A lot of things affect our sleep cycles – whether it be our natural biological clocks, work, traveling, or in my case, my noisy upstairs neighbors who seem to prefer wearing high heels or combat boots and walking with an absurd amount of conviction late at night.
But we do actually have unique, natural sleep schedules that apparently can play a roll in our health.
According to a new study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, those who naturally stay up late have an increased chance of developing diabetes, metabolic syndrome and sarcopenia than early risers, despite the amount of hours actually spent sleeping.
“Regardless of lifestyle, people who stayed up late faced a higher risk of developing health problems like diabetes or reduced muscle mass than those who were early risers,” said one of the study’s authors, Nan Hee Kim, MD, PhD, of Korea University College of Medicine in Ansan, Korea. “This could be caused by night owls’ tendency to have poorer sleep quality and to engage in unhealthy behaviors like smoking, late-night eating and a sedentary lifestyle.”
The difference could also have a lot to do with our genes known to influence our chronotypes, which differ between those who stay up late and those who prefer to wake up early. An Endocrine Society press release explained how the study was conducted and what the results imply.
The study examined sleeping habits and metabolism in 1,620 participants in the population-based cohort Korean Genome Epidemiology Study (KoGES). The study subjects were between the ages of 47 and 59. Participants responded to questionnaires about their sleep-wake cycle, sleep quality and lifestyle habits such as exercising. Researchers took blood samples to assess participants’ metabolic health. In addition, the study subjects underwent DEXA scans to measure total body fat and lean mass, and CT scans to measure abdominal visceral fat.
Even though the evening chronotypes tended to be younger, they had higher levels of body fat and triglycerides, or fats in the blood, than morning chronotypes. Night owls also were more likely to have sarcopenia, a condition where the body gradually loses muscle mass. Men who were evening chronotypes were more likely have diabetes or sarcopenia than early risers. Among women, night owls tended to have more belly fat and a great risk of metabolic syndrome, a cluster of risk facts that raise the risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes.
Many of us have pretty established bedtimes and programmed alarm clock settings for the morning. But it looks like maybe putting in the effort to shift our sleep schedules slightly back might pay off.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
[Photo from Flickr user Michiel S.]
