Going To Bed Late Increases The Risk Of Cardiovascular Disease, Obesity and Diabetes

Again we return to Medical News Today and another review of a recent study where the authors found that going to bed late, independent of lifestyle factors such as late snacking, increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, as well as body fat accumulation. Of course, if you know anything about physiology, or if you’ve been coached by me and “lectured” on the importance of going to bed before 10 p.m., you should be able to figure out why. But did the researchers understand what they found? And did MNT? Well, let’s see what they have to say, and I’ll fill in the missing pieces and correct them along the way.

“‘Night owls’ are at increased risk of type 2 diabetes, as well as higher adiposity, data presented at a conference has shown. Previous research has shown the link between having a late chronotype, where you feel a need to go to bed later than usual, and type 2 diabetes. This latest research has shown that this link is independent of lifestyle factors, authors argue.

Previously, peer-reviewed research published in the Annals of Internal Medicine showed that late chronotype was associated with poorer lifestyle factors, including being more likely to smoke and being less active. This latest, non peer-reviewed research suggests that the link exists independent of lifestyle factors.”

Yes, one huge problem with staying up late is the possibility of snacking and/or having your last meal pretty close to actually sleeping, which sabotages the ‘fasting state’ that you need while sleeping for recovery, repair, and detoxification (your last meal or snack should always be 4 to 6 hours before you go to bed.)

With that said, this study showed that the risk increased regardless of these lifestyle factors, and that is where our circadian rhythm and natural hormone release comes into the picture. Let’s see if they even realize this.

Higher amounts of body fat in late sleepers

“The researchers analyzed data from 4,999 participants without type 2 diabetes from the Netherlands Epidemiology of Obesity study, of whom 54% were women. They determined the participants’ chronotypes based on the information they had given about when they went to sleep and when they got up and calculated using the midpoint of their sleep.

They showed that the later the midpoint of sleep, the higher a person’s waist measurement was, as well as having higher amounts of fat on their waist and liver. Analysis showed that the people they identified as having a late chronotype were not only at a 55% increased risk of type 2 diabetes over a 6-year follow-up, but they also had a higher average BMI, a larger waist, and higher visceral and liver fat, than people with an intermediate chronotype.”

And that is the nail in the coffin, so to speak. Let me explain what is going on here, and if you know, you already have all this figured out.

We know that our circadian rhythm influences hormone release. This means that usually, the release of human growth hormone (hGH) peaks somewhere between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m., and if you go to bed after 10 p.m., and especially after midnight, this window of hGH release narrows. As a result, less hGH will be released, and if you go to bed after 2 a.m., there will be no peak at all.

While we do release small peaks of hGH all through the day, this peak at night is by far the largest, the longest, and most important, and missing out on this peak will have really negative consequences for your body and physique. This peak occurs naturally during sleep to aid in tissue regeneration, repair, detoxification, making sure we have plenty of energy during sleep for these processes, and to protect muscle tissue if we are in a true fasted state and autophagy takes place (the recycling of damaged cells and production of new cells, including stem cells.) So yes, going to bed fasted (and especially while being in ketosis) will actually increase hGH release even more.

Now, what other effects does hGH have on the body? Well, it’s a potent “fat burner” as it stimulates IGF-1 production and assists in regulating glucose and lipid metabolism. While IGF-1 releases stored fat and glucose to create energy, hGH allows the body to use fat more efficiently as energy, instead of relying on glucose and gluconeogenesis. And yes, that means that if you follow our proper human animal-based and ketogenic diet, as in running naturally on fats and being in ketosis, you will stimulate more hGH to be released all through the day, which is one of the reason why people on the carnivore diet reverse a lot of the aging effects and also ages much slower — while vegans look double their age and withers away.

With this in mind, a reduced production of hGH, as in going to bed late and, even worse, running on a carbohydrate/glucose metabolism, will thus reduce our ability to control blood glucose and lipid metabolism, leading to more damage on the cardiovascular system and the liver, ultimately speeding up the progress towards both type 2 diabetes, fatty liver, and cardiovascular diseases. Of course, since you will not be able to handle glucose and fat properly, you will store more of it as body fat, leading to obesity.
Interestingly, fat accumulation due to lack of hGH has a tendency to increase fat accumulation around the waist, and particularly visceral fat, making your stomach stick out more. And that is exactly what they found in this study, still they failed to make the connection, or they simply chose not to tell anyone.

“The researchers adjusted these results for age, sex, education, total body fat, physical activity, diet quality, alcohol intake, smoking, and sleep quality and duration, showing that the relationship between type 2 diabetes and obesity was independent of these.”

While all these factors have their own impact, and they can lower your hGH production, they do not impact the natural peak-release of growth hormone during early sleep, which is synced with our circadian rhythm. You can only mess that one up by going to bed too late. 

So, even if your hGH levels are already compromised by a bad living style, especially a plant-based processed carbohydrate dominant diet, your body will still do its best to release hGH in intervals, and especially during those critical hours between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m.

The influence of chronotype on health

“Van der Velde told Medical News Today that he had investigated the relationship between chronotype and type 2 diabetes as he and others did not believe that lifestyle could solely account for the differences in risk seen. The study had shown a more significant effect than expected.”

Well, if you do not explain the cause of what you observed, as in missing out on hGH production, this will of course be an excellent way and excuse to downplay the biggest health problem in history, that of modern plant-based and processed foods — which is a thousand times worse than going to bed a bit late and missing out on some hGH.

They will always do everything they can to blame other things than the real culprit — the plant-based modern diet that is dominated by unnecessary and damaging carbohydrates, volatile and harmful seed/vegetable oils and toxic chemicals.

“We did not really know what to expect for the associations with waist circumference, visceral fat and liver. In late chronotypes we observed in particular a larger waist and more visceral fat, suggesting that abdominal obesity may play a role in the increased metabolic risk for late chronotypes — Jeroen van der Velde”

Damn, these “scientists” and “researchers” sure are dumb as rocks. They have absolutely zero knowledge of simple physiology and biology, as they are trained/brainwashed in Rockefeller medical pseudo-science, as in backwards thinking.

And once again, you dimwits, correlation does not imply causation. Abdominal obesity does not increase metabolic risk. Abdominal obesity is the result of a messed up metabolic milieu — in this case a combination of consuming the wrong type of food for your species (carbohydrates and seed/vegetable oils) while missing out on human growth hormone, a hormone that is crucial for metabolic processes, especially those of glucose and lipid metabolism! 
This is like kindergarten biology. Come on!

But again, it is easier and more profitable to blame obesity for creating metabolic disorders when in reality it is carbohydrates, seed/vegetable oils and chemicals that create both of them.

You simply prescribe some really toxic hunger suppressants and weight-loss drugs that make you nauseous so you hardly can eat, which lower the damage from all the crappy foods you no longer can put in your piehole, while the person actually loses some weight and thinks that it solved their problem. Yes, it is in such evil ways the “healthcare” and medical community operates. Telling them to adopt our natural human diet would heal them and they would never be sick again, meaning a customer lost for life. Can’t have that!
Lies, deceit and profit above all, while making sure your lifespan is halved so you barely make it past retirement — because once you retire from the slavery of society, you’re a useless eater that costs society more than it benefits.

“Another explanation may be that people with late chronotype also will eat until later in the evening. Some studies have shown that time-restricted eating, for instance, no more food intake after 6 PM may help to improve metabolic health. Also, the quality of food that is eaten later in the evening may be less healthy (e.g. snacks). We did adjust for overall diet quality in our study, but unfortunately, we did not measure timing of food intake, he explained.”

Yes, I’ve explained this about actually going to bed in a fasted state many times. Not only does it speed-up detoxification and cellular repair, it also increases the size of that human growth hormone release during the first hours of night/sleep.
So, eating late in the evening is very bad. Eating late and also going to bed late is even worse.

Circadian rhythm and social timings

“Our society is built around the rhythms of early chronotypes, leaving late chronotypes at a disadvantage. Early chronotypes naturally fit into the conventional work and school schedules, resulting in more consistent patterns for sleep, meals, and physical activity, all of which are beneficial for metabolic health.”

Yes that is all true. However, there is no such thing as “late chronotypes.” That is a construct, as it is not normal to human nature. It’s a choice that you over the years have conditioned yourself to being used to. On average, humans should naturally wake up between 4 and 6 a.m. and go to bed between 8 and 10 p.m.

“On the other hand, late chronotypes are forced to wake up earlier than their bodies would prefer, leading to a cascade of negative health effects. This societal misalignment might be the root cause of what is perceived as dysregulation in late chronotypes, she said.”

Again, it is a choice. Simply reprogram yourself by going to bed a few minutes earlier every day until you can get to sleep before 10 p.m. Do not throw away decades of your lifespan on such an idiotic thing as going to bed late or believing that you are a “night owl,” a “late chronotype.” That is all conditioning. Simply re-condition yourself.

And with that, their article came to an end. Not a mention about human growth hormone, how important it is for longevity and metabolic health, or how other factors influence it (especially a bad diet.)
Well, hopefully I could add some value to it.


If you need help with sleep disorders, improving your hormones, improving your quality of life or transitioning from your current way of eating to our natural species-appropriate, species-specific way of eating, I’m available for both coaching and consultation.

And if you found the article and my insights helpful and enjoy my free information, please consider donating to help pay the webhosting bills and keep the site running. And if you’re interested in discussing and sharing information with likeminded people, consider joining our uncensored community at Ungovernable.se. Thank you!

If you wish to support my work
Scroll to Top