people are different and have different needs. The findings of one study don't translate into recommendations for everyone. <span style="line-height: 1.5em;">In the case of sleep, experts recommend figuring out what personally works best for you.</span></p><p>If you can let yourself sleep naturally for a few days to a week, going to bed when you are tired and waking up whenever is natural, preferably while limiting alcohol and caffeine, you'll have a better idea of your individual needs. Get some sun during the day, along with some exercise.</p><p>If you do all that but still have trouble sleeping, it might be time to talk to a doctor. You could be <a href="http://health.clevelandclinic.org/2013/08/commonly-undiagnosed-sleep-stealer-sleep-apnea-infographic/">one of the large percentage</a> of the population with undiagnosed sleep apnea, especially if you snore. Or you could have <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/whats-it-like-to-do-a-sleep-study-2015-1">some other disorder</a> that can be addressed.</p><p>It's worth taking the time to figure out what you can do to sleep better though. Not getting enough <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/what-happens-if-you-dont-get-enough-sleep-2017-3">raises some serious health concerns</a>.</p>

How to figure out how much sleep you really need

<h1><img class="float_right" src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54b83205eab8eacf6a6d5701-897-672/woman-sleeping-5.png?maxX=600" border="0" alt="Woman Sleeping" width="600">BI Answers: How much sleep do you really need?</img></h1>
<p>Sleep takes up one-third of our lives, but it puzzles us so much.</p>
<p>Many of us are tired all the time - 40% of Americans <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/why-sleep-is-important-2014-12">sleep less than</a> the recommended seven to nine hours, and according to a <a href="http://sleepfoundation.org/sleep-health-index">recent poll</a> by the National Sleep Foundation, 35% of Americans say their sleep quality is "poor" or "only fair."</p>
<p>If you type "why can't I" into Google search, sleep is one of the top three things that comes up, along with getting a job and losing weight - our anxieties are reflected by our internet confidante.</p>
<p><strong>But how much sleep do we really need?</strong></p>
<p>First, let's get the bad news out of the way: there isn't going to be a one size fits all answer - sleep needs really do vary from person to person.</p>
<p>You could be <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/sleepless-elite-2011-4">one of those incredibly rare people</a> that can actually get by on a few hours of sleep a night (almost definitely not), or you could be on the opposite end of the spectrum, what doctors refer to as a "<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/whats-it-like-to-do-a-sleep-study-2015-1">long sleeper</a>," who might need 11 hours a night.</p>
<p>But there are some things we do know about sleep, and these can help you figure out how much sleep you actually need - and how to better get a night's rest.</p>
<p>Here are five facts that will help you figure out what your personal sleep patterns are and how they compare to the rest of the population.</p>
<p><img class="float_right" src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54b830ddeab8eac56a6d5701-620-341/internaltime2.jpg" border="0" alt="internaltime2" width="400" style="line-height: 1.5em;"><strong>1. There's a reason that doctors usually recommend seven to nine hours of sleep.</strong></img></p>
<p>The amount of sleep that people need falls into a bell curve type distribution, with the vast majority of the population needing between seven and nine hours of rest each night to be refreshed.</p>
<p>The chart to the right, from the book "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Internal-Time-Chronotypes-Social-Youre/dp/0674065859/ref=la_B0071GRB80_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1421357266&amp;sr=1-1">Internal Time: Chronotypes, Social Jet Lag, and Why You're So Tired</a>" by German chronobiologist Till Roenneberg, shows the general distribution of sleep needs. (Chronobiology is the <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword> of our internal clocks.)</p>
<p><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;">2. You have a natural chronotype, or body clock, that determines when you are most comfortable sleeping and being awake.</strong></p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/there-are-actually-four-sleep-patterns-2014-11">most recent research suggests</a> that there are actually four natural chronotypes.</p>
<p>There are night owls, most comfortable being awake and alert later on in the day and into the night (hello, my people); "larks," otherwise known as morning people; and two groups with schedules in between. Both of those groups like to sleep a little later than the larks and go to bed earlier than the owls, but one of those two groups feels sluggish both morning and evening while the other has high energy levels at both times.</p>
<p>If your schedule isn't aligned with your chronotype, you are more likely to feel tired and out of sync.</p>
<p><img class="float_right" src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54b838dfeab8ea2f096d56ff-577-779/screen%20shot%202015-01-15%20at%205.00.15%20pm.png" border="0" alt="Sleep needs" width="400" /></p>
<p><strong>3. The amount of sleep you need changes throughout your life.</strong></p>
<p>The seven to nine hour recommendation is standard for adults, but kids need much more sleep, while some older people need less.</p>
<p>This chart by the National Sleep Foundation shows how these requirements change as kids grow up.</p>
<p>In addition to length of sleep needs changing, chronotypes change throughout life as well.</p>
<p>According to Roenneberg's book, young children naturally tend to be more morning oriented. Around puberty, they're more likely to shift into a night owl chronotype, which tends to shift back to an earlier chronotype after age 20.</p>
<p><strong>4. There are some things you can do to adjust your natural chronotype.</strong></p>
<p>While your sleep needs (both chronotype and length) <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-much-sleep-people-need-2014-9">are mostly genetic</a> and can't really be adjusted, there are certain things you can do to adjust your schedule and at least <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-get-up-early-2015-1">make it a bit easier</a> to get up earlier.</p>
<p>Our bodies respond to light, especially the powerful natural light of the sun. Being exposed to that light in the morning tells our body that it's time to be alert and moving. At night, sitting in the dark stimulates the production of the hormone melatonin, which helps us relax and fall asleep (we mess with this process by looking at <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/smartphones-effect-on-vision-and-health-2014-9">bright light from smartphones</a>).</p>
<p>But we can adjust this to a degree by controlling our exposure to light. This process, called entrainment, is what our bodies have to do when we go to a different time zone - this is why we get jet lagged. But we can also use this to train our bodies to get up and go to sleep earlier by exposing ourselves to natural light in the morning and avoiding bright light at night.</p>
<p>This won't turn you into a morning person, but it can make prying the covers loose just a little less painful.</p>
<p><strong>5. Your sleep needs are personal; try to figure out what works for you.</strong></p>
<p>Sometimes new research will come out, and <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/sleep-experts-close-in-on-the-optimal-nights-sleep-1405984970?autologin=y">people will claim</a> something like "studies have found that seven hours is the optimal amount of sleep - not eight."</p>
<p>But as interesting as any sleep research is, we do know that people are different and have different needs. The findings of a study don't translate into recommendations for everyone. <span style="line-height: 1.5em;">In the case of sleep, experts recommend figuring out what personally works best for you.</span></p>
<p>If you can let yourself sleep naturally for a few days to a week, going to bed when you are tired and waking up whenever is natural, preferably while limiting alcohol and caffeine, you'll have a better idea of your individual needs. Get some sun during the day, along with some exercise.</p>
<p>If you do all that but still have trouble sleeping, it might be time to talk to a doctor. You could be <a href="http://health.clevelandclinic.org/2013/08/commonly-undiagnosed-sleep-stealer-sleep-apnea-infographic/">one of the large percentage</a> of the population with undiagnosed sleep apnea, especially if you snore. Or you could have <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/whats-it-like-to-do-a-sleep-study-2015-1">some other disorder</a> that can be addressed.</p>
<p>It's worth taking the time to figure out what you can do to sleep better though. There are some <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/why-sleep-is-important-2014-12">incredible benefits</a> to getting better sleep.</p>
<p><em>This post is part of a continuing series that answers all of your questions related to science. Have your own question? Email <a href="mailto:science@businessinsider.com">science@businessinsider.com</a> with the subject line "Q&amp;A"; tweet your question to <a href="https://twitter.com/BI_Science" target="_blank">@BI_Science</a>; or <a href="https://www.facebook.com/BusinessInsiderScience" target="_blank">post to our Facebook page</a>.</em></p>

Figure Out How Much Sleep You Really Need

<h1><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right"><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54b83205eab8eacf6a6d5701-897-672/woman-sleeping-5.png?maxX=600" border="0" alt="Woman Sleeping" width="600"><p class="source"><span>Business Insider / Mike Nudelman</span></p></img></div><p></p></div>BI Answers: How much sleep do you really need?</h1>
<p>Sleep takes up one-third of our lives, but it puzzles us so much.</p>
<p>Many of us are tired all the time - 40% of Americans <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/why-sleep-is-important-2014-12">sleep less than</a> the recommended seven to nine hours, and according to a <a href="http://sleepfoundation.org/sleep-health-index">recent poll</a> by the National Sleep Foundation, 35% of Americans say their sleep quality is "poor" or "only fair."</p>
<p>If you type "why can't I" into Google search, sleep is one of the top three things that comes up, along with getting a job and losing weight - our anxieties are reflected by our internet confidante.</p>
<p><strong>But how much sleep do we really need?</strong></p>
<p>First, let's get the bad news out of the way: there isn't going to be a one size fits all answer - sleep needs really do vary from person to person.</p>
<p>You could be <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/sleepless-elite-2011-4">one of those incredibly rare people</a> that can actually get by on a few hours of sleep a night (almost definitely not), or you could be on the opposite end of the spectrum, what doctors refer to as a "<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/whats-it-like-to-do-a-sleep-study-2015-1">long sleeper</a>," who might need 11 hours a night.</p>
<p>But there are some things we do know about sleep, and these can help you figure out how much sleep you actually need - and how to better get a night's rest.</p>
<p>Here are five facts that will help you figure out what your personal sleep patterns are and how they compare to the rest of the population.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54b830ddeab8eac56a6d5701-620-341/internaltime2.jpg" border="0" alt="internaltime2" width="400" style="line-height: 1.5em;"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Internal-Time-Chronotypes-Social-Youre/dp/0674065859/ref=la_B0071GRB80_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1421357266&amp;sr=1-1">Internal Time: Chronotypes, Social Jet Lag, and Why You're So Tired by Till Roenneberg</a></span></p><p class="caption">Notice, the vast majority of people need between seven and nine hours of sleep.</p></img></div><p></p></div><strong>1. There's a reason that doctors usually recommend seven to nine hours of sleep.</strong></p>
<p>The amount of sleep that people need falls into a bell curve type distribution, with the vast majority of the population needing between seven and nine hours of rest each night to be refreshed.</p>
<p>The chart to the right, from the book "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Internal-Time-Chronotypes-Social-Youre/dp/0674065859/ref=la_B0071GRB80_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1421357266&amp;sr=1-1">Internal Time: Chronotypes, Social Jet Lag, and Why You're So Tired</a>" by German chronobiologist Till Roenneberg, shows the general distribution of sleep needs. (Chronobiology is the <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">science</keyword> of our internal clocks.)</p>
<p><strong style="line-height: 1.5em;">2. You have a natural chronotype, or body clock, that determines when you are most comfortable sleeping and being awake.</strong></p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/there-are-actually-four-sleep-patterns-2014-11">most recent research suggests</a> that there are actually four natural chronotypes.</p>
<p>There are night owls, most comfortable being awake and alert later on in the day and into the night (hello, my people); "larks," otherwise known as morning people; and two groups with schedules in between. Both of those groups like to sleep a little later than the larks and go to bed earlier than the owls, but one of those two groups feels sluggish both morning and evening while the other has high energy levels at both times.</p>
<p>If your schedule isn't aligned with your chronotype, you are more likely to feel tired and out of sync.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/54b838dfeab8ea2f096d56ff-577-779/screen%20shot%202015-01-15%20at%205.00.15%20pm.png" border="0" alt="Sleep needs" width="400"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://sleepfoundation.org/how-sleep-works/how-much-sleep-do-we-really-need">National Sleep Foundation</a></span></p></img></div><p></p></div></p>
<p><strong>3. The amount of sleep you need changes throughout your life.</strong></p>
<p>The seven to nine hour recommendation is standard for adults, but kids need much more sleep, while some older people need less.</p>
<p>This chart by the National Sleep Foundation shows how these requirements change as kids grow up.</p>
<p>In addition to length of sleep needs changing, chronotypes change throughout life as well.</p>
<p>According to Roenneberg's book, young children naturally tend to be more morning oriented. Around puberty, they're more likely to shift into a night owl chronotype, which tends to shift back to an earlier chronotype after age 20.</p>
<p><strong>4. There are some things you can do to adjust your natural chronotype.</strong></p>
<p>While your sleep needs (both chronotype and length) <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-much-sleep-people-need-2014-9">are mostly genetic</a> and can't really be adjusted, there are certain things you can do to adjust your schedule and at least <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-get-up-early-2015-1">make it a bit easier</a> to get up earlier.</p>
<p>Our bodies respond to light, especially the powerful natural light of the sun. Being exposed to that light in the morning tells our body that it's time to be alert and moving. At night, sitting in the dark stimulates the production of the hormone melatonin, which helps us relax and fall asleep (we mess with this process by looking at <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/smartphones-effect-on-vision-and-health-2014-9">bright light from smartphones</a>).</p>
<p>But we can adjust this to a degree by controlling our exposure to light. This process, called entrainment, is what our bodies have to do when we go to a different time zone - this is why we get jet lagged. But we can also use this to train our bodies to get up and go to sleep earlier by exposing ourselves to natural light in the morning and avoiding bright light at night.</p>
<p>This won't turn you into a morning person, but it can make prying the covers loose just a little less painful.</p>
<p><strong>5. Your sleep needs are personal; try to figure out what works for you.</strong></p>
<p>Sometimes new research will come out, and <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/sleep-experts-close-in-on-the-optimal-nights-sleep-1405984970?autologin=y">people will claim</a> something like "studies have found that seven hours is the optimal amount of sleep - not eight."</p>
<p>But as interesting as any sleep research is, we do know that people are different and have different needs. The findings of a study don't translate into recommendations for everyone. <span style="line-height: 1.5em;">In the case of sleep, experts recommend figuring out what personally works best for you.</span></p>
<p>If you can let yourself sleep naturally for a few days to a week, going to bed when you are tired and waking up whenever is natural, preferably while limiting alcohol and caffeine, you'll have a better idea of your individual needs. Get some sun during the day, along with some exercise.</p>
<p>If you do all that but still have trouble sleeping, it might be time to talk to a doctor. You could be <a href="http://health.clevelandclinic.org/2013/08/commonly-undiagnosed-sleep-stealer-sleep-apnea-infographic/">one of the large percentage</a> of the population with undiagnosed sleep apnea, especially if you snore. Or you could have <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/whats-it-like-to-do-a-sleep-study-2015-1">some other disorder</a> that can be addressed.</p>
<p>It's worth taking the time to figure out what you can do to sleep better though. There are some <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/why-sleep-is-important-2014-12">incredible benefits</a> to getting better sleep.</p>
<p><em>This post is part of a continuing series that answers all of your questions related to science. Have your own question? Email <a href="mailto:science@businessinsider.com">science@businessinsider.com</a> with the subject line "Q&amp;A"; tweet your question to <a href="https://twitter.com/BI_Science" target="_blank">@BI_Science</a>; or <a href="https://www.facebook.com/BusinessInsiderScience" target="_blank">post to our Facebook page</a>.</em></p>

How To Figure Out How Much Sleep You Really Need

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/557f3406eab8ea166b4620f6-3000-2000/gettyimages-55394962.jpg" alt="woman sleeping on table" data-mce-source="Scott Wintrow/Stringer/Getty Images" /><p class="source"><span>Scott Wintrow/Stringer/Getty Images</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>A startling number of teenagers and young adults are chronically sleep deprived, and the answer is starting school or work later, one sleep expert argues.</p><p><strong>According to Paul Kelley, a sleep researcher at the University of Oxford, children between the ages of eight and 10 should start school no earlier than 8:30 a.m., 16-year-olds should start at or after 10 a.m., and 18-year-olds at 11 a.m or later.</strong></p><p>The suggestions come from a recent <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17439884.2014.942666#abstract">study</a> published by Kelley and his colleagues in the journal Learning, Media and Technology.</p><p>"At the age of 10 you get up and go to school and it fits in with our nine-to-five lifestyle," Kelley said Tuesday at the British <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">Science</keyword> Festival, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/sep/08/start-school-later-11am-students-sleep">The Guardian reported</a>. "When you are about 55 you also settle into the same pattern. But in between it changes a huge amount and, depending on your age, you really need to be starting around three hours later, which is entirely natural."</p><p><strong>Adults could benefit from a later start, too. People between the ages of 18 and 55 should be starting work at 10 a.m. or later, Kelley added.</strong></p><p>Messing with our natural body clock, or circadian rhythms, has been linked to a host of mental and physical problems, including <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18929316">cognitive impairment</a>, <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26216591">anxiety</a>, <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26332970">weight gain</a>, <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25773725">high blood pressure</a>, and <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24628249">diabetes</a>.</p><p>The age range where we experience the most sleep deprivation is 14 to 24, when we get about two hours too little sleep per night. From age 24 to 30, we get about 1.5 hours too little, and from 30 to 55, we lose about an hour, Kelley told Business Insider. And the effects are cumulative. "Each day of sleep loss is added on to the next, until have chance to [sleep in]," Kelley said.</p><h2>Let the teens sleep in</h2><p>In line with Kelley's advice, the <a href="http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2014/08/19/peds.2014-1697">American Academy of Pediatrics</a><a href="http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2014/08/19/peds.2014-1697"> recommends</a> that middle and high schools should aim for a start time of no earlier than 8:30 a.m., and the US Department of Health recently published a <a href="http://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/32679">study</a> in favor of later start times. <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24336089">Research</a> suggests that later school start times can improve daytime sleepiness and mood, but this has not been studied on a large scale in a randomized trial in the UK until now, Kelley said.</p><p>Kelley has been working with neuroscientists Russell Foster of Oxford and Steven Lockley of Harvard Medical School to study the effects of shifted school schedules on academic performance.</p><p>They are leading a project called <a href="https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/projects/teen-sleep/">Teensleep</a>, which aims to study the effect of later start times at 100 schools throughout the UK among students aged 14 to 16.</p><p>During the project, whose results are scheduled to be published by September 2018, each school will be randomly assigned to have either an early or late start time. The researchers will also educate students at some of the schools about healthy sleep habits.</p><p>Academic performance will be measured by standardized national tests, which are given to all UK students. To determine if school start time had an effect on test scores, the findings will be analyzed by an independent group of researchers, so as not to bias the results.</p><h2>Screen addicts and night owls</h2><p>Of course, the time we start school or work is not the only factor affecting how much quality sleep we get.</p><p>The hours we spend exposing ourselves to bright light from our computers, phones and other devices are also eating into our sleep by preventing our brains from producing a chemical, called melatonin, that tells us its time for bed, <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003687012001159">studies suggest</a>.</p><p>Avoiding bright screens an hour before sleep could <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/why-its-bad-to-use-your-phone-before-bed-2015-7">make a big difference</a> in the amount of sleep we get, Kelley said.</p><p><a href="http://jbr.sagepub.com/content/18/1/80.abstract">Research</a> has also shown that people's natural sleep cycles, or chronotypes, vary. Some people (called "larks") wake up early and go to bed early, whereas others ("owls") wake up later and stay up late. So although the average teen wakes up later than kids or older adults, not all do.</p><p>Still, adjusting school start times for the average teen could be a step in the right direction.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/impact-smartphones-brain-and-body-sleep-dan-siegel-2015-8">This is what happens to your brain and body when you check your phone before bed</a></h3>        <div>            <div>    <script src="http://player.ooyala.com/v3/6e12e8b3387a44daacfb73afba25a76e"></script>    <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="BvMjVqcjoHdZBG6tTpXy8UkhB5_46U_c" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>    <script>    if (typeof RunFunctions === 'undefined') { var RunFunctions = []; }     RunFunctions.push(function()    {         var ooyalapopvideo = OO.Player.create('ooyalaplayer_popvideo', 'BvMjVqcjoHdZBG6tTpXy8UkhB5_46U_c',{ autoplay: 'false' });     });    </script>    <noscript><div>Please enable Javascript to watch this video</div></noscript></div>        </div>        <script>(function() { function createPlayer() { OO.ready(function() { RunFunctions.forEach(function(ooyalaFunction) { ooyalaFunction(); }); RunFunctions = [];}); } createPlayer(); }()); </script>    </div>

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