14 DAY TRIAL // Being a "night owl" means a tough life.
It does not matter that you have to wake up at 7 in the morning to go to the f***ing work, 'cause a new research made at Stanford University shows that this type of persons report more pathological symptoms linked to insomnia even when they have the opportunity to compensate for their lack of night sleep by prolonging their time in bed to gain more total sleep time.
The research made by a team lead by Dr. Jason C. Ong was carried on 312 volunteers, who were assigned as morning, intermediate and evening chronotypes after they completed the Morningness-Eveningness Composite Scale.
The groups were compared based on self-report assessments of nocturnal sleep, sleep period variability and waking, all these linked to insomnia.
Compared to the morning ("larks") and intermediate types, people with insomnia who belonged to the evening group ("night owls") presented the most sleep/wake irregularities and waking distress, even when they had the opportunity to balance for severity of sleep disturbance. "Our findings indicate that further research should investigate the relationship between circadian rhythms and insomnia, especially with the severity of the 'night owl' group. These factors may serve to perpetuate the insomnia disorder, and might be particularly important to consider when treating this subgroup of insomniacs", said Ong.
Insomnia represents a sleep disorder characterized by difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, waking up too early, poor quality sleep, and it affects about 30 % of adults. This sleep impairment affects a person's physical and emotional health, mental and work abilities.
Many researches have linked insomnia to severe health problems like a higher risk of depression, obesity, cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Experts recommend about 7 to 8 hours of sleep each night for adults to keep good health and maximum performance.