In our fast-paced, modern world, we often praise the night owls—the people who burn the midnight oil, stay up late creating, thinking, or simply catching up. But new research reveals a concerning link between being a night owl and long-term cognitive decline—and it’s something Catholics concerned with stewardship of the body and mind should pay close attention to.
According to a decade-long study published in The Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease, researchers found that among highly educated adults, those who naturally preferred late sleep schedules experienced greater cognitive decline than early risers. This decline was not seen in people with lower levels of education—pointing to the critical role of lifestyle and work expectations. “Each hour shift toward being a night owl was associated with a 0.80-point decline in cognitive test scores over the decade,” the study notes (Wenzler et al., 2025).
Why does this matter to us as Catholics? Because caring for the mind God has given us isn’t just about prayer and learning—it’s also about recognizing the impact of habits and lifestyle. St. Paul reminds us that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19-20), and this includes the brain, which we are called to protect, sharpen, and steward with grace.
The study, which followed nearly 24,000 adults over 10 years, sheds light on how misalignment between our biological clocks and societal expectations—what researchers call “social jet lag”—can damage the brain over time. Highly educated professionals are often forced to wake early for demanding careers, regardless of their body’s natural rhythm. According to lead author Ana Wenzler, “When your job forces you to wake up much earlier than your body wants, you experience what researchers call ‘social jet lag’—essentially chronic biological jet lag.”
Importantly, this decline is not inevitable. Researchers found that two key behaviors—poor sleep and smoking—explained about 25% of the link between night owl chronotypes and cognitive decline. Night owls in high-pressure jobs are more likely to smoke, potentially using nicotine as a coping tool for their internal clock mismatch. And when your body wants to stay up until 2 a.m., but your job requires a 6 a.m. wake-up call, it results in poor-quality, inadequate sleep.
This is where faith and reason meet. We believe that human life, intellect, and memory are gifts from God. If lifestyle patterns are harming those gifts, we have a responsibility to respond. As Pope St. John Paul II taught, “The human person… must be treated as an end in himself, and never as a means to an end.” If professional pressures are pushing people into harmful rhythms, then perhaps it’s time we advocate for change.
Solutions lie in creating more flexible work environments that accommodate the diversity of God’s creation—even in our sleep patterns. The researchers themselves concluded, “Flexible work schedules might particularly benefit highly educated night owls… allowing later start times could actually protect their workers’ long-term brain health” (Wenzler et al., 2025).
In a culture that often values productivity over well-being, this study serves as a reminder that health is holy. Catholic employers and institutions, especially those guided by Catholic Social Teaching, have an opportunity here: to care for the whole person by fostering workplaces that support natural rhythms, discourage harmful habits, and prioritize rest as a sacred necessity.
Because honoring the mind isn’t just a matter of science—it’s a matter of faith.
