Do "night owls" have better brain function? Here's what study says

BOSTON - A new study out of the U.K. says so-called "night owls" may have better brain function.

Researchers in the U.K. looked at data on more than 26,000 people looking at their sleep patterns, duration, and quality. They found that sleeping between seven and nine hours a night was optimum for brain function but they also found that people who are naturally more active in the evening performed better on cognitive tests compared to those who were more active in the morning.

In fact, so-called "morning larks" scored consistently lower on these tests compared to both "night owls" and people who fell in between. That doesn't mean that all morning people have worse cognitive performance. They simply noticed a trend. And they said it's most important to get seven to nine hours of sleep a night.

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Mallika Marshall, MD

Mallika Marshall, MD is an Emmy-award-winning journalist and physician who has served as the HealthWatch Reporter for CBS Boston/WBZ-TV for over 20 years. A practicing physician Board Certified in both Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, Dr. Marshall serves on staff at Harvard Medical School and practices at Massachusetts General Hospital at the MGH Chelsea Urgent Care and the MGH Revere Health Center, where she is currently working on the frontlines caring for patients with COVID-19. She is also a host and contributing editor for Harvard Health Publications (HHP), the publishing division of Harvard Medical School.

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