People who are night owls and prefer to give sunrise a miss everyday may have a higher risk of some chronic health problems such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease, than people who are up early.
Differences among people in so-called sleep chronotypes — the natural sleep-wake cycles that program our body’s biological clock — have long been associated with the risk of a wide range of chronic health problems, including obesity, type 2 diabetes, fertility issues, digestive disorders, and mental illness. But much of this research has focused on what happens when people cannot sleep when their body is naturally inclined to do so — a common issue for many shift workers.
In a new study that took a different approach to the problem, researchers at Rutgers University in the United States focused on people who do follow their natural sleep-wake cycles, also known as circadian rhythms. Scientists studied two distinct sleep chronotypes: 24 ‘early birds’, who were most alert in the mornings and tended to go to bed earlier, and 27 ‘night owls’, who were sharpest later in the day and tended to stay up late.
Overall, researchers found that the night owls had less ability to use fat for energy, meaning that fats accumulated in the body and increased the risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
These metabolic differences can be explained by how well people with different sleep chronotypes use the hormone insulin to turn glucose, or the sugars in the blood from foods we eat, into energy that cells can burn immediately or store for later. The study found that the early birds used glucose more efficiently for energy than the night owls, allowing them to churn through this energy source and then burn stores of fat for energy too. By contrast, the night owls did not use glucose as efficiently or burn through as much of their fat stores.
Based on their study, the researchers suggested that the differences in fat metabolism between ‘early birds’ and ‘night owls’ shows that our body’s circadian rhythm could affect how our bodies use insulin and potentially result in major negative implications for our health.
For their study the researchers employed advanced imaging to assess body composition, tested participants for insulin sensitivity, and used breath samples to measure fat and carbohydrate metabolism. Researchers also monitored activity levels, provided participants with all their meals to control energy intake, and conducted treadmill tests to determine their aerobic fitness levels.
The research found that early birds used more fat for energy both when they were at rest and during the exercise tests. Early birds were also more sensitive to insulin, meaning they were better at using this hormone to lower their blood sugar and more apt to burn fats for energy. Night owls were insulin resistant, meaning they needed more of this hormone to lower blood sugar levels and also tended to store more fats.
Observations from the new study advances the understanding of how our body’s circadian rhythms impact our health. The researchers pointed out that since chronotype appears to impact our metabolism and hormone action, this could be used as a factor to predict an individual’s disease risk.
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