A new study suggests that people who identify themselves as night owls are more mentally sharp than morning people, reports The Guardian.
Researchers at Imperial College London have studied tests on intelligence, reasoning, reaction time, and memory in over 26,000 people in the biomedical database UK Biobank.
The test results have then been compared with how the brain's performance ability was affected by the participants' sleep duration, sleep quality, and chronotype, i.e., what time of day one feels most alert and productive.
The results show that those who stay up late and those who were at an intermediate level had "superior cognitive function", while those who are morning people had the lowest function. However, since it is possible to change one's circadian rhythm, it is more about an overall tendency than that morning people have poorer cognitive functions, according to the study's lead author Raha West.
However, the most important thing for the brain's functional ability is sleep duration. Those who got between seven and nine hours of sleep each night performed best in cognitive tests, the study showed.
"Although it is important to understand and work with your natural sleep tendencies, it is equally important to remember to get precisely enough sleep, not too long or too short. This is crucial for keeping your brain healthy and functioning at its best," says Raha West in a press release.
