Selasa, 12 Juni 2012

Feeling blue? Scientists suggest setting your alarm clock earlier as study finds morning people are happier than night owls

Feeling blue? Scientists suggest setting your alarm clock earlier as study finds morning people are happier than night owls

By Daily Mail Reporter

PUBLISHED: 06:07 EST, 12 June 2012 | UPDATED: 10:30 EST, 12 June 2012

Lights out: Put down that book and go to sleep - scientists say you will feel better for it

Lights out: Put down that book and go to sleep - scientists say you will feel better for it

People who rise early feel happier and more satisfied with life overall, compared to night owls.

But the good news for stroppy teenagers is that most people become earlier risers as they age, and this change is also associated with greater feelings of happiness.

Researchers at the University of Toronto asked more than 700 people about their preferred time of day and how healthy and happy they generally feel.

They then compared the responses of the group of younger adults aged 17 to 38 with older people ages 59 to 79.

Only about seven per cent of young adults are morning larks, while by age 60 most people preferred to be up with the dawn.

Just seven per cent of the oldest people in the study described themselves as night owls.

'We found that older adults reported greater positive emotion than younger adults, and older adults were more likely to be morning-type people than younger adults,' study researcher Renee Biss fro m the University of Toronto reportedly told LiveScience.

'The "morningness" was associated with greater happiness emotions in both age groups.'

Morning types also tended to report that they felt healthier than the late risers, according to the study that published in the journal Emotion.

The researchers said that this apparent health benefit could come from the extra sleep they would enjoy, as their sleeping schedule would fit with society’s expectations of rising early for work.

Night owl: Those who preferred being awake in the wee hours generally felt less health and happy

Night owl: Those who preferred being awake in the wee hours generally felt less health and happy

This extra sleep could not only make them feel more alert, but may also boost their immune system.

‘Evening people may be more prone to social jetlag; this means that their biological clock is out of sync with the social clock,' Ms Biss said.

'Society's expectations are far more organized around a morning-type person's schedule.'

‘An evening person may go through their week feeling unhappy because they have to get up earlier than they would like to.’

But Ms Biss said there was hope for night owls as it was possible for them to turn themselves into morning people.

‘One way to do it is to increase your natural light exposure early in the morning, and to wake up earlier and go to bed earlier,’ she said. ‘It's easiest if you have a consistent schedule, to make sure you are waking up at the same time every day.’

Here's what other readers have said. Why not add your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards.

The comments below have not been moderated.

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I much prefer the shoe study. This is just so tiresome.

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The morning is an increadibly uplifting time of day. It's great to have the whole day ahead of you. If it's sunny and the sky is blue it's wonderful - you can breath in the fresh air and there are no cars (or fumes) and it just feels special. For that moment it feels as if you have the wonders of the world to yourself.

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weak human species

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As melatonin the sleep hormone peaks between midnight and 1am, how much of the mood is improved simply because one would have got a better quality sleep?

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YA RLY! *goes back to bed....zzzzzzzzzz*

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Maybe because work/social life is build to suit early birds better and thus they don't have that "social jet lag" all the time? I've been a nocturnal person all my life and constantly have to justify my biorhythm. However, I'm not going to change it by force, because among other things, I'm way more productive from afternoon to late night. My boss knows and is ok with it but it's getting a little annoying having to explain/appologize for my work schedule to others.

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'We found that older adults reported greater positive emotion than younger adults, and older adults were more likely to be morning-type people than younger adults,' Yeah, maybe. But the older age group of 59-79 are mostly also retired, their kids have all grown up, their mortgage is paid, do I need to go on? There is no evidential link here to how happy you are and what time you get up and go to bed. They have merely compared age groups. The result of the study is simply that they have found from the people surveyed that older people are generally happier than younger ones.

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It would be nice to decide when to get up but as a shift worker doing 12 and 14 hour day and nightshifts I never know where I am.

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O RLY?

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Much as i love my lie-in, I agree. I've been through periods of depression in my life, and the times I stay up really late do correlate with times I feel bad.

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