Early risers or night owls, which sleeping habit is healthier?

Several of us in our younger days have been late sleepers. We stayed up all night, partied, studied, returned home early morning, and slept the whole of the following day. And continued with this cycle.

Now, a lot of us wake up early. Sometimes even without alarms. The whole of our mornings are productive, and by the time it is afternoon, bedtime is just in a few hours. Early risers have an uninterrupted eight hours of sleep mostly.

A lot of people are by default are early sleepers, while others are hardwired to sleep late. This preference is modulated by each person’s internal, unique clock known as the circadian system. The preference is known as a chronotype.

What is chronotype?

The body has another chronotype apart from early risers and late sleepers. There are also those who sleep a little later than morning people and have maximum productivity in the afternoon.

Not that sleeping early would automatically make one healthy. It has to be supplemented with other healthy habits like eating clean, exercising regularly, and not living a sedentary life. Fine-tuning our lifestyle can make attaining success easier, and waking up early is one of the first healthy habits that need to be adopted.  

The tendency to become inactive among those who sleep late can be bad for people with diabetes or heart conditions. Diabetes is a lifestyle disease that is very common, and approximately one in 11 people globally are said to be suffering from it. So, if your chronotype is towards evening, it is important to add activities to your schedule to make it a healthy lifestyle.

Benefits of early sleeping

Early risers generally tend to be on the move more than late risers. A recent study published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science showed that early risers tend to move one to one-and-a-half hours more than late risers throughout the day. Late risers were found to move less and sit more.

The advantages of being an early riser are many. It gives one a whole lot of time for themselves in the morning. There are no emails from work to attend to, no social groups buzzing constantly with messages, no friends calling or running to attend to crying kids.

Since there is less interruption, productivity is higher, which leaves you with enough time to finish your exercise routine, to-do lists, or simply sip on that cup of tea, watching the day begin without any interruption.

There is also less sense of urgency which allows you to enjoy things more, like grabbing a filling breakfast, watching the sunrise, or listening to birds chirping. And because we get more time to enjoy the small joys of life, waking up early tends to make you a more grateful person.

How to change habits?

Early risers are also better prepared to deal with the pressure. It allows you enough time to shake off the drowsiness and regain energy gradually so that by the time work begins and pressure mounts, you are better prepared to handle it.

Those thinking that changing one’s body clock is an uphill task can begin slow. Start by waking up 15 mins early than your regular time and increase the time each week so as to develop the habit in a sustainable way. Convince your mind to sleep early with a good reason to wake up early, like grabbing a delicious breakfast.