Regardless of whether you're a morning person or a night owl, forcing yourself to live and work outside of that preference could seriously be bad for your overall health.

A study conducted by the National Institutes of Health and published in March in PLOS ONE found that obese adults with late chronotypes tended to eat larger meals, develop more sleep apnea and have higher levels of stress hormones and lower levels of HDL, or “good,” cholesterol than obese people with other chronotypes.

When you're forced to wake up earlier than your body wants to, you experience a sort of "social jet lag" caused by the mismatch of your schedule and your chronotype. Night owls are the ones who suffer the most, since their schedule often conflict with most with typical work schedules.

But while you probably can't convince your boss to let you sleep in and come in whenever you want, simple things like going outside more and exposing yourself to sunlight should be able to help reduce the effects.

[The New York Times]