Official News page 6

REAL LIFE NEWS: EARLY BIRDS ARE EARLY CRASHERS

by Hazed

And in another health story that vindicates me personally, it seems that early birds may get the worm, but they suffer in other ways because they flake out more quickly than night owls do.

A new study conducted by the University of Liege in Belgium asked 16 extreme early risers and 15 extreme night owls to spend a week following their natural sleep schedule. After this, the subjects spent two nights in a sleep lab, where they followed their preferred pattern again, but this time underwent cognitive testing while in an MRI scanner twice a day.

An hour and a half after waking, both early birds and night owls were all alert and showed no difference in brain activity related to attention. But it was a different story at the other end of the day: after being awake for ten and a half hours, night owls had become even more alert. They performed better than the early risers on a reaction-time task requiring sustained attention, and they showed increased brain activity in areas linked to attention.

The scans also showed that the area of the brain that is home to the body's circadian clock had increased activity for the late-nighters, but early birds didn't get this lift.

As an extreme night owl, I am delighted to have proof that there is a benefit to rising late and staying up late. I am sick of early birds acting as if there's something virtuous in getting up early. Who wants to get worms, anyway?

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