We all have our own chronotype – a tendency to sleep at certain times, with early birds and night owls at opposite ends of the scale. A new study suggests this chronotype has some relationship to cognitive decline in those who have completed higher education.

Led by a team from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, the study dug into the data on 23,798 individuals aged 40 and over in a public health research database. Sleeping habits were charted against scores on the Ruff Figural Fluency Test (RFFT), measuring cognitive ability, across the course of a decade.

Night owls who stayed up late and had a university-level education had a higher risk of cognitive decline, the data showed. The findings add important new information to efforts to understand aging and dementia, inclu

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