We discovered how your chronotype might protect your health

Do you know what your chronotype is? That is whether you are morning or evening person.  Did you know that your chronotype can impact your sleep, health and even the kind of job you are more suited to?

Donating your data to Data4Science and filling out our questionnaire on sleep can give you a ‘deep dive’ into understanding your own chronotype. If you are shiftworker or have irregular hours, you can also help others by filling in that questionnaire.

Some people have a biological and genetic predisposition to being an ‘evening person’, while others are more ‘morning people’.  Our Data4Science research team recently published new research  on this topic, led by Dr. Evelina Akimova and Founder Professor Melinda Mills. The study, published in the journal Sleep, found that having a genetic predisposition to being an evening person protects night shift workers against sleep penalties.

Up to 20% of US and 25% of the UK working population are engaged in some form of night shift employment. But increasing evidence shows night work and persistent circadian rhythm disruption is a serious risk factor for health conditions, including depression, heart disease and type-2 diabetes.

The team looked at 53,211 workers between 2006 and 2018 in the UK, to investigate if they had a genetic propensity to ‘eveningness’. They found that night work was associated with significant sleep penalties, the largest of which were observed for individuals who always work nights. Having a higher genetic propensity to ‘eveningness’ had a strong protective effect, reducing the sleep penalty by up to 28%.

To participate in our sleep questionnaire, click here.

Professor Mills adds, ‘There are health implications for night shift workers, but our study shows that these vary between individuals dependent on their chronotype, and that should be considered when designing interventions.’

Dr Evelina Akimova noted, ‘What we found particularly exciting is that we were able to use multiple measures of eveningness including genetic, self-reported, and accelerometer measures to advance our knowledge of sleep penalties among night shift workers.’