Going to bed after this time could cause mental health problems, according to a study

In Spain, the time of The Spanish sleep pattern differs markedly from that of the rest of Europe. While in many European countries dinner is served between 6 and 8 p.m., in Spain it is common to eat dinner around 10 p.m., which considerably delays bedtime . However, this habit can have negative consequences . In this regard, a recent study published in the journal Psychiatry Research revealed that people who regularly go to bed after 1 a.m. are more likely to suffer from mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety compared to those who go to bed earlier.

The study, which compared chronotype—preferred bedtime—with the actual sleep behavior of nearly 74,000 UK adults , found that night owls aligned with their chronotype were 20% to 40% more likely to receive a mental health disorder diagnosis compared to those with an earlier bedtime.

Study co-author Jamie Zeitzer, a professor in Stanford University's Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, expressed surprise at the results. "They were not at all what we expected," he told Fox News, adding, "We spent over a year trying to refute our findings, but we couldn't find an alternative explanation." Zeitzer suggests that the isolation associated with nighttime behavior could be a factor and recommends night owls try adopting an earlier sleep routine to fine-tune their sleep patterns. "Biologically speaking, it's a lot like a rubber band: You take a day off and you're back to where your body wants to be," he explained.

However, the study has some limitations , according to Dr. Indira Gurubhagavatula, a professor of medicine in the Division of Sleep Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. She told HuffPost that the UK Biobank participants were mostly Caucasian, middle-aged or older , and that the chronotype determination was based on a single, albeit validated, question . “Typically, the way we assess morningness or eveningness is with a much more comprehensive questionnaire that has much more detailed questions,” she said. Additionally, the researchers relied on mental health diagnostic data collected by doctors , which can be inaccurate or incomplete , Gurubhagavatula concluded.