Go to bed early
Wait, are you still up?
Forget the old adage that nothing good happens after midnight. I’ve had an awful lot of fun in the early morning hours.
It wasn’t just going out and partying in my younger years, either.
In fact, I’ve written before about the almost magical experience I once had when I put on an old Army t-shirt with a big “USA” on the front for a middle-of-the-night run:
Total insomnia so I went for a run at 4:45 a.m. (75F-perfect!) It’s amazing who’s out in DC at that time.
My favorite encounter was two girls apparently still wrapping up last night’s party at the Washington Monument.
One of them pointed to my USA t-shirt and the 56 US flags surrounding the monument and exclaimed with apparent sincerity:
“Don’t you just… LOVE America?!!”
Like so much in life, however, there’s a time for that, and a time for other things.
Now, a big new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) suggests that, for adults anyway, there’s a lot to be gained by going to bed early.
Researchers analyzed the sleep and exercise habits of 19,963 adults who agreed to wear wrist-borne biomedical devices to track their activity. The data amounted to a whopping 5,995,080 “person-nights,” and allowed them to figure out if habitually early bedtimes correlated with other habits.
Sure enough, they found a big one: The earlier people went to bed, the more likely they were to engage in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity the following day.
Adults who habitually were in bed by 9 p.m. got about 30 more minutes of physical activity in the following day than those who went to bed at 1 a.m.
The 9-o’clockers also outdid adults who went to bed habitually at 11 p.m., getting about 15 more minutes of physical activity in than their more night owl-ish peers.
This strikes me as one of those correlations that makes sense intuitively, but also seems surprising when we have hard data to back it up.
I mean: We all get the same 24 hours in any day, right? So why should it matter if some of us shift our sleeping hours later than others?
Is there something intrinsic that suggests that if you stay up until after midnight, you wouldn’t be squeezing in a workout at 4 p.m.?
Maybe so. The researchers said they also determined that if people who normally went to bed late made a conscious shift to earlier bedtimes, their physical activity increased.
In other words, it’s not likely true that people who stay up late are also preternaturally disinclined to exercise. Instead, it seems more likely that as a society, our schedules just lend themselves better to working out if we get to sleep earlier.
One thing we have to mention, although I’m sure you already know this: Exercise is associated with almost every positive health outcome we can come up with.
Perhaps my favorite example comes from a 2017 study that suggests that people who engage in high levels of physical activity (defined as “engaging in 30 minutes of jogging for women, or 40 minutes of jogging for men … five days per week”) wound up with health benefits that amount to a “biologic aging advantage of nine years.”
“These insights carry meaningful implications for public health,” said the lead author on the more recent study, Dr. Josh Leota of the School of Psychological Sciences at Monash University in Australia. “Rather than just promoting sleep and physical activity independently, health campaigns could encourage earlier bedtimes to naturally foster more active lifestyles. A holistic approach that recognises how these two essential behaviours interact may lead to better outcomes for individual and community health.”
I’d love to know what times of day the people in the study who went to bed earlier exercised. Was it as simple as being able to get up early in the morning and get their activity in then?
Or were they starting their workdays earlier, getting out earlier, and then hitting the gym (or whatever it was they did)?
Either way, it’s good research to know about, especially for busy people who find themselves trying to fit everything into their schedule.
Otherwise? As my friend and colleague Jessica Stillman once wrote, you can be left with a difficult choice: Work, family, friends, fitness, or sleep? "Pick three.”
7 other things worth knowing
President Trump said he plans new tariffs on pharmaceutical imports: "We'll be putting an initially small tariff on pharmaceuticals,” he told CNBC, “but in one year — one and a half years, maximum — it's going to go to 150%. And then it’s going to go to 250%." (Yahoo Finance)
Among 14 prominent U.S. and global figures, Pope Leo XIV has the most positive image by far according to a Gallup poll of Americans: a 57% favorable rating and 11% unfavorable rating (+46 net). Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy comes in second (+18). Trump comes in 11th (-16) and Elon Musk is last (-28). (Gallup)
The House committee investigating the Jeffrey Epstein case issued subpoenas Tuesday to Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton. Another House subpoena directs the Justice Department to turn over the “full, complete, unredacted Epstein Files." (NBC News)
Attorney General Pam Bondi is weighing whether to release an audio recording of the 9 hours of interviews her deputy conducted with convicted child sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell last month. The Epstein associate appears to be angling for a pardon. (Daily Mail)
Inside Texas Democrats’ plan to seek refuge with Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker: The potential 2028 presidential candidate has quietly talked with Lone Star State lawmakers for weeks, as he and other ambitious governors seek to ways to join their fight. (The Washington Post)
Why Burgers Cost So Much Right Now: Droughts, heat waves and floods are raising food prices. (Bloomberg)
Seattle Kraken hockey player John Hayden and the team's blue-haired troll mascot, Buoy, had a close call with a brown bear during a fly fishing promotional video shoot in Alaska, video released by the team shows. The bear charged toward the mascot but turned away before making contact as Hayden, Buoy and the film crew waded back to shore. (ESPN, X.com)
Thanks for reading. Photo by Joshua Earle on Unsplash. I wrote about some of this before at Inc.com. See you in the comments.
this came thru at 6:11 am my time. I've been up since about 4 am. I get enough sleep (I've known for a long time I don't need 8 hrs. Never nap). Family, friends, regular exercise, all very important. Plus I always have to include my weekly volunteer time 😉 - I know it's not on the list, however, it's a good part of socializing as well as contributing to the community, which all provides good mental health. In fact, today is my regular volunteer day.
and “Don’t you just… LOVE America?!!” - yep, even tho it's quite divisive these days, still love it, nowhere else I'd rather be.
and of course I clicked on the animal - BEAR, beware!! - link - loved it! I have not seen that one yet. Thanks!!
Work, family, friends, fitness, or sleep? Pick 3.
Work - mostly alone. (Or with friends/family if working on the same business)
Sleep - with family (girlfriend/wife)
Fitness - you can go to the gym with family (and friends), run with family, enjoy healthy meals with family.
It's possible to pick all.