In the evening or morning, there is an hour that should not be exceeded in the evening, researchers show.
Are you more of a night owl or night owl? In our fast-paced society, it is not easy to maintain a regular sleep schedule and long days often push us to stay up late. A bad habit for health, especially mental health, demonstrate researchers from Stanford Medicine in the United States.
These scientists studied the sleep habits of nearly 74,000 adults. They noted everyone’s chronotypes, that is to say their ideal time to go to bed. To evaluate the concordance between this ideal moment and the actual bedtime, the subjects were equipped with an accelerometer (device that measures sleep) for 7 days. Their mental health was analyzed to identify possible mental, behavioral, neurodevelopmental, depressive and/or anxiety disorders. Of the participants, 19,065 identified themselves as morning people, 6,844 as evening people, and 47,979 as somewhere in the middle.
According to the results reported in the journal Psychiatry Research, people who prefer to go to bed early and actually do it have a reduced risk of mental disorders. In contrast, those who are morning people but go to bed late (not aligned with their chronotype) have poorer mental health with more depression and anxiety, as do those who like to stay up late and actually do so. So “alignment with the chronotype is not crucial because regardless of natural chronotype, going to bed late is associated with poorer mental health. write the authors. “The big unknown is why” asks Professor Jamie Zeiter, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, lead author of the study.
Based on their observations, the researchers believe that “to age in good health, it is recommended to start sleeping before 1 a.m. regardless of your chronobiological preferences.” There is therefore not a specific time which should not be deviated from but rather an hour which should not be exceeded in order to fall into the arms of Morpheus. It is important to adapt your sleep habits to follow this recommendation because it is not possible to change your chronotype. “Biologically speaking, it’s a bit like a rubber band: you take a day off and you go back to where your body wants to be.”