Yahoo Lifestyle Are night owls at higher risk of cancer?
By Cassie Shortsleeve
iStock
It's a question many night owls ask: If you’re wide awake at 2am and still score eight hours in the sack, are you any less healthy than if you called it a night at 10 pm?
“For most people, eight hours straight is eight hours straight,” says Dr Michael Breus, author of The Sleep Doctor’s Diet Plan: Lose Weight Through Better Sleep. And as long as you awaken feeling refreshed—and it jibes with your social and work schedule—your bedtime should be fine. “The old saying that sleep before midnight is better than sleep after midnight does not seem to have any real science behind it,” he adds.
However, negative sleep quality can occur when your sleep doesn't synch with your circadian rhythm—your light-dark cycle—like if you work the night shift, says Breus. Normally, your body secretes the sleep hormone melatonin late at night, increasing messenger proteins that spot threats. When you miss out on that, your body has a harder time detecting and beating threats like cancer. In fact, the World Health Organization categorises night shift work as a carcinogen, says Dr W. Christopher Winter, Men’s Health’s sleep advisor.
But usually, night owls are simply genetically phase-delayed, Breus says. They have a body clock where they naturally want to sleep later. If that’s you, just remember to keep your bedroom dark in the morning. Exposure to morning light can make it hard to enter a deep cycle of sleep.
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As long as it's working, you’re best off sticking to your schedule. “Sleep is most powerful if you get it when your body expects it,” says Dr. Winter. When you anticipate sleep, you release melatonin and your brain changes dopamine levels to prepare. If you don’t sleep, you can wind up feeling ill or jet lagged, Dr. Winter explains.
If you know your schedule is going to change—like for an early morning race or a new job—change your sleep pattern a day before the event. It takes about 24 hours to adjust to a one hour time change. (And a 6am race or board meeting will feel a lot harder if your body is going when it is used to sleeping, Dr. Winter says.)
If you’re struggling to adjust, take a nap instead of hitting snooze. And for more bang for your buck, schedule naps at the same time every day, says Dr. Winter. Your body will begin to expect them—making it easier to fall asleep.
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