Jul 22, 2023 15:00:00

People who stay up late may be more likely to die prematurely because many people drink and smoke

Many people think that staying up late is bad for their health, and

research has shown that night people are more likely to die prematurely than morning people. However, a new paper published by a Finnish research team suggests that people who stay up late may be more likely to die prematurely because they are more likely to have drinking and smoking habits.

Full article: Chronotype and mortality - a 37-year follow-up study in Finnish adults
https://doi.org/10.1080/07420528.2023.2215342

Night owls may die earlier because they tend to drink and smoke more, study suggests | Live Science
https://www.livescience.com/health/death/night-owls-may-die-earlier-because-they-tend-to-drink-and-smoke-more-study-suggests

A research team led by Jaakko Kaprio , a professor of genetic epidemiology at the University of Helsinki, Finland, analyzed research data that tracked the health and lifestyle of more than 23,000 people living in Finland.

At the time of the first survey conducted in 1981, the average age of the subjects was 41 years old, and in addition to lifestyle questions, they were ``clearly morning'', ``somewhat morning'', ``somewhat evening'', and ``clearly night''. Subjects were followed for 37 years until 2018, during which more than 8,700 subjects died, and health records were continuously collected during that time.

As a result of analyzing the data, the research team found that the mortality rate was 21% higher for subjects who answered 'clearly night type' compared to subjects who answered 'clearly morning type'. This alone leads to the conclusion that ``night owls are more likely to die early than morning owls,'' but the research team added factors such as body mass index (BMI), sleep time, education level, smoking and drinking habits.

A second analysis found that the risk of excess mortality in night owls fell to 9% when the additional factors were taken into account. The excess mortality risk of night-type people is mostly due to alcohol consumption and smoking amount, ``Night-type people are more likely to die early because they drink and smoke more than morning-type people,'' said the research team. In fact, when comparing the mortality rate of ``people who have a light drinking habit and do not smoke'', it seems that there was no difference between the morning type and the night type.

In addition, the mortality rate from alcohol-related diseases and alcohol poisoning is 92% higher for ``clearly night owls'' than for ``clearly morning owls'', and the mortality rate for lung cancer and respiratory tract cancer, which is likely to be caused by smoking, is 78% higher for night owls than for morning owls. These risks are said to be significantly reduced when factors such as drinking and smoking habits are taken into account, and this finding suggests that ``drinking and smoking habits increase the risk of death, rather than being a night owl.'' The research team argued that it supports the idea.

Kaprio believes that the 9% difference that remained after controlling for various factors is likely to be related to some factor other than 'because it's a night owl.' In this study, we measured sleep habits and the amount of drinking and smoking at a certain point, but if these factors are continuously measured, there is a possibility that there will be no difference in mortality due to sleep habits.

Kristen Nutson , a professor of neurology at Northwestern University in the United States, who was not involved in this study, also agrees with the idea that the remaining 9% are not necessarily related to sleep habits. Nutson told Live Science that the increased risk of death could be due to as yet unknown environmental or behavioral factors.