Is your bed your favorite place in the world? Do you have the feeling you’ve spent half your life listening to admonishments about spending too much time in a horizontal position? Well, according to UNILAD, the time to one-up those quasi-righteous early-risers has come, as the results of one study have proven how people who sleep longer are both smarter and happier. The research called ‘Why Night Owls Are More Intelligent’ claims that sleeping in actually makes one wake up more intelligent and creative.
According to American researchers Satoshi Kanazawa and Kaja Perina, “ignoring the pressure of early rising demonstrates a bigger sense of self-agency.”
Their findings are backed by prior research, as another study conducted at the University of Southampton in 1998 found that people who went to sleep after 11 pm and woke up after 8 am both earned more and led happier lives.
“356 people (29%) were defined as larks (to bed before 11 pm and up before 8 am) and 318 (26%) were defined as owls (to bed at or after 11 pm and up at or after 8 am). There was no indication that larks were richer than those with other sleeping patterns. On the contrary, owls had the largest mean income and were more likely to have access to a car,” Kanazawa and Perina write.
“There was also no evidence that larks were superior to those with other sleeping patterns with regard to their cognitive performance or their state of health. Both larks and owls had a slightly reduced risk of death compared with the rest of the study sample, but this was accounted for by the fact that they spent less time in bed at night.”
The study also reflects on the effects of sleeping patterns on one’s general health and longevity:
“In the study sample as a whole, longer periods of time in bed were associated with increased mortality. After adjustment for age, sex, the presence of illness, and other risk factors, people who spent 12 or more hours in bed had a relative risk of death of 1.7 (1.2 to 2.5) compared with those who were in bed for 9 hours. The lowest risk occurred in people who spent 8 hours in bed (adjusted relative risk 0.8; 0.7 to 1.0).”
Is sleeping a nightmare experience for you? Refraining from these things might help you in achieving sweet dreams.