Early risers are less intelligent than late risers, according to research…

According to recent research, being a night owl may have more advantages than being an early bird.

Some individuals think that getting up early is the best way to start the day, while others think it’s the worst thing ever.

However, new research comparing the two groups, each consisting of 26,000 people, in terms of intellect suggests that the ‘up and grind’ camp is in for a surprise.

It examined each group’s ability to do cognitive exams and IQ tests, yielding some startling results.

Academics at Imperial College London led the study, which asked survey participants to take tests on reasoning, IQ, memory, and response speeds.

The researchers next investigated numerous circumstances surrounding the subjects, such as sleep quality and duration, as well as the participants’ chronotypes.

This is the period of day when a person feels the most or least awake, similar to a circadian rhythm.

The findings appeared to show that people who went to bed and woke up later did better on the exams.

This notion also has historical precedence, with writers James Joyce, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Barack Obama all apparently sleeping late.

However, while it may be tempting to start postponing your bedtime, the study also states that obtaining adequate sleep is essential for brain function.

Raha West, lead author and clinical research fellow at Imperial College’s Department of surgery and Cancer, told The Guardian: “We discovered that sleep duration has a direct effect on brain function, and we believe that proactively managing sleep patterns is really important for boosting and safeguarding the way our brains work.

“We’d ideally like to see policy interventions to help sleep patterns improve in the general population.”

Nonetheless, there is some skepticism about the result, with Jacqui Hanley from Alzheimer’s Research UK telling The Guardian that it was unclear if the change in sleep pattern influenced cognition or the other way around.

The study’s main contribution was to challenge sleep stereotypes, according to Jessica Chelekis, a senior lecturer in sustainability global value chains and sleep expert at Brunel University London, despite the study’s “important limitations” due to its failure to account for test timing or educational attainment.