{"text":[[{"start":6.14,"text":"Middle-aged people who are night owls took disability pensions more often than their morning lark peers, according to new research that underscores how circadian rhythms can fundamentally affect work and social life."}],[{"start":18.12,"text":"Finns with more inclination to evening activity were 70 per cent likelier than their early bird counterparts to be receiving the payments by the age of 58, the scientists found."}],[{"start":28.54,"text":"The results add to data suggesting that both employees and employers need to consider so-called chronotypes when deciding working patterns, especially once biases towards morning or night stabilise in mid-life. The pension gap between the morning and evening Finnish groups could be fed by factors including working times, amount of sleep and other health-related behaviours, the scientists said."}],[{"start":50.88,"text":"“When the timetable of the required performance is out of sync with your body’s natural rhythm, the performance is not as good,” said Tapio Räihä, lead author of the research published in Occupational & Environmental Medicine."}],[{"start":62.84,"text":"“When the synchrony is improved, the performance generally improves. This can be seen in school exams, shift work tolerance, and in laboratory settings, when testing for optimal physical or neuropsychological performance.”"}],[{"start":76.6,"text":"Räihä and colleagues from Oulu University examined more than 5,000 participants from northern Finland who, when aged 46 in 2012, had given information about their chronotype for a continuing population study. This included their ease of morning waking and their tiredness during the next half-hour, when they preferred to work, and whether they considered themselves morning or evening people."}],[{"start":98.44,"text":"The researchers cross-referenced these results with information from Finnish national data showing which of the study subjects had received a disability pension over the 12 years that followed. Finland gives disability pensions of varying amounts and durations to people who have suffered severe long-term health declines."}],[{"start":115.36,"text":"About 12.1 per cent of the women and 8.3 per cent of men with evening chronotypes — so-called E-types — received disability pensions during the follow-up period, the researchers found."}],[{"start":126.32,"text":"Among morning chronotype people, the figures were 7.2 per cent of women and 5 per cent of men. The numbers remained similar when adjusted for socio-economic factors such as education levels and type of occupation."}],[{"start":138.68,"text":"“People who are E-type represent a significant proportion of the population and their health and ability to continue working until retirement age pose challenges for sustainable economies,” the researchers said."}],[{"start":151.08,"text":"While the research does not show the chronotype causes the higher take-up of the disability pensions, it chimes with other studies that have suggested being an E-type may be linked to poor sleep, depression and several metabolic and cardiovascular diseases."}],[{"start":166.04,"text":"“Chronotype is a generally under-appreciated risk factor for both mental and physical health,” said Clara Albiñana, a University of Oxford psychiatry department researcher, adding that the Finnish results would need to be replicated in other health systems."}],[{"start":181.56,"text":"“Recent work highlights that the important factor may not be evening-ness itself, but the fact that E-types are more likely to experience misalignment between their biological preference and imposed work schedules.”"}],[{"start":193.8,"text":"Greater flexibility around work timing may be worth testing as a way of reducing this misalignment with circadian rhythms, said Nina Rzechorzek, a University of Cambridge clinician scientist."}],[{"start":204.84,"text":"There was some experimental evidence that aligning employment schedules better with chronotype could improve sleep and reduce feelings of so-called social jet lag, said Darren Rhodes, a cognitive psychology lecturer at Keele University."}],[{"start":218.52,"text":"“The practical message should not be that evening types simply need to become morning people,” Rhodes said. “A more sensible aim is to reduce persistent mismatch between biological and social time.”"}],[{"start":235.17,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1790753105_1089.mp3"}