{"id":439246,"date":"2026-01-28T19:22:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T19:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/439246\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T19:22:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T19:22:08","slug":"new-study-warns-night-owls-have-higher-heart-risk-health-and-wellness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/439246\/","title":{"rendered":"New study warns night owls have higher heart risk | Health and Wellness"},"content":{"rendered":"

Night owls<\/a> are more likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke, warns new research.<\/p>\n

People who stay up late and are active at night – particularly women – tend to have poor cardiovascular health scores compared to those with more typical sleep-wake timing, according to the findings.<\/p>\n

The study showed that middle-aged and older adults who are naturally more active in the evenings are at greater risk of a heart attack or stroke, compared to people without a strong morning or evening preference.<\/p>\n

Unhealthy habits among night owls<\/a> – such as poor diet quality, insufficient sleep and smoking – may account for their lower cardiovascular health profile, according to analysis of data from over 300,000 British adults.<\/p>\n

But helping them improve their lifestyle may lower their risk for heart attack and stroke, say scientists.<\/p>\n

Researchers reviewed health data for more than 300,000 adults with an average age of around 57 participating in the UK Biobank<\/a> medical database to assess how “chronotypes” – a person\u2019s natural preference for sleep-wake timing – impacted their cardiovascular health.<\/p>\n

Around one-in-12 participants said they were \u201cdefinitely evening people\u201d – which was characterised as having a late-night bedtime, such as 2am, and peak activity later in the day.<\/p>\n

\"Night<\/p>\n

People who stay up late and are active at night – particularly women – tend to have poor cardiovascular health scores. (American Heart Association via SWNS)<\/p>\n

By Talker<\/p>\n

Self-reported \u201cdefinitely morning people<\/a>\u201d – who were more active earlier in the day and had earlier bedtimes such as 9pm – made up about 24% of participants.<\/p>\n

Around two out of every three participants were classified as \u201cintermediate\u201d chronotype if they said they were unsure, or if said they were neither a morning person nor an evening person.<\/p>\n

Cardiovascular health was measured according to the American Heart Association\u2019s Life\u2019s Essential 8 measures<\/a>, which note habits and factors associated with optimal cardiovascular health.<\/p>\n

The metrics include a healthy diet, regular physical activity, not smoking, good sleep quality, as well as healthy levels for weight, cholesterol, blood sugar and blood pressure.<\/p>\n

\"Night<\/p>\n

Man watching television at night. (American Heart Association via SWNS)<\/p>\n

By Talker<\/p>\n

The analysis, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association<\/a>, found that \u201cevening people\u201d or night owls<\/a> had a 79% higher prevalence of having an overall poor cardiovascular health score compared to intermediate chronotypes.<\/p>\n

Night owls<\/a> also had a 16% higher risk of having a heart attack or stroke over an average median of around 14 years follow-up, compared to people within the intermediate category.<\/p>\n

Evening chronotype was more strongly related to low cardiovascular health scores in women than in men.<\/p>\n

The findings suggested that much of the increased risk of heart disease<\/a> among evening people was due to poor heart health habits and factors, especially nicotine use and inadequate sleep.<\/p>\n

In contrast, \u201cmorning people\u201d – or early birds – had a 5% lower prevalence of low heart health scores compared with those without a strong morning or evening chronotype.<\/p>\n

Lead study author Dr. Sina Kianersi said: “Evening people often experience circadian misalignment, meaning their internal body clock may not match the natural day-to-night light cycle or their typical daily schedules.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Kianersi, a research fellow at Brigham and Women\u2019s Hospital and Harvard Medical School<\/a>, Boston, added: \u201cEvening people may be more likely to have behaviours that can affect cardiovascular health, such as poorer diet quality, smoking and inadequate or irregular sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"pexels-shvets-production-8036751\"<\/p>\n

(Photo by SHVETS production via Pexels)<\/p>\n

By Talker<\/p>\n

But the study findings are not all bad news for night owls<\/a>, according to Dr Kristen Knutson, volunteer chair of the 2025 American Heart Association (AHA) statement.<\/p>\n

Dr. Knutson, who was not involved in the study, said: “These findings show that the higher heart disease risks among evening types are partly due to modifiable behaviours such as smoking and sleep.<\/p>\n

“Therefore, evening types have options to improve their cardiovascular health.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvening types aren\u2019t inherently less healthy<\/a>, but they face challenges that make it particularly important for them to maintain a healthy lifestyle.\u201d<\/p>\n

The AHA scientific statement Dr. Knutson led suggests that individual chronotype should be considered in guiding the timing of interventions or treatment.<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cSome medications or therapies work best when they align with a specific time of relevant circadian rhythms, and this time will vary depending on whether you are a morning, intermediate, or evening chronotype.”<\/p>\n

\u201cTargeted programmes for people who naturally stay up late could help them improve their lifestyle behaviours and reduce their risk of cardiovascular disease.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Night owls are more likely to suffer a heart attack or stroke, warns new research. People who stay…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":439247,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[42960,49,48,20841,182121,18680,90143,14428,84,2668,14426,1058,61641,181941,11486,409,61848,23441,12078],"class_list":["post-439246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-american-heart-association","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cardiovascular-disease","tag-chronotype","tag-clinical-medicine","tag-determinants-of-health","tag-diseases-and-disorders","tag-health","tag-homepage","tag-medical-specialties","tag-medicine","tag-myocardial-infarction","tag-night-owl","tag-physiology","tag-sleep","tag-sleep-deprivation","tag-stephen-beech","tag-stroke"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}