RESEARCH from WA sleep experts has revealed that “night owls” — people who go to sleep and wake later — are grumpier and more forgetful than early risers

Slumber specialists at the University of WA enlisted 179 older Australians to study the characteristics of the three sleep “chronotypes” — morning larks, night owls and those somewhere in between.

The results, to be presented tomorrow at Sleep DownUnder 2018, the annual conference of the Australasian Sleep Association, showed that morning people had a better memory and a brighter mood.

“Your chronotype is genetic and while, generally, people are ‘later’ types as teenagers and ‘earlier’ types in middle age, your underlying chronotype doesn’t really change,” lead researcher Maria Pushpan-athan said.

“We found 40 per cent of our sample were classified as morning types and this group had the best memory and the lowest risk of depression.

“The 20 per cent that were naturally night owls had the worst memory and lowest mood.

“It seems the old adage ‘the early bird gets the worm’ rings true once again.”

The UWA team believes larks may do better because of a phenomenon called “social jet lag” — and that if you’re a lark, you’re in luck because our world is set up for early types.

“In our society, evening types are typically getting up for school or work when their body is telling them they should be sleeping, and they are trying to sleep at night when their body is telling them they should be awake,” Dr Pushpanathan said.

“Over the years, this leads to a chronic sleep deficit and by the time they reach old age, night owls have built up a significant sleep ‘debt’.”

But Dr Pushpanathan said those who had night owls in their lives should cut them some slack. “That person you know who can’t sleep till 2am and wakes up at 10am isn’t lazy, they’re just an owl,” she said.

She suggested workplaces and learning institutions could develop flexible schedules which allowed the owls among them to sleep late, helping their mood and memory.

The researchers are also suggesting that it will be important to examine the stability of a person’s chronotype over time, and whether night owls could be at risk of early cognitive change.