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28.01.2016

Late to bed is just as healthy as early to bed

If you want to live healthily then you need to practise early to bed, early to rise. This idea is held to be true in nearly all societies. About ten years ago American researchers at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston decided to see whether the idea actually holds water.

Study
Between 1989 and 1994 the researchers recruited 994 men, all of whom had recently had a heart attack. The researchers interviewed the participants about their lifestyle and therefore also about their sleep patterns.

The researchers classified the men who normally went to bed before 11 o'clock as "early to bed". The ones who got up at six thirty or earlier were classified as "early to rise".

The researchers divided the men into 4 groups according to these criteria: "early to bed and early to rise", "early to bed and late to rise", "late to bed and early to rise" and "late to bed and late to rise".

Results
The researchers followed the men for four years and then looked at who had died, from which they were able to construct the figure shown below.

After applying their statistical box of tricks to the data, the researchers ended up with just one statistically significant difference: among the men who went to bed late the risk of dying was higher among those who got up early than those who got up late.

Conclusion
So, as far as the researchers could see from their data, there's nothing wrong with a lifestyle that includes going to bed late. At least, as long as you make sure you get enough sleep, so that you wake up late too.

Source:
CMAJ. 2006 Dec 5;175(12):1560-2.

More:
Shortage of sleep increases chance of dementia 11.10.2015
Good sleep reduces chance of prostate cancer 17.08.2015
Difference between good and average student is twenty minutes sleep 12.06.2014

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