Morning People Have Healthier Diets, Plus 3 More Reasons To Get Up Earlier
Early risers are credited with being more productive, and now research says that morning people eat better too.
While those who had later bedtimes ate less in the morning, they also consumed more sugar in the first meal of the day. At night, they also consumed more calories, sugar, fat and saturated fat than morning people. The eating differences were even more pronounced on weekends, which always seem like a harder time to eat healthy. Night owls not only ate more calories, sugar and fat, but they ate more often and at irregular times compared to those who got an early start.
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“Evening types are more prone to live against their internal biological time,” lead author Mirkka Maukonen of the Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare told The New York Times. “Our society is pretty much structured to suit morning types better.”
Published in the journal Obesity, the study looked at 1,854 Finnish adults between the ages of 25 and 74 who were asked to complete questionnaires about their eating habits.
A good diet isn’t the only thing morning people have going for them. Here are three more health benefits of dragging yourself out of bed early:
Happier
Researchers at the University of Toronto found this group to be happier and more energetic. Prevention reports that people who naturally wake up around 7 a.m. experience a boost of positivity of about 19 to 25 percent compared to those who sleep later.
More Fit
A story on Ornish Living explains that morning people maintain consistent workout routines. “Research suggests in terms of performing a consistent exercise habit, individuals who exercise in the morning tend to do better,” Cedric Bryant, Ph.D, and Chief Science Officer with the American Council on Exercise, told the website. He explains that if you start with it first thing, other responsibilities are less likely to push fitness to the side.
More Alert
Researchers at the University of Alberty found that an early riser’s brain is more alert at 9 a.m., which is prime work time, writes Fitness. Night owls, on the other hand, experience peak performance at 9 p.m., which doesn’t go with the typical 9 to 5 job.
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