Study shows night owls are magical creatures who can eat junk food with no consequences

Do you love staying up late and sleeping in? Do you also love snacking on junk food? According to a new study, of COURSE you do.

Researchers from Northwestern University studied the sleep, eating, and exercising habits of 96 people over the course of a week. They found that people who went to sleep and woke up later tended to eat more junk food and less vegetables than so-called “morning people” who preferred to go to sleep and wake up earlier. The night owls were also less physically active. Anyone who’s gone through a bag of Oreos on a late night Orange is the New Black binge can attest to this. Now, want to know the crazy part?

Even though the late sleepers weren’t exactly making the healthiest choices, their love for fast food didn’t necessarily translate into higher weights or health problems. One potential explanation for this is that the night owls weren’t consuming MORE calories when they stayed up late, they were just opting for less nutritious ones. Another theory comes courtesy of sleep expert Michael Breus, who told Health.com, “Night owls might genetically be programmed with a higher metabolic rate that makes up for eating high-fat, high-calorie foods.”

In other words, the early bird might get the worm, but the night owl gets the high metabolism . . . and the really tasty snacks.

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