You probably don’t feel your best when you stay up until the wee hours of the night. But beyond waking up groggy, new research says late bedtimes can actually harm your mental health.
In a recent study published inPsychiatry Research, experts analyzed sleep and health data from 73,888 people in the U.K. Biobank. Those who regularly went to bed after 1 a.m. were more likely to experience mental health disorders like depression and anxiety than those who went to bed before 1 a.m.
It didn’t matter if subjects classified themselves as early birds normally ornight owls (this is also known as your chronotype) ― going to bed after 1 a.m. hurt people mentally, the study found. In fact, night owls who went to bed after 1 a.m. were most likely to have mental health impacts. People who went to bed before 1 a.m. had the lowest amount of mental health diagnoses.
This study has some limitations: The people who make up the U.K. Biobank are mostly whit...
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