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> This means that if someone who regularly goes to bed at 1 a.m. instead goes to bed at midnight and sleeps for the same amount of time, they can reduce their r
by didibus 5y ago
> This means that if someone who regularly goes to bed at 1 a.m. instead goes to bed at midnight and sleeps for the same amount of time, they can reduce their risk by 23%
That's not what it means at all. It means that people with the genetics which causes them to naturally sleep earlier might also be genetically less at risk of depression.
You'd need to make an experiment where you take depressed people with genetics that causes them to naturally be night owls and force them to sleep earlier somehow (find a way where they can actually start to fall asleep sooner and all), and then measure the impact on depression to prove that it means what they claim it means, otherwise it is just correlation, not causation.
- pseudalopex 5y agoThe paper cited a study. But it was small and seems to be about making an unnatural schedule more bearable.[1] It should be compared to accommodating people's natural sleep cycles. [1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31202686/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31202686/
- pseudalopex 5y agoAnd other studies found large sleep phase changes are very hard to maintain. A single late night or an illness can send someone back to their natural schedule.
- wpietri 5y agoFor what it's worth, I shifted my sleep schedule via changes in sleep hygiene and lighting. My mood is way more even. If I mess up my sleep schedule, my mood tends darker. So as a former "natural" night owl, I think causation is plausible.