Apparently, if you’re a night owl, you’re more prone to developing depression.
Night owls tend to get a bad rep. They’re often told they’re less productive and lazier than early risers, merely because they sleep more during daylight—you know, when the world is expected to be most active.
Now, according to recent research, they’re also apparently more likely to experience depression.
“Depression affects daily functioning and can impact a person’s work and education,” Simon Evans, PhD, a neuroscience lecturer and researcher in the School of Psychology of the University of Surrey in the U.K., told Medical News Today. “It also increases the risk of going on to develop other serious health conditions, including heart disease and stroke, so it’s important for us to study ways to reduce depression.”
Obviously, if there was a simple way to decrease your risk of developing depression, most of us would take it. In this case, that might mean getting to sleep earlier in the night rather than staying up until the early morning hours. However, unfortunately, some of us don’t have the luxury to change our sleeping hours.
Does that mean those who work night shifts or lead lifestyles that require them to be active at night are doomed to be depressed?
The study, published in the journal PLOS One, found that “evening-types had significantly higher levels of depression symptoms, poorer sleep quality, and lower levels of ‘acting with awareness’ and ‘describing,’ as well as higher rumination and alcohol consumption.”
With so many young adults self-identifying as “night owls” (or evening-types, as the study refers to them), it’s concerning to note this negative link between their sleep patterns and mental health.
“A large proportion (around 50%) of young adults are ‘night owls,’ and depression rates among young adults are higher than ever,” said Evans, lead author of the study. “Studying the link is therefore important.”
“More important is the finding that the link between chronotype and depression was fully mediated by certain aspects of mindfulness—‘acting with awareness’ in particular—sleep quality, and alcohol consumption,” Evans continued. “This means that these factors seem to explain why night owls report more depression symptoms.”
Source : https://www.vice.com/en/article/night-owls-are-more-likely-to-have-depression/
