Night Owls’ Cognitive Function “Superior” To Early Risers， Study Suggests

The idea that night owls who don’t go to bed until the early hours struggle to get anything done during the day may have to be revised.

It turns out that staying up late could be good for our brain power as research suggests that people who identify as night owls could be sharper than those who go to bed early.

Researchers led by academics at Imperial College London studied data from the UK Biobank study on more than 26，000 people who had completed intelligence， reasoning， reaction time and memory tests.

They then examined how participants’ sleep duration， quality， and chronotype （which determines what time of day we feel most alert and productive） affected brain performance.

They found that those who stay up late and those classed as “intermediate” had “superior cognitive function”， while morning larks had the lowest scores.

Going to bed late is strongly associated with creative types. Artists， authors and musicians known to be night owls include Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec， James Joyce and Kanye West.

But while politicians such as Margaret Thatcher， Winston Churchill and Barack Obama famously seemed to thrive on little sleep， the study found that sleep duration is important for brain function， with those getting between seven and nine hours of shut-eye each night performing best in cognitive tests.

Dr Raha West， lead author and clinical research fellow at the department of surgery and cancer at Imperial College London， said： “While understanding and working with your natural sleep tendencies is essential， it’s equally important to remember to get just enough sleep， not too long or too short. This is crucial for keeping your brain healthy and functioning at its best.”

Prof Daqing Ma， the co-leader of the study who is also from Imperial’s department of surgery and cancer， added： “We 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.

人們通常認為，習慣熬夜的人在白天難以完成任何事情，這一觀點可能需要被重新審視。

研究表明，晚睡可能有助于提升大腦能力。習慣晚睡的人可能比早睡者更敏銳。

由帝國理工學院的學者領導的研究團隊分析了來自英國生物樣本庫的超過2.6萬人的數據，這些人完成了智力、推理、反應時間和記憶測試。

研究人員隨后研究了參與者的睡眠時長、質量和睡眠類型如何影響大腦表現。睡眠類型決定我們一天中什么時候感到最清醒和高效。

研究人員發現，習慣晚睡者和“中間型”人群的“認知功能更強”，而早睡早起者的得分最低。

晚睡與創造型人格密切相關。著名的“夜貓子”包括藝術家亨利·德·圖盧茲-羅特列克、作家詹姆斯·喬伊斯和音樂人坎耶·維斯特。

盡管像瑪格麗特·撒切爾、溫斯頓·丘吉爾和貝拉克·奧巴馬這樣的政治家似乎能在很少的睡眠后依然精力充沛，但研究發現，睡眠時長對大腦功能很重要，每晚睡7到9小時的人在認知測試中表現最佳。

該研究的主要作者、帝國理工學院外科和癌癥系的臨床研究員拉哈·韋斯特博士說：“了解并遵循你的自然睡眠傾向很重要，但同樣重要的是確保獲得足夠的睡眠，不能太多也不能太少。這對于保持大腦健康和最佳功能至關重要。”

該研究的共同負責人、同樣來自帝國理工學院外科和癌癥系的馬大慶（音譯）教授補充道：“我們發現睡眠時長對大腦功能有直接影響，我們認為積極管理睡眠模式對于提升和保護大腦功能非常重要。”