‘Night owls’ die sooner — booze and cigarettes are to blame

The “night owl” seems to be an endangered species.

A host of studies have found that night owls are more likely to suffer from health problems and die younger than early birds.

Experts now believe they’ve found the cause: Night owls tend to do more smoking and drink more alcohol than those who rise and shine earlier.

The researchers looked at data from almost 23,000 twins who had participated in the Finnish Twin Cohort study from 1981 to 2018, then analyzed the death records of 8,728 people.

The results showed that the chance of dying was 9% higher for night owls than for early birds.

But nonsmoking night owls didn’t have any higher risks of death, whereas alcohol-related deaths were an obvious contributing factor among people who stay up late.

“The increased risk of mortality associated with being a clearly ‘evening’ person appears to be mainly accounted for by a larger consumption of tobacco and alcohol,” study author Christer Hublin, from the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health in Helsinki, said in a statement.

The research was published in Chronobiology International: The Journal of Biological and Medical Rhythm Research.

The study authors point out that you can’t simply blame a person’s sleep patterns (or “chronotype”) for all the health issues among night owls, though there seem to be a lot of those.

A study from 2019 found that women who are not “morning people” were at a slightly higher risk of developing breast cancer when compared to early morning risers.

There’s also a possible link between mental illness and night owls: Rates of depression and schizophrenia are lower among people with an early-morning chronotype, according to one study.

It might even affect your love life: Early risers were more likely to believe in love at first sight, to be married and to have more sex, according to a 2019 survey.

That study also found that night owls were more likely to be shy and sarcastic, use social media and believe in ghosts and cryptids, such as Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster.

The findings about alcohol and tobacco use among night owls didn’t surprise medical experts.

“We have known for a long time that those who have an evening type preference are more likely to be heavier drinkers, have alcohol use disorder and are also more likely to use other substances including tobacco,” Dr. Bhanu Prakash Kolla, a sleep medicine specialist in the Center for Sleep Medicine at the Mayo Clinic, told CNN in an email.

“Other possible causes that come to mind include those who are evening types will likely need to wake up early for work/school therefore end up getting less sleep and the sleep deprivation can increase risk,” Dr. Kolla added.