Late risers look younger

Scientists are constantly debating the differences between "larks" and "owls", i.e. those who like to get up early and people who prefer to sleep late. A new study has shown that people who prefer different daily routines differ not only in their biological clocks, but also in some characteristics related to appearance.

The main objective of the study, conducted at a private university in Korea, was to find out what characteristics are typical for people who are "owls" and "larks". The project recruited 1,600 volunteers, aged 47 to 59, with different biological rhythms. The researchers classified the participants into three categories according to their sleep behavior: "larks", "owls", and those who did not belong to either category were assigned to a third category.

Having observed the condition, health characteristics and well-being of the participants in all three groups, the scientists noticed that the chemical composition of the blood differed significantly. For example, in the blood of people who were "larks", the proportion of fat metabolism was much lower than in "owls". And it is interesting that this difference remained, regardless of their age, sleep time and even lifestyle.

Scientists also managed to identify differences in people's health, taking into account gender. They found that men who are "owls" are much more likely to develop sarcopenia or diabetes than "lark" men. And women who are "owls" had significantly more subcutaneous fat deposits in the abdomen and sides than women who are "larks". And the risk of developing metabolic syndrome, that is, an increase in visceral fat mass, was increased several times.

It is important to note that during sarcopenia, changes occur in skeletal muscles, as a result muscle mass is lost, the person becomes weaker. And metabolic syndrome occurs due to general changes and metabolic disorders, which are often provoked by diabetes and painful changes in the cardiovascular system.

In addition, during the study, scientists found that people who are "night owls" have significantly lower quality sleep, they are more prone to an unhealthy lifestyle than others, eat at night, smoke and move little. But despite this, "night owls" looked younger compared to "early birds" and other subjects whose biological rhythm was not so clearly expressed.

How to sleep properly to stay young longer?

1. Try to spend the time in bed when the production of hormones that preserve youth peaks: melatonin (from 12 midnight to 5 am) and growth hormone (from 11 pm to 2 am), advises gerontologist Alexey Moskalov.
2. If you are a “genetic night owl” (see above), then going to bed and waking up much later will most likely not harm your body, since the internal chronometer is shifted and the peak time of production of important hormones also changes, explains geneticist Irina Zhegulina.
3. Plus or minus a couple of hours in either direction - as with "owls" and "larks" in the everyday sense - will not cause much harm to the body, provided the regime is regular, that is, approximately the same time of going to bed and getting up on weekdays and weekends.
4. If a person does not have the gene mutations characteristic of "genetic owls", but he or she constantly goes to bed much later than normal - that is, after 1 am, then even with 8-9 hours of sleep, the risk of unfavorable changes in the body increases. Including those that can accelerate aging.