Scientists Say Night Owls More Likely to Have Poor Work-Life Balance

It’s no secret that some people wake up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, while others have their best thoughts while burning the midnight oil. This tendency to get up earlier or stay up later—a phenomenon known to scientists as “chronotype” or “circadian type”—seems innocuous enough.

But a growing body of research suggests this distinction may have a broader impact on your health and well-being, with night owls more prone to anxiety and depression, among other conditions. And now, new research published in Sleep Health digs into that link a little further: The scientists concluded that work schedules may have something to do with this phenomenon, with night owls, or “evening types,” more likely to experience work-life balance issues.

“Our findings indicate that regardless of individual life habits, evening-types have more mental health symptoms and diagnosed disorders requiring healthcare treatments, and experience poorer recovery from work and more negative spillover effects of work on free time,” says Ilona Merikanto, Ph.D., lead study author and researcher in the Department of Public Health at the University of Helsinki.

So, what does this mean for you and your sleep schedule? Ahead, experts break it down.

Meet the experts: Ilona Merikanto, Ph.D., lead study author and researcher in the Department of Public Health at the University of Helsinki; Jamie M. Zeitzer, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and co-director of the Center for Sleep and Circadian Sciences at Stanford University.

What did the study find?

Drawing on data from the Healthy Finland Study, the researchers analyzed survey data from 2,266 working adults, aged 20–65. Participants were divided into four groups (definite morning types, moderate morning types, moderate evening types, and definite evening types) based on their survey responses to a question about circadian type.

After crunching the data, the researchers found that definite evening types were more likely to report both mental health problems and work-life balance issues. What’s more, those work-life balance problems appeared to contribute to participants’ mental health symptoms; for example, poor recovery from work accounted for 12.7% of the association between circadian type and receiving treatment for anxiety.

Additionally, definite evening types were 19.6% more likely to say they “rarely” or “never” got enough sleep; risk-level drinking was 5% more common in definite evening types, too. (Notably, however, these issues don’t account for evening types’ mental health and work-life balance problems. Those associations remained even after the researchers controlled for variables like sex, age, sleep insufficiency, not enough physical activity, and risky alcohol consumption, suggesting that chronotype itself may play a contributing role.)

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On the whole, Merikanto says the results indicate that when investigating the issues faced by night owls, “it is important to understand what is the potential influencing role of work-life balance issues and recovery from work,” rather than attributing poor outcomes entirely to individual habits.

Why might evening types have worse mental health and work-life balance?

There are likely multiple factors contributing to this effect, says Jamie M. Zeitzer, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and co-director of the Center for Sleep and Circadian Sciences at Stanford University.

“Many evening people get insufficient sleep since they need to awaken in the morning for work or family responsibilities, yet still stay awake late. This sleep curtailment can lead to worse mental health,” Zeitzer says. “Evening people may also be more likely to come home, engage in family activity, and then return to remote work later in the evening [which can lead to] worse work-life balance. Morning people are less likely to do so since they aren’t as productive in the evening and more likely to go to work earlier in the morning.”

What is social jet lag, and what does it have to do with chronotype?

The study also found that evening types were significantly more likely to experience social jet lag, which comes with issues of its own.

“Social jet lag is the tendency for people to shift their sleep timing on the weekends or off days by several hours. For example, someone sleeps 12-6 a.m. during the week and then shifts to 3-11 a.m. on the weekend. This is similar to flying your brain from New York to California every Friday and back again on Sunday,” Zeitzer says. “This causes a desynchronization between the circadian clock, which is anticipating what you should do, and your actual behavior, which can have long-term negative health consequences. Evening types are more likely to have their preferred schedule curtailed during the week while the morning type schedule is more amenable to usual work or school hours.”

How can evening types protect themselves against these outcomes?

Zeitzer has two recommendations for night owls worried about potential mental health issues. “First, prioritize sleep—if you are sleep-deprived, you are more at risk for mental health disorders, as well as a myriad of physical health disorders,” he says. “Second, be aware of your choices late at night. Not only are there fewer social guardrails, but you are at the end of your long, stress-filled day (and potentially sleep-deprived), a combination that leads to poor choices and worse mental health.”