You relish those late nights, burning the midnight oil as a badge of honor. But that exhilarating lifestyle of staying up into the wee hours may be silently sabotaging your mental health. A large-scale new study from Stanford Medicine suggests that no matter your chronotype, late bedtimes significantly increase the risks of depression, anxiety, and other behavioral disorders.
One factor is that nocturnal activity often breeds impulsive and maladaptive behavior, she said. The brain operates differently during nighttime wakefulness, especially in areas like risk assessment, behavioral inhibition, and cognitive control, she added. When people align with societal norms and more people are awake simultaneously, it can promote better mental well-being, Ms.
Lok noted. Night owls, however, may experience poorer mental health due to misalignment with common sleep patterns, she added. They’re often expected to wake up early for work despite insufficient sleep, leading to grogginess, reduced performance, and adverse mental health outcomes.
Mr. Walker likens a night owl’s brain forced to wake early to a cold engine starting: It takes a long time to warm up and function efficiently. During a typical 90-minute sleep cycle, the ratio of NREM to REM sleep changes dramatically throughout the night.
The first half is dominated by deep NREM sleep, with very little REM sleep, while the balance shifts in the second half, with minimal deep NREM sleep and an abundance of REM sleep, Mr. Walker n.
