A study of 26,000 people showed that those who stayed up late scored better on tests of intelligence, reasoning and memory.
The idea that “night owls” who don’t go to bed until the early hours of the morning struggle to do anything during the day could be revised, according to theguardian.
It turns out that staying up late could be beneficial for our brain power, as research suggests that people who identify as night owls may be smarter than those who go to bed early.
Researchers led by academics from Imperial College London analyzed data from the UK Biobank study of more than 26,000 people who took tests of intelligence, reasoning, reaction time and memory.
They then examined how the participants’ sleep duration and quality, as well as chronotype (which determines the time of day when we feel most alert and productive) affected brain performance.
They found that those who stay up late and those classified as “intermediaries”
have “higher cognitive functions”, while morning larks scored the lowest.
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, Kanye West and Lady Gaga.
Politicians such as Margaret Thatcher, Winston Churchill and Barack Obama also seemed to enjoy little sleep.
However, the study found that sleep duration is important for brain function, with those who sleep between seven and nine hours each night performing best on cognitive tests.
“While understanding and working with natural sleep tendencies is essential, it’s just as important to remember to get enough sleep, not too much and not too little. This is essential to keep your brain healthy and functioning at its best”says Dr Raha West, lead author and clinical researcher at the department of surgery and cancer at Imperial College London.
Study co-leader Prof Daqing Ma, 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 very important for stimulating and protecting the way our brains work. Ideally, we would like to see policy interventions to help improve sleep patterns in the general population.”.
But some experts urged caution in interpreting the results.
Jacqui Hanley, head of research funding at Alzheimer’s Research UK, claims that “without a detailed picture of what’s going on in the brain, we don’t know whether to be a person
Jessica Chelekis, senior lecturer in sustainable global value chains and sleep expert at Brunel University London, said the study had “important limitations”, because the research did not take into account the level of education or did not include in the results the time of day when the cognitive tests were performed.
The main value of the study was to challenge stereotypes about sleep, the professor added.
