They set out to investigate at the University of Exeter in England. In doing so, scientists looked at what the healthiest hour is to get into bed. The health of our heart was taken as the starting point.
Ideal sleeping time
And that is bad news for those who only look at the inside of the eyes after midnight: this group has a higher risk of cardiovascular disease. The chance that you will suffer from this as a night owl is about 25 percent higher than if you go to bed earlier.
If you want to use it as an excuse to go to bed very early, that won’t save you either. People who regularly snore before ten o’clock have a 12 percent higher risk of cardiovascular disease. The risk is lowest if you get into bed between ten and eleven.
Many more factors
More than 88,000 people were examined for the study. Incidentally, the results do not mean that sleeping very early or very late by definition causes problems with the heart. There are countless other factors that have an influence, such as exercise, alcohol and your diet. Heredity can also play a role. In addition, the sleep quality of the test subjects was not examined.
Biological clock
The reason that sleeping late or early can be unhealthy has to do with the sun. “If you go to bed late and get up late, your body misses signals from nature, such as the morning sun,” says Professor David Plans, Lead researcher †
“That light helps reset our internal clock on a daily basis. If you don’t, it can have negative consequences for your cardiovascular health.” He says that much more research is needed to find out exactly how it works.