Night owl staff wellbeing: Why extra workplace support is needed

Rex Fan, Lead Behavioural Insights Specialist, Bupa UK, explores the growing search trends around how chronotypes can influence your lifestyle – and what managers need to know.

Our research period¹ highlights how our habits have changed in recent years, and how this may be affecting our ability to sleep, work and live well:

• - Bedtime foods for better sleep – searches are 88 times higher
• - Late night snacks for high cholesterol – searches are 14 times higher
• - Unable to sleep through the night – searches seven times higher
• - Healthy nighttime snacks for weight loss – searches tripled
• - How to sleep when you can’t – searches tripled
• - Signs of job burnout – searches doubled

What is a chronotype?

You might have heard of the terms like ‘night owl’, ‘wolf’; ‘early bird’ or ‘lion’ - these are all ways to talk about your chronotype.

‘Chronotype’ is the name given to your body’s natural preference to do certain times of things at certain times of the day. Influencing your alertness, your chronotype dictates when you prefer to sleep, eat and exercise – and even your body’s core temperature. Research shows that when you like to sleep can influence your personality, habits and health.

Night owl or early bird?

You may already have an idea of your chronotype, but if you’re not sure, here are a few ways to tell.

Early bird: sometimes known as the ‘lion chronotype’

• - Usually wakes up early
• - Mornings are your most productive time of the day
• - You prefer an earlier bedtime

Night owls, sometimes known as the ‘wolf chronotype’

• - Prefers to wake up later
• - Afternoons are their most productive time of day
• - Likes to go to bed at a later than average time

Night owl health and lifestyle

Whilst it’s very important to develop a diverse team, when it comes to chronotypes, being a night owl can come with some health risks.

Night owls tend to have less structure in their sleep schedules, meaning they don’t go to bed at fixed times. This can lead to poorer sleep quality, and generally sleeping less before work. Being well-rested before work helps you to perform at the best of your ability.

Getting less than the recommended amount of sleep or exercise puts you at risk of developing several physical health conditions, including:

• - High cholesterol
• - High blood pressure
• - Type 2 diabetes
• - Cardiovascular disease and stroke
• - Sleep apnoea

All adults should aim to sleep between seven and nine hours, each night, and get their heart rate elevated through exercise for at least 150 minutes, every week.

Studies highlight that night owns have a significantly higher risk of developing diabetes, compared to early birds – by 72 per cent. The same study found that night owls run a much higher risk of being overweight or having poor lifestyle choices. Your weight and lifestyle choices can increase your risk of developing long-term health conditions .

Research shows that night owls are less likely to be physically active. Going to sleep later may make it more difficult to incorporate healthy habits into your routine. For example, early birds may naturally have time to do a workout before their working day begins, whereas night owls may not.

A night owl may find they only have the time to cover the basics before work – like getting the sleep they need, and starting work on time. This may mean that night owls sacrifice morning self-care, out of necessity and convenience.

If you find that you don’t have time to eat in the morning, this may leave you hungry and low on energy. Then, if you’ve not had time to prepare a meal or snack, night owls may find themselves reaching for convenience food, which often isn’t the healthiest and doesn’t keep you feeling full for long.

Night owl mental health

Employees who prefer late nights are statistically more at risk of developing mental health disorders, like depression and anxiety. However, this statistic can change – night owls who follow an earlier bedtime routine can reduce their chance of developing a mental health disorder by up to 40 per cent.

Research has also found that regardless of your chronotype, going to bed later runs a higher risk of developing mental health disorders.

How to become a morning person

We know that morning people are generally healthier, and less at risk of developing a range of health conditions. You’d think a simple way to lower your health risks level would be to change your sleep habits. However, this can be easier said than done.

It is possible to change your sleeping habits, but it can take some time. Ultimately, the most important thing is to get enough sleep, each night – adults need between seven and nine hours. Alongside this, aim to understand your natural sleep preference, and take steps to support your health and wellbeing.

You can’t change your sleep cycle overnight, but here are some tips for night owls to gradually go to bed earlier:

• - Aim to go to bed no later than 1am. If this is far earlier than you usually go to bed, give yourself a bedtime window, first. Once you achieve that window, work to roll back your bedtime by 20 minutes, in gradual increments so your body can get used to it. For example, if you usually go to bed at 2am, your body will struggle to cope with a 1am bedtime immediately. Instead, aim to go to sleep by 1.40am for five nights, then go to bed 20 minutes earlier for five nights once your body has adjusted, and so on.
• - Aim to wake up by 9am, consistently. This helps to train the brain of its waking hours and hopefully make it less difficult to get up for work.
• - Make time for daily exercise, from taking the stairs in the office to bodyweight sessions. However, don’t exercise too close to your bedtime as this can overstimulate you and make it harder to sleep.
• - Don’t eat anything too heavy near bedtime, and avoid alcohol as this can interrupt your sleep.¹⁸
• - Give yourself a bedtime winddown ritual to signal to your body it’s time to sleep. This means avoiding blue light devices, like your phone or laptop, in the hour before bed and instead doing something quiet and relaxing. It can help to dim the lights and cool the room to help you drift off quicker, too.

How do night owls affect the workplace?

Research has shown that night owls tend to perform better on cognitive tests, suggesting that they’re mentally sharp. Studies also show that night owls can bring creativity and impulsivity to the workplace – qualities that can be a great asset to any team.

Learning to adapt to and understand your own working preferences, as well as others’, may help create a more harmonious working environment. For example, flexible working hours may offer employees time to get quality sleep, and the chance to reply to non-urgent emails at times where they’re feeling their sharpest.

Supporting staff with long-term conditions

We know that your chronotype can influence when you prefer to sleep, but if you’re already at an increased risk of certain health conditions through your genetics – like depression, diabetes and heart disease - your lifestyle choices may be adding further to your risk.

Your workplace can offer valuable support to employees with long-term health conditions and encourage them to stay in work.

• - Make appropriate workplace adjustments

Revisit your workplace policies and procedures to make sure you have the right things in place to support those with long-term health conditions, like sickness absence or remote working policies. These policies help all employees to be treated fairly and consistently.

Keep up to date with any reasonable workplace adjustments you should be implementing, on the gov.uk website. Whilst it’s not always possible to put in all levels of support employees may require, it’s important to keep up to date with what’s available and what can help employees, while also hitting your business’s bottom line.

• - Adapt workload for alertness

If your employee struggles in the morning, it may make sense to diarise meetings later in the day, when they’re feeling more alert. The same goes for scheduling critical workplace tasks – work with your employee to figure out when they feel their most alert, and help them to work their routine around that.

• - Use workplace benefits

Employees with long-term health conditions may see their stress and mental health suffer. Offering workplace support – including employee assistance programmes (EAP), confidential listening services, business health insurance and employee health assessments – can help ease employee worries and address issues sooner, which may help reduce potential long-term absences.

• - Remember the power of communication

Making time for supportive and focussed conversations with your employees is the key to binding workplace policies, procedures and employee benefits and initiatives. Discover your employee’s challenges and seek additional advice from human resources and occupational health, where needed.

Developing good relationship with your employees can make it easier to spot when they may be struggling because of their health, and start a conversation with them to check, sooner.

• - Consider genome sequencing

Genomics analyses your genetic sequence to offer a deeper understanding of the health conditions and illnesses you’re at greater risk of developing, including hypertension, diabetes and cancer.

The more you know about your health risks, the more you can be proactive about protecting your health. Support your health, and the health of your team, by making sure you take your lunch break, and creating an environment where healthy habits are encouraged, from sharing healthy snacks and recipes, to arranging ‘walk and talk’ meetings.

Sources:

• ¹ Based on internal UK Google Keyword Planner analysis. Search period: January 2022 – January 2025

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