Emily Chan
“Our study found that adults who are naturally more active in the evening (what we called ‘eveningness’) tended to perform better on cognitive tests than those who are ‘morning people,'” said Raha West, the lead author of the study. “Rather than just being personal preferences, these chronotypes could impact our cognitive function.”
Previous studies have shown high academic achievement in early birds but higher cognitive abilities in night owls. However, this does not mean that all night owls are smarter than early birds.
The latest findings also highlight the importance of getting the right amount of sleep and its impact on how the brain functions.
“We’ve found that sleep duration has a direct effect on brain function, and we believe that proactively managing sleep patterns is really important for boosting, and safeguarding, the way our brains work,” Daqing Ma, a co-author of the study and a professor at the Department of Surgery and Cancer at Imperial College London, said.
“We’d ideally like to see policy interventions to help sleep patterns improve in the general population.”
The study was published in BMJ Public Health.
