Trouble sleeping?

By Hannah Isom

New research published in this week’s Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine is set to prove that the early bird does indeed catch the worm.

Studies in insomniacs have shown that those who enjoy late-night activities, so-called “night owls”, are far more likely to have symptoms such as obesity, depression and even heart disease.

It has long been known that we all have individual sleep patterns. While some of us are up with the lark, others prefer to party until the early hours and sleep until noon. These different sleep patterns are called chronotypes, and are determined by our circadian rhythm, or body clock.

While the majority of us have no difficulty falling asleep in lectures, on buses, or even at work (not me of course), around 30% of us have trouble nodding off of an evening.

This new research shows that those who go to bed later, suffer more from “waking distress” and other symptoms of insomnia, than those who are early-to-bed and early-to-rise, even if they have a lie-in.

The study, conducted by Dr Jason C. Ong, used the “Morningness- Eveningness” Composite Scale to measure patients’ nocturnal sleep, sleep period variability and the consequences of their insomnia.

Lack of sleep can cause all kinds of problems, and affects physical and emotional wellbeing, as well as productivity and performance. Finally, a diagnosis for the entire student population of Britain!