In Case You Haven't Heard…

Do you bounce out of bed early in the morning ready to go, or do you hit the snooze alarm until the last possible second and drag your tired body to work? If you're a morning lark, your natural sleep habits, or circadian rhythms, are aligned with traditional 8‐to‐5 work schedules and school drop‐off times. But it's a bummer if you're a night owl, primed to perform better in the afternoon and evening and stay up late, according to a new study published June 6 in Molecular Psychiatry and reported on by CNN June 9. The study used sleep data gathered from wrist activity monitors worn by more than 85,000 participants of the UK Biobank Study, which houses in‐depth genetic and health information on more than a half a million Brits. Researchers compared that sleep information to self‐reports of mood and found that people with a misaligned sleep cycle are more likely to report depression and anxiety, and have fewer feelings of well‐being. “If you're a morning person, then you are less likely to have depression and more likely to report a higher well‐being. This may in part be due to people who are morning people are less likely to have ‘social jet lag,’” explained study author Dr. Jessica Tyrrell, a senior lecturer at the University of Exeter Medical School in the United Kingdom.