For as long as I can remember, I’ve been a night owl. Nick at Nite reruns were my favorite lullaby as a teen, and although I now opt for streaming shows and audiobooks as an adult, my experience remains the same—when the world goes to sleep, I’m wide awake.
As someone who struggles to rise before 9:30 a.m., I’ve always wondered: Is the grass really greener for those who wake up with the morning dew? Lately, sleep research has me thinking about that even more.
After all, poor sleep habits exacerbate health and safety hazards on the job, hamper work performance, and magnify a number of physical health risks. Recent studies have also linked late sleep schedules with higher mental health vulnerability and more work-life balance issues—meaning, people who got “enough” sleep, even though they stayed up late, still suffered ill effects. But for people who are natural night owls like me, simply going to bed and waking up earlier isn’t always an option.
What’s a night owl to do? For everyone scratching their heads alongside me, here’s what the research really says—and what experts recommend we do about it.
The night owl’s struggle
A Stanford University study from last summer looked at health data from more than 70,000 adults and linked going to sleep later with poorer mental health, both in the short term and over time, even for night owls who got enough sleep. In other words, my favorite excuse for staying up late—the idea that we should all follow our natural sleep patterns for optimal health—didn’t seem to hold true.
Lead study author Jamie Zeitzer, codirector of the Center for Sleep and Circadian Sciences at Stanford Medicine, believes social isolation could play a role in this: “If you go to sleep at 3 in the morning, there are not that many people awake,” he says. Although the same goes for those who wake up at 5 a.m., early risers are alone at the time of day when, mentally, we tend to feel refreshed. Meanwhile, night owls get stuck in their heads after a day’s worth of stress.
Still, “I don’t think that, intrinsically, there’s anything wrong with staying up late, especially if you’re an evening type,” Zeitzer says. He adds that some folks stay up late because of some external factor that’s also making them depressed, and says us night owls need to be especially mindful about mental health.
Another study published in June in Sleep Health found that night owls had more work-life balance issues and displayed more symptoms of mental disorders, even after researchers adjusted for other health-related behaviors.
The study’s lead author, Ilona Merikanto, university researcher for the Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki, explains: “That may be because your best performance is actually outside normal working hours,” she says. “Or maybe you haven’t been as alert during working hours and then couldn’t perform as well, and that bothers you.”
Riding your natural rhythms
Dr. Atul Malhotra, research chief of pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine at the UC San Diego School of Medicine, isn’t convinced night owls need to change anything, per se. “There are people that have a tendency to sleep late and wake up late, and that’s a natural tendency,” Malhotra says. As long as you’re “doing fine,” he says, “I don’t consider that a disorder.”
There’s a genetic component to everyone’s natural circadian rhythm, called a chronotype. And for some people, the variance is more extreme than others. (There’s a difference between being a night owl and being unable to sleep due to a sleep disorder like restless leg syndrome, sleep apnea, or insomnia, however. “If you think you have a problem, go see your doctor,” Malhotra says.)
Merikanto doesn’t recommend working against your natural rhythms. In her view, that could actually be one of the reasons some night owls experience health issues. “We can sort of flex around it, but how much that’s possible depends on the individual,” she says. “And when we get older, our flexibility narrows down.”
Other experts argue that genetics are not the be-all, end-all for bedtimes. Malhotra says your chronotype is “not insurmountable.” Still, the more extreme your type is in either direction, the harder it can be to shift your sleep schedule.
Still, “enough” sleep isn’t just about getting a certain number of hours. According to Merikanto, night owls might need more sleep than their early-bird peers, and if they get it at the wrong time, it could be less refreshing.
There’s also a big difference between staying up late reading your favorite book and burning the midnight oil to meet deadlines. If you’re staying up late for fun, the effects might feel less exhausting, especially emotionally, than if you’re staying up for work. But “if somebody’s falling asleep at 2 in the morning because of stress and anxiety and insomnia, that’s a very different problem,” Malhotra says.
Bottom line, if you’re not feeling refreshed after sleep, something’s up.
Tips for night owls for better sleep
You can’t do anything about genetics. But if you’re a night owl concerned about sleep quality, you can adjust your habits to support healthier sleep.
1. Time your light exposure.
Light plays a huge role in setting our internal clocks, and many of us are getting bright light at all the wrong times.
“Some of us get up, get ready for work, throw sunglasses on, never really see any daylight, and then wind up in a building all day where you see no daylight,” says Dr. Matthew Epstein, a sleep specialist at Atlantic Health who recently developed a sleep hygiene questionnaire to assess patients’ sleep and support improved sleep health. “That, in itself, is a setup for not sleeping well.” Same goes for bright lights late at night.
2. Put away the devices.
Be honest: Are you a night owl, or are you just addicted to doomscrolling?
A few decades ago, TV broadcasts ended at 11 p.m., and the total absence of smartphones and laptops made it easier to fall asleep. “Now,” Epstein says, “there are a million things you can do to stay up late.” If you’re looking for ways to fall asleep faster, unplugging from all that blue light makes a huge difference.
3. Don’t overdo the caffeine.
If you’re drinking coffee at 4 p.m. and wondering why you can’t sleep, remember that coffee has a half-life of five to six hours and can remain in the body for even longer than that. As much as some of us might love our afternoon joe, Epstein warns that it could be harming our sleep in the long run.
4. Try melatonin.
It can be helpful as a short-term sleep aid to help shift your sleep schedule, according to Malhotra. Just be sure to take it early enough. “If you normally go to sleep at 3 in the morning, taking melatonin at 2 in the morning is not going to do much,” he says. As with any supplement, speak with your doctor before taking melatonin.
5. Don’t try to go from “60 to zero.”
“A lot of people think that they can basically be ‘go, go, go,’ stressed out all day, and then like, ‘okay, and now I’m going to do yoga right before bed,” Zeitzer says. “That’s nice, but frankly, going from 60 to zero in the half hour before bed is really hard.”
Instead, Zeitzer recommends taking mental breaks throughout the day to de-escalate your stress gradually. The lower the baseline you’re coming down from, the easier it’ll be to relax once your head hits the pillow at night.