No, Night Owls Aren’t Doomed to Die Early

This is about a study published last year in April in Chronobiology International: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.tandfonline.com&#x2F;doi&#x2F;full&#x2F;10.1080&#x2F;07420528.2018.1454458" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.tandfonline.com&#x2F;doi&#x2F;full&#x2F;10.1080&#x2F;07420528.2018.1...</a><p>News sites have picked it up and produced headlines on the same study with the complete opposite sentiment: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.sky.com&#x2F;story&#x2F;nocturnal-night-owls-risk-early-death-study-finds-11327054" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.sky.com&#x2F;story&#x2F;nocturnal-night-owls-risk-early-d...</a><p>My understanding is from the article that night owls are not doomed to die early in the literal sense, but not being able to work, eat and exercise in the &quot;proper time&quot; still makes them susceptible to diabetes, neurological, respiratory and cardiovascular problems, etc.<p>So yeah, still doomed.

You know, back in Mexico, we had school in two shifts, rite? It was a morning shift &amp; afternoon shift. It was a way to fix the problem of &quot;too many students and not enough time&quot;.<p>I always took the afternoons. It was great. Life made sense. I wonder if we can ever pressure the bosses to make overlapping shifts? Or is that even possible? A 6-hour workday sounds like an opium dream to me at this point in our timeline.

&gt; It wasn’t the conclusion of the study, or its researchers. But in the bombastic world of science reporting, it didn’t really matter.<p>This right here is the crux of the whole thing. Science reporting biases towards clicks and shares instead of accuracy. There is still some good science reporting out there, but it doesn&#x27;t sell like the sensational headlines.

Those who are forced to wake up too early, die early.<p>Those who sleep enough have no extra risk.

Alternative hypothsis: People who stay up late have a higher probability of going out, enjoy more occasional drinks, are more probable to smoking or take recreational drugs and have more sexual partners and generally enjoy more riskier lifestyle choices, all of which contributes to the statistics showing a shorter life expectation.

I suspect the issue isn&#x27;t the time you wake up, it&#x27;s if you&#x27;re artificially waking up.<p>(Ex: if you stay up late on weekends then struggle on Monday due to lack of sleep vs simply choosing to wake at 10am daily because you have a flexible work schedule and sometimes like to go to events that are in the evening.)

I don&#x27;t think it&#x27;s when you sleep, but how much sleep you get on a consistent basis.

I really dislike this kind of clickbait. I&#x27;ve never heard anything of owls dying and now I have this condescending headline talking down to me.

&quot;...warned against drawing conclusions based on simple correlation.&quot;<p>Can we just do this, in general?

Yeah like sugar vs fat studies, this is profound, not.

So the choice is enjoy life or drag it out when you&#x27;re falling apart.