- Taste of 2034 World Cup as Saudi Asian Cup stadiums named
- Eurozone inflation picks up in December
- France flanker Ollivon out for season, to miss Six Nations
- S. Korea investigators get new warrant to arrest President Yoon
- Tottenham trigger Son contract extension
- China's most successful team kicked out of professional football
- Eyeing green legacy, Biden declares new national monuments
- South Korea rival parties form plane crash task force
- Georgians hold anti-government protest on Orthodox Christmas
- Japan actor fired from beer ad after drunken escapade
- Nvidia ramps up AI tech for games, robots and autos
- Blinken says US-Japan ties solid despite rift over steel deal
- Quake in China's Tibet kills 95 with tremors felt in Nepal, India
- Taiwan says Chinese-owned ship suspected of damaging sea cable goes dark
- North Korea's Kim says new hypersonic missile will deter 'rivals'
- Sinner turns focus to Australian Open defence after 'amazing' year
- Ostapenko begins Adelaide title defence with comeback win
- Asian markets mostly up after tech-fuelled Wall St rally
- Pace of German emissions cuts slows in 2024: study
- McDonald's rolls back some of its diversity practices
- Giannis triple-double propels Bucks over Raptors
- S. Korea rival parties form plane crash task force despite political turmoil
- Quake in China's Tibet kills 53 with tremors felt in Nepal, India
- Olmo situation overshadowing Barca bid for Spanish Super Cup
- Winter storm leaves large US region blanketed in snow, ice
- Hewitt's son Cruz out of Australian Open qualifying at first hurdle
- Quake in China's Tibet kills 32 with tremors felt in Nepal, India
- Blinken says US-Japan ties rock solid despite rift over steel deal
- Osaka splits with rapper Cordae ahead of Australian Open
- Sabalenka to Andreeva: Five women to watch at the Australian Open
- Sabalenka eyes Australian Open hat-trick but Swiatek, Gauff lurk
- Asian markets mostly rise after tech-fuelled Wall St rally
- Blinken in Japan after rift on steel deal
- Ex-England skipper Vaughan backs shake-up 'to keep Test cricket relevant'
- S. Korea investigators seek new warrant to arrest President Yoon
- North Korea's Kim says new missile will deter 'rivals'
- France to remember Charlie Hebdo attacks 10 years on
- 'Comeback' queen Demi Moore 'has always been here,' says director
- Homes talk and tables walk at AI dominated CES
- Kyrgios set for Davis Cup return after five years
- Golden Globes ratings edge up past 10 million
- USA striker Vazquez joins Austin in club record deal
- MainStreetChamber Holdings, Inc. Appoints Anthony (Tony) Anish as Chief Financial Officer and Announces Key Leadership Transitions
- Wing Luke Museum Celebrates the 100th Birthday of Civil Rights Icon, Wing Luke
- Argo Blockchain PLC Announces December Operational Update
- Kuros Biosciences USA, Inc. Announces an Exclusive Strategic Agreement with the Medtronic Spinal Division
- Meta Names UFC boss Dana White, a Trump ally, to board
- Tensions mount in Venezuela ahead of Maduro swearing-in
- Judge rejects Trump request to delay hush money sentencing
- US, European markets mostly rise as Trump tariff plans in question
Night owls die earlier due to drinking and smoking: study
People who tend to stay up late are not more likely to die younger than early risers -- as long as they don't use those longer nights for drinking and smoking, a 37-year-long study suggested on Friday.
Previous research has shown that night owls, who stay up later and struggle to drag themselves out of bed in the morning, are more likely to suffer from a range of health problems.
In 2018, a large study in the UK found that evening people had a 10 percent higher risk of dying than morning people over a 6.5-year period.
While that was potentially worrying news for the world's night owls, that research did not take into account factors, such as alcohol-consumption, that could be behind those deaths.
So researchers in Finland sought to find out more in a study published in the peer-reviewed journal Chronobiology International.
The study followed nearly 24,000 same-sex twins in Finland, who were asked in 1981 to identify whether they were a morning or an evening person.
A third said they were somewhat an evening person, while 10 percent said they definitely were. The rest were morning people.
The evening people tended to be younger, and tended to drink and smoke more.
When the researchers followed up in 2018, more than 8,700 of the twins had died.
Over the 37 years, the researchers found that the definite night owls had a nine percent higher risk of death from all causes -- a similar rate to the 2018 study.
But that difference was "mainly due to smoking and alcohol", the study said.
For example, it found that non-smoker night owls who were light drinkers were no more likely to die earlier than morning people.
- Night owls and drugs -
The study's lead author, Christer Hublin of the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, told AFP the results showed that night owls can act if they want to lower their risk of an early death.
"Clearly evening people should critically think about the amount of alcohol and tobacco they are using," he said.
Independent of other factors, the time when people tend to sleep, known as their chronotype, has "little or no" contribution to their mortality, Hublin added.
Jeevan Fernando, a chronotype researcher at Cambridge University not involved in the study, told AFP that while the findings were sound, the research had limitations.
That participants merely self-identified as morning or evening people was "unsatisfactory because it does not include any objective information" unlike more modern methods, he said.
The study also failed to include drugs other than alcohol and tobacco, he said: cocaine in particular had been linked to people changing from early to late risers.
Fernando has previously led research that showed night owls have worse mental health -- particularly anxiety -- and that drug use could exacerbate the problem.
D.Kaufman--AMWN