Those who get used to it to sleep late at night spending their awake nights drinking and smoking they have higher chances to die younger compared to early risers, according to a 37-year study published today.

Previous researches have shown that the night birds– that is, those who sleep late and struggle to get out of bed in the morning – are more likely to experience a multitude of health problems.

In 2018, a large study in the UK found that evening types had a 10% higher risk of dying than morning types over a 6.5-year period.

While this may have been a concern for late sleepers, this study did not take into account factors such as consumption alcohol, which could be responsible for these deaths.

So researchers in Finland set out to find out more in a study published in the peer-reviewed journal Chronobiology International.

In the study almost 24,000 same-sex twins participated in Finland, who were asked in 1981 to answer whether they are morning or evening types.

A third answered that they are somewhat evening types, while 10% that they are absolutely evening types. The rest were morning types.

Evening guys were mostly younger and tended to drink and smoke more.

When the researchers revisited their research in 2018, more than 8,700 of the twins had died.

Over those 37 years, the researchers found that those who were clearly night types were 9 percent more likely to die from other causes — a rate similar to the 2018 study.

But this difference was “mainly due to smoking and alcohol”, the research found.

For example, he concluded that the evening guys who weren’t smokers and they didn’t drink much, they weren’t more likely to die earlier than the morning guys.

Study leader Christer Hamblin of the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health told AFP that the results of the study show that night owls can take steps to reduce their risk of premature death.

“Certainly evening types should seriously consider the amounts of alcohol and tobacco they consume,” he notes.

Regardless of other factors, the time people go to bed—that is, their chronotype—makes “little or no” contribution to their mortality, according to Hamblin.

For his part, Givan Fernando, a chronotype researcher at his university Cambridge who was not involved in the research, told AFP that while the research’s conclusions are sound, the research has limitations.

As he explained, having participants simply identify themselves as morning or evening types “is not satisfactory because it doesn’t include some objective information” unlike more modern methods.

Also the study it didn’t include drug use either in addition to alcohol and tobacco, he says, and notes that cocaine in particular has been linked to the change in people’s habits, from morning to evening types.

Fernando in the past led researchs that showed that night guys have worse mental health — mainly anxiety — and that drug use can make the problem worse.