LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Sleep is vital for our health, but according to the CDC, more than one in three adults say they are not getting sufficient sleep.

Now, new research suggests it's not just how much sleep you get, but when you are going to sleep and waking up that matters.

A recent study from the Imperial College London found night owls, those people who stay up late and wake up later, appear to have superior cognitive function, while early risers had lower scores on the cognitive test.

Azizi Seixas is the Associate Director at the Center for Translational Sleep and Circadian Sciences at the University of Miami.

Professor Seixas, thank you for joining.

The researchers in this study found that people who stay up late had, quote, superior cognitive function, while early birds had the lowest scores.

How did they reach this conclusion?

AZIZI SEIXAS, University of Miami: Well, this was a large study done in the United Kingdom with about 26,000 individuals.

And essentially what they were trying to do is that they're looked at different what they call chronotypes, people who were morning folks, people who were even folks, and people who are in between.

And what they tried to do was to look at the relationship between those individuals who said they were morning versus people who are in between and those folks who were at night, and they found that individuals who said that they were intermediate in between morning and evening, and those individuals who were night olds, they had better cognition in this study.

And this is a very large study, and it's really provides a unique, interesting opportunity for us to understand the timing of sleep and the type of sleep, where you are, when you most optimally, will do better in your day.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: How does this study compared to other research done on this topic?

AZIZI SEIXAS: Well, it raises many different flags.

Why?

Because previously, we've always known that morningness is oftentimes equal to better performance.

And what this study shows is that those individuals who are night owls actually got better cognition.

And that's where it is very unique, and it's very different.

Now this has been shown where in adolescence, that adolescents who pretty much will have their best optimal performance during the afternoon, and those individuals who are older, 50s and above, they will perform better in the mornings.

And that's where this you this.

The findings of these studies are unique.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: I consider myself a bit of a night owl, naturally, although more recently, I've been waking up early.

But what impact do these different sleep styles have on the body?

AZIZI SEIXAS: Very different.

Why?

Because typically people who are oftentimes seen as morning individuals, these are the individuals who go to bed earlier and wake up earlier, they actually have lower rates of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and high blood pressure.

While those individuals who are actually night owls tend to have greater risk for heart disease.

What this study is showing is that for your brain health and for cognition, the reverse may be true, and so this is where it provides a unique opportunity for us to dig a little deeper as to what might be going on.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Are there benefits to both sleep styles?

You talked about the negative impacts potentially on both, but are there benefits to being a night owl versus a morning person?

AZIZI SEIXAS: There are benefits, but it really depends on who you are, right.

So there are individuals who are naturally morning people, and those individuals who are just night owls.

The most important thing is to find out who you are, and then patcher and revolve your entire day around that.

So if you are a night person, you may want to actually do most of your cognitive tasks later in the day.

And if you're a morning person, you may want to put those earlier in the day.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: And at the end of the day, is the amount of sleep more important than the time that you sleep?

Time of day that you sleep?

AZIZI SEIXAS: Well, both are true, meaning the timing of your sleep is important, but it's also important that you do so consistently.

What the studies and other studies have shown is that if you're a morning person, stick with that routine, if you're a night person, stick with that routine.

And you want to get seven to nine hours of sleep daily to get the best health benefits, whether it be physically or in terms of brain health and in cognition.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: So we all know that sleep is incredibly important.

So how can people maximize the rest that they're getting?

AZIZI SEIXAS: So how you can maximize your rest is pretty much you want to make sure that your sleep schedule is consistent.

You want to also ensure that you reduce the amount of stress that you get before you go to bed.

You want to reduce also the amount of food that you eat right before bed, and you want to remove all the different blue light from your phones or your mobile devices, because that can significantly impact your quality and the time of sleep that you get.

Most importantly, ensure that your bedroom environment is conducive to good sleep.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: So it sounds like I need to stop doom scrolling through my phone right before I go to bed.

AZIZI SEIXAS: I would suggest that you do that certainly.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Well, Professor Seixas, thank you so much for your time.

We appreciate it.

AZIZI SEIXAS: Thanks for having me.