Night Owls Could Be Putting Their Heart Health at Risk

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AAre you a night owl or an early riser?

If it’s the former, I’m afraid I have bad news. People who stay up late have poorer cardiovascular health than those who get up early, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Researchers at Harvard Medical School tracked the health of more than 300,000 adults over a 14-year period and determined that self-described night owls had poorer cardiovascular outcomes, according to the American Heart Association’s Life’s Essential 8 measures. These include eating a healthy diet, regular exercise, getting restful sleep, and not smoking, as well as maintaining a healthy weight, blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol levels.

“People who come in the evening often suffer from circadian misalignment, meaning their internal body clock may not match the natural day-night light cycle or their usual daily schedules,” lead study author Sina Kianersi said in a statement.

Read more: “How your body knows what time it is”

Researchers found that those who stayed up later had a 79 percent higher prevalence of having a poor cardiovascular health score and a 16 percent higher risk of heart attack or stroke, while those who woke up early had a 5 percent lower prevalence of poor heart health scores. There were also gender differences, with female night owls more likely to have lower health scores than males.

But this data hides a positive side for the warriors of the night: 75% of negative scores can be erased by a change in behavior.

“These results show that the higher risks of heart disease among evening people are partly due to modifiable behaviors such as smoking and sleeping. Therefore, evening people have options to improve their cardiovascular health,” Kianersi said. “Evening people are not inherently less healthy, but they face challenges that make it especially important for them to maintain a healthy lifestyle.”

Even though our biological clocks are innate, they are not immutable. They can change naturally over the course of our lives and we can modify our behavior to change them. So, if you’re a night owl and want to switch to early bird mode, here are some tips to sleep better.

After all, as all night owls know, there is no such thing as “too late.”

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Main image: mental spirit / Shutterstock

• Jake Currie

  Published on February 25, 2026

  Jake Currie is a writer based in Brooklyn, New York.