Getting up an hour earlier can reduce the risk of major depression by 23%. This is apparent from a study by the universities of Colorado Boulder, MIT and Harvard that appeared in May in a professional journal JAMA Psychiatry† Data from 840,000 people were used for this study.
get up an hour earlier
We already knew that there is a relationship between sleep time and mood, but how much earlier should someone get up? Researcher Celine Vetter explains: “We discovered that even an hour of ‘earlier sleep’ has a major effect.” Because this study used data from such a large group of people, this is the strongest evidence to date.
Chance of depression
The American research shows that if someone goes to sleep at midnight instead of 1 a.m., the risk of depression decreases by 23%. And if you go to sleep at 11 p.m., the risk is even 40% smaller.
The researchers are not yet able to say for sure why this is the case. It may have to do with the amount of light you are exposed to. If you go to sleep an hour earlier, you will also wake up an hour earlier and see more daylight. That in turn creates hormones that positively influence your mood.
The way in which society is organized can also influence this. Evening people can’t keep up with the rhythm that is seen as normal, which may also affect their psychological health.
5 tips from our sleep expert Mark for a good night’s sleep after a stressful day:
Source: Sciencedaily.com†