Are You A Night Owl? Did You Know You're More Prone To Diabetes, Muscle Loss ?

Some people just seem to function better at night, but is it dangerous for their health? New findings show that night owls are at a higher risk of developing diabetes as well as a host of other health conditions.

For the study, researchers looked at information from more than 1,600 people in South Korea between the ages of 47 to 59 who gave information regarding their sleep habits and who underwent tests to assess their health.

From the sample, 95 of the participants liked to stay up late, while 480 of them were early risers. The rest fell somewhere in the middle.

"Regardless of lifestyle, people who stayed up late faced a higher risk of developing health problems like diabetes or reduced muscle mass than those who were early risers," said Dr. Nan Hee Kim, of Korea University College of Medicine in Ansan, South Korea, via Health Day. "This could be caused by night owls' tendency to have poorer sleep quality and to engage in unhealthy behaviors like smoking, late-night eating and a sedentary lifestyle."

Researchers found that those who stayed up later into the night and into early hours of the morning were more likely to have higher levels of body fat than early risers. They were also more likely to gradually lose muscle mass, a condition that's medically referred to as sarcopenia.

Men in particular were at a higher risk of diabetes and sarcopenia than counterparts who were early to rise. On the other hand, women who were up all night tended to have more belly fat and were at an increased risk of metabolic syndrome.

However, researchers cautioned that being a night owl did not prove a cause-and-effect relationship between the aforementioned health issues.

More information regarding the findings can be seen via the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.