Health
Going to bed after this time could lead to poorer mental health, a Stanford study finds
Night owls might want to start turning in earlier.
A recent study by Stanford University, published in the journal Psychiatry Research, found that going to bed after 1:00 a.m. could lead to mental health issues.
Researchers analyzed the data of more than 73,000 adults in the U.K., looking into their chronotype (inclination to rise early or stay up late) and actual sleep timing.
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The study then examined the alignment between the two and the prevalence of mental, behavioral and neurodevelopmental disorders (MBN), as well as depression and anxiety.
People with a morning preference who go to bed early exhibit “better mental health” compared to morning types who go to bed late, the study found.
Overall, early birds seemed to have better mental health, according to a Stanford University research. (iStock)
Morning types who tend to go to bed late have an increased risk of MBNs, depression and anxiety.
People with an evening preference who sleep late were also found to demonstrate poorer mental health. Evening types who wake up early, conversely, have a lower risk of developing depression.
Based on these findings, the researchers recommended going to sleep before 1:00 a.m., regardless of preference.
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Study co-author Jamie Zeitzer, Ph.D., a professor at Stanford University’s department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences in California, said he was surprised by the results.
“They were not what we expected at all,” he wrote in an email to Fox News Digital. “We spent more than a year trying to disprove our findings, but could not find an alternate explanation.”
“We had expected that night owls who stayed up late would be OK, but they ended up being at a greater risk for developing mental health disorders than night owls who went to bed earlier,” one researcher said. (iStock)
The researchers originally anticipated that individuals who aligned their actual sleep timing with their morning/evening preference would have the best mental health, Zeitzer noted – but this was not the case.
“Rather, we found that being awake late at night, irrespective of preferred sleep timing, was associated with worse mental health,” he said.
Good sleep is “crucial for establishing a pillar of good mental health,” according to Zeitzer.
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“It is not necessarily [the case] that bad sleep causes poor mental health, but it can definitely facilitate poorer mental health,” he said.
“There are several aspects of sleep that contribute [to mental health], including the duration (which we accounted for in our study) and the timing (which we directly examined in our study).”
Not getting enough sleep has been proven to compromise mental health, according to a sleep expert. (iStock)
While it might not be detrimental for all night owls to stick to their preferred nighttime sleep schedule, Zeitzer said, the research highlights that it presents a risk for some.
“We are not clear as to why this is the case, but it may have to do with the isolation that often accompanies such late-night behavior,” he said.
“So, being aware of how you are spending your late nights and whether these behaviors are conducive to good mental health is crucial.”
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Dr. Wendy Troxel, a Utah-based sleep expert who was not involved in the study, agreed that the findings are “very interesting” – particularly the fact that going to bed later is associated with poorer mental health regardless of one’s natural tendency.
“These findings underscore that sleep health is a multidimensional state,” Troxel said in an interview with Fox News Digital.
“It’s not just about getting enough sleep or good quality sleep that matters, but the timing matters, too.”
“Going to bed excessively late on a regular basis may lead to impairments in decision-making and emotion regulation.”
Failing to get enough sleep has been proven to compromise mental health by “influencing brain mechanisms that help to regulate emotions,” she added.
“Going to bed excessively late (i.e., after 1 a.m.) on a regular basis may lead to impairments in decision-making and emotion regulation, which may underlie associations with mental health problems, such as depression and anxiety,” she said.
The study results are also interesting when applied to specific groups who tend to be night owls, like teenagers, Troxel noted.
“Biologically, teenagers are predisposed to stay awake later and sleep in later, which is in conflict with early school start times,” she said.
“This can set them up for a ‘double whammy’ of both insufficient sleep and delayed sleep schedules, which can contribute to mental health problems — a major public health issue among teenagers.”
Dr. Wendy Troxel, senior behavioral scientist for RAND Corporation, is the author of “Sharing the Covers: Every Couple’s Guide to Better Sleep” and is also a scientific advisor for the Sleep Foundation. (Diane Baldwin)
3 critical steps for better sleep
Troxel recommends taking the following steps to improve the quality of sleep.
First, slowly advance bedtime earlier by 15-minute increments each week.
Next, allow for plenty of sunlight in the morning, she advised, as sunlight is “one of the most powerful cues to help set the circadian rhythm.” In the evening, keep the lights low.
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It’s important to stay consistent with sleep schedules, even on the weekends, one sleep expert advised. (iStock)
Finally, stay consistent with your sleep schedule, including on weekends, Troxel suggested.
While this can be challenging, especially for night owls, reverting to a later bedtime and wake-up times will “set you back to square one,” she warned.
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The key to successfully shifting sleep habits is to do it gradually, Troxel said.
“It’s similar to the approach we would recommend for changing one’s schedule to manage jetlag,” she said.
Being aware of how you’re spending your late nights is “crucial” to good mental health, one of the study researchers said. (iStock)
Zeitzer noted that it can be difficult for anyone to switch up their sleep schedules, especially for those who prefer more “extreme times,” like staying up until 4:00 a.m. or waking up before 5:00 a.m.
Going to bed and waking up at the same time every day is the best way to successfully make a shift, he said, along with exposure to bright light.
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Fatigue can stem from a variety of illnesses and life stressors, but when that exhaustion lasts for months — often following an infection — it may indicate a condition called chronic fatigue syndrome.
Approximately 3.3 million people in the United States currently have the syndrome, with about one in four people confined to their bed at some point during the illness, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Despite its prevalence, experts say it’s a poorly understood condition that physicians frequently miss, with past research suggesting that only about 15% of those affected are diagnosed correctly.
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What is chronic fatigue syndrome?
Formally known as myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a chronic disease that causes fatigue so severe that it impairs the ability to perform daily activities.
Approximately 3.3 million people in the United States currently have the chronic fatigue syndrome, with about one in four people confined to their bed at some point during the illness. (iStock)
The National Academy of Medicine defines the syndrome as having the following three symptoms that last at least six months.
- Severe fatigue that is 1) new and 2) decreases the ability to perform activities that you did normally prior to illness
- “Malaise” that worsens after physical or mental effort that previously was well-tolerated
- Unrestful sleep
People may also experience trouble with thinking and memory (often called “brain fog”) or lightheadedness when standing up.
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There are no tests to confirm chronic fatigue, so doctors diagnose it by talking to their patients, examining them and excluding other disorders, like hypothyroidism and depression, that often share the same symptoms.
Chronic fatigue is frequently missed by physicians, with past research suggesting that only about 15% of those affected are diagnosed correctly. (iStock)
“CFS, fibromyalgia and long COVID are all related conditions with different names,” Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum, author of “From Fatigued to Fantastic” — whose research focuses on chronic fatigue syndrome — told Fox News Digital. “What these illnesses have in common is that they are immune disorders, and immune disorders predominantly affect women.”
Many genes related to immune disorders are on the X chromosome, suggesting a genetic component, the doctor added.
Causes of chronic fatigue
Chronic fatigue syndrome may be triggered by infection or other physiologic stressors, but its causes and symptoms can vary widely from person to person, according to Dr. Julia Oh, a professor in dermatology, molecular genetics and microbiology, and integrative immunobiology at the Duke University School of Medicine in North Carolina.
Teitelbaum compared the condition to a “severe energy crisis” in the body. When energy drops low enough, the “control center” in the brain — the hypothalamus, which regulates sleep, hormones, blood pressure and pulse — may not work as well.
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Although hypothalamic dysfunction can trigger dozens of other symptoms, the hallmark signs are insomnia (despite exhaustion), brain fog and widespread pain, the doctor said.
Anything that causes severe energy depletion can trigger the syndrome, including chronic life stressors, nutritional deficiencies, thyroid and stress hormone imbalances, and sleep problems.
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These triggers are usually associated with a gradual onset of CFS, but sudden onset can be caused by certain infections, with two classic ones being COVID and mononucleosis, past research has shown.
Head and neck trauma and sudden hormonal shifts after pregnancy can also trigger chronic fatigue, Teitelbaum warned.
Anything that causes severe energy depletion can trigger the syndrome, including chronic life stressors, nutritional deficiencies, thyroid and stress hormone imbalances, and sleep problems, according to one doctor. (iStock)
There aren’t currently any blood tests to uniformly diagnose the syndrome, but Dr. Oh said she is hopeful that will change in the future.
Her research team developed an experimental artificial intelligence-based tool, BioMapAI, that has been shown to identify the condition with high accuracy by analyzing stool, blood and other common lab tests, according to early research published in July in the journal Nature Medicine.
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“Instead of finding one smoking gun for the disease, our AI model uncovered a distinct biological fingerprint that was dysregulated in the patients, which spanned changes in gut bacteria, hyperactive immune cells and disrupted metabolism,” Oh told Fox News Digital.
Treatments and therapies
Given how differently chronic fatigue syndrome can affect people, there is no universally effective therapy, according to Oh.
The CDC recommends that patients with CFS work with their doctors to create a management plan based on the symptoms that most affect quality of life.
There are no tests to confirm chronic fatigue, so doctors diagnose it by evaluating symptoms and excluding other disorders.
Treatments generally include a combination of lifestyle changes, therapies and medications. Patients and their physicians should weigh the potential benefits and risks of any approach.
There are some alternative therapies that have shown to be effective for some. Teitelbaum developed a protocol called SHINE, which focuses on sleep, hormones and hypotension, infections, nutrition and exercise. Some research has shown that this approach can help to improve the quality of life for people with CFS and fibromyalgia.
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Others may find alternative treatments, like physiotherapy (physical therapy) to be helpful.
Those who experience persistent fatigue that hinders their ability to participate in regular activities or impacts their quality of life should speak with a doctor.
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Long before the Black Death killed millions across Europe in the Middle Ages, an earlier, more elusive version of the plague spread across much of Eurasia.
For years, scientists were unsure how the ancient disease managed to spread so widely during the Bronze Age, which lasted from roughly 3300 to 1200 B.C., and stick around for nearly 2,000 years, especially since it wasn’t spread by fleas like later plagues. Now, researchers say a surprising clue may help explain it, a domesticated sheep that lived more than 4,000 years ago.
Researchers found DNA from the plague bacterium Yersinia pestis in the tooth of a Bronze Age sheep discovered in what is now southern Russia, according to a study recently published in the journal Cell. It is the first known evidence that the ancient plague infected animals, not just people, and offers a missing clue about how the disease spread.
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“It was alarm bells for my team,” study co-author Taylor Hermes, a University of Arkansas archaeologist who studies ancient livestock and disease spread, said in a statement. “This was the first time we had recovered the genome from Yersinia pestis in a non-human sample.”
A domesticated sheep, likely similar to this one, lived alongside humans during the Bronze Age. (iStock)
And it was a lucky discovery, according to the researchers.
“When we test livestock DNA in ancient samples, we get a complex genetic soup of contamination,” Hermes said. “This is a large barrier … but it also gives us an opportunity to look for pathogens that infected herds and their handlers.”
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The highly technical and time-consuming work requires researchers to separate tiny, damaged fragments of ancient DNA from contamination left by soil, microbes and even modern humans. The DNA they recover from ancient animals is often broken into tiny pieces sometimes just 50 “letters” long, compared to a full human DNA strand, which contains more than 3 billion of those letters.
Animal remains are especially tough to study because they are often poorly preserved compared to human remains that were carefully buried, the researchers noted.
The finding sheds light on how the plague likely spread through close contact between people, livestock and wild animals as Bronze Age societies began keeping larger herds and traveling farther with horses. The Bronze Age saw more widespread use of bronze tools, large-scale animal herding and increased travel, conditions that may have made it easier for diseases to move between animals and humans.
When the plague returned in the Middle Ages during the 1300s, known as the Black Death, it killed an estimated one-third of Europe’s population.
The discovery was made at Arkaim, a fortified Bronze Age settlement in the Southern Ural Mountains of present-day Russia near the Kazakhstan border. (iStock)
“It had to be more than people moving,” Hermes said. “Our plague sheep gave us a breakthrough. We now see it as a dynamic between people, livestock and some still unidentified ‘natural reservoir’ for it.”
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Researchers believe sheep likely picked up the bacteria from another animal, like rodents or migratory birds, that carried it without getting sick and then passed it to humans. They say the findings highlight how many deadly diseases begin in animals and jump to humans, a risk that continues today as people move into new environments and interact more closely with wildlife and livestock.
“It’s important to have a greater respect for the forces of nature,” Hermes said.
The study is based on a single ancient sheep genome, which limits how much scientists can conclude, they noted, and more samples are needed to fully understand the spread.
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The researchers plan to study more ancient human and animal remains from the region to determine how widespread the plague was and which species may have played a role in spreading it.
Researchers (not pictured) found plague-causing Yersinia pestis DNA in the remains of a Bronze Age sheep. (iStock)
They also hope to identify the wild animal that originally carried the bacteria and better understand how human movement and livestock herding helped the disease travel across vast distances, insights that could help them better anticipate how animal-borne diseases continue to emerge.
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The research was led by scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology, with senior authors Felix M. Key of the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology and Christina Warinner of Harvard University and the Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology.
The research was supported by the Max Planck Society, which has also funded follow-up work in the region.
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