Summary:
A study from Brunel University of London examined how chronotype—the natural preference for being a morning or evening person—relates to mental health in young adults in the UK and Germany. Researchers analyzed data from 460 participants, assessing chronotype, sleep quality, and mental health outcomes such as depression, anxiety, and stress. While previous research has linked evening chronotypes (night owls) to a higher risk of mental health issues, this study investigated whether sleep quality plays a role in that relationship. The findings suggest that poor sleep quality is associated with worse mental health outcomes, regardless of chronotype.
Key Takeaways:
- Night Owls Are More Likely to Experience Mental Health Challenges – Evening chronotypes have been linked to a higher risk of depression, anxiety, and stress compared to morning or intermediate types.
- Sleep Quality Plays a Significant Role in Mental Health – Poor sleep quality was strongly associated with worse mental health outcomes across all chronotypes.
- Findings Suggest Sleep Quality May Help Offset Chronotype-Related Risks – The study raises questions about whether improving sleep quality could help mitigate the mental health risks often seen in night owls.
A new study from Brunel University of London investigated how being a night owl or lark impacts the mental health of young adults living in the United Kingdom and Germany—and discovered how good quality sleep can mitigate the risk of poor mental health regardless of a person’s preferred sleeping times.
“Chronotype is a person’s natural sleep pattern with regards to the time of day that they prefer to sleep and wake up, and when they are most alert,” says Veena Kumari, PhD, a psychology professor from Brunel University of London’s Centre for Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience, who led the study, in a release. “Morning chronotype people tend to report peak physical and mental performance in the early part of the day after waking up, and evening chronotype people might have the best mental and physical performance before sleeping. Most people are in the intermediate range and have an intermediate chronotype—falling somewhere between a morning person (lark) and an evening person (night owl).”
Kumari explains that there is considerable evidence supporting an increased risk of mental health problems in people with evening chronotypes compared to those with morning or intermediate chronotypes, and her research team investigated whether this risk may be explained, at least partially, by poor sleep quality.
The study, published in Brain Sciences, involved 460 healthy adults aged 18 to 40 living in the UK and Germany. The participants answered a series of questionnaires for the researchers to identify their chronotype and assess specific mental health outcomes—depression, anxiety, and stress, as well as sleep quality, certain personality traits, and childhood trauma, which have been associated with poor mental health.
“Our study aimed to further clarify the roles of chronotype and sleep quality in specific mental health outcomes, and we found that poor-quality sleep had significantly positive associations with adverse mental health outcomes in all participants, regardless of their chronotype,” says Satyam Chauhan, PhD, an early career researcher from Brunel, who also worked on the study, in a release.
ID 307735240 © Vasyl Helevachuk | Dreamstime.com
