Night owls vs morning larks: are there differences in brain function?

A research team led by the University of Birmingham (UK) has demonstrated that individuals whose internal body clock dictates that they go to bed and wake up very late have lower resting brain connectivity in many regions of the brain linked to the maintenance of consciousness. Within the study, which has been published in the journal Sleep, researchers investigated brain function at rest and linked it to the cognitive abilities of 38 individuals who were identified as either ‘night owls’ or ‘morning larks’ using physiological rhythms (melatonin and cortisol), continuous sleep/wake monitoring and questionnaires. The volunteers underwent MRI scans, followed...