‘Night owl’ lifestyle may bring higher risk of heart disease: Study
In this photo illustration a girl looks at the screen of her smartphone on April 16, 2021 in Bonn, Germany. (Ute Grabowsky/Photothek via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — So-called “night owls” may face a higher risk for heart attack and stroke, a new study published Wednesday finds.
Researchers found that “evening type” people had poorer cardiovascular health scores than those who were neither “morning type” or “evening type” people and had an associated 16% higher risk of heart attack and stroke.
The study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, analyzed survey and biometric data from more than 320,000 British adults aged 39 to 74.
Participants were asked whether they considered themselves a “definite morning” person, a “definite evening” person or somewhere in between, termed “intermediate.”
Researchers then calculated each person’s heart health using the American Heart Association’s Life’s Essential 8 (LE8) score. These factors include four health behaviors — diet quality, physical activity, sleep duration and nicotine exposure — and four health factors, including blood pressure, body mass index, blood sugar and blood fat levels.
“These are the factors the American Heart Association has identified as cardiovascular disease risk factors,” Kristen Knutson, associate professor of neurology and peventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine specializing in sleep and circadian rhythm research and fellow at the American Heart Association, told ABC News.
“Different people will have them in different combinations, but they are all correlated with one another,” she added.
Evening people were 79% more likely to have poor overall heart health compared with those in the intermediate group, the study found. Morning people did slightly better than the intermediate group, with a 5% lower risk of having a poor LE8 score.
Researchers found the evening people had a 16% higher risk of both heart attack and stroke. Researchers estimated that about 75% of this higher risk was explained by other LE8 factors, rather than sleep timing alone.
“It isn’t being a night owl that’s a problem,” Knutson said. “I think being a night owl who’s trying to live in a morning lark’s world is a conflict between one’s internal clock and their social clock.”
The higher risk appeared to be due to certain lifestyle behaviors and other health factors, the study found.
Nicotine use had the strongest impact on heart health, explaining 34% of the link between late bedtime and heart disease. Shorter sleep duration accounted for 14% of the extra risk, high blood sugar for 12% and body weight and diet each accounted for about 11% of the increased risk.
Behavioral effects of being a night owl were stronger in women than in men — women were 96% more likely to have lower LE8 scores compared to 67% in men, though they did not have a higher risk of heart attack or stroke.
“Women are further stressed by that lifestyle because they’re having to still get up and be the primary caregiver for family members,” Dr. Sonia Tolani, preventative cardiologist, Associate Professor of Medicine, and co-director of the Columbia University Women’s Heart Center, told ABC News.
Heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The researchers concluded prevention efforts should focus on improving lifestyle habits when spending more time awake at night.
“The most obvious way is to quit smoking and that’s not new advice,” Knutson says. “But sleep regularity, meaning trying to go to bed at about the same time every day and not jumping around the clock — particularly on days off — can really help lead to regular timing of other behaviors like light exposure, meals, exercise activity.”
“Prioritize the low-hanging fruit” recommended Tolani. If an hour at the gym is not doable, “maybe you can find a way to do a 10-minute walk or cut a little bit of salt from your diet. Just try to make small changes,” she said.
The healthcare.gov website on a laptop arranged in Norfolk, Virginia, US, on Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025. (Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — When Jessica Chamberlain went to sign up for health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) for 2026, she not prepared for the sticker shock.
Last year, Chamberlain was paying $59.67 in monthly premiums. This year, she would be paying nearly $100.
The 43-year-old mother of two from Illinois said she was floored to see her monthly premiums were nearly doubling.
“I can’t afford that as a single mom with two kids,” she told ABC News.
After carefully weighing her options, Chamberlain decide to forego health insurance and is currently uninsured.
“What do I sacrifice [to pay for health insurance]? I’m diabetic,” she said. “What do I have to sacrifice to keep my medications and my health afloat?
Chamberlain is not alone. Nearly one in 10 people enrolled in the ACA Marketplace last year dropped their coverage in 2026, according to a new KFF survey published Thursday.
The findings come amid rising health care costs and the end of the enhanced premium tax credits. The tax credits helped lower the cost of monthly premiums for about 22 million Americans covered under the ACA and expired at the end of 2025, with no plans by Congress to extend them.
The survey built upon a previous KFF poll conducted in 2025 among Marketplace enrollees. Surveyors re-interviewed more than 1,100 adults between Feb. 2 and March 2, 2026.
Of the respondents, 69% said they re-enrolled in Marketplace coverage with 39% selecting the same plan and 29% switching plans.
More than half, or 51%, of returning ACA enrollees said their health care costs are “a lot higher” this year compared to last year. Of this group, four in 10 specifically said their premiums are “a lot higher.” Additionally, 80% said all health care costs — including premiums, deductibles, co-pays or coinsurance — are higher.
Meanwhile, 9% of Marketplace enrollees dropped their ACA coverage and are currently uninsured.
When asked why they decided to drop or change their coverage, most respondents said costs were the driving factor.
One of the respondents, Holly Weir, a 26-year-old from Ohio, told ABC News she was paying $30 in monthly premiums last year under a plan run by UnitedHealthcare. This year, her plan went to $177 in monthly premiums.
“I didn’t do anything to pick a new health care plan. I got the bill in the mail and I was like, ‘[Expletive]!'” Weir said. “I didn’t pay too much attention until I got the bill the next month and I was like ‘Oh my God, this isn’t from me going to see a medical provider.'”
Weir decided to cancel her insurance and has applied for Medicaid coverage. She is currently waiting to see if she will be approved.
Weir said she is a thyroid cancer survivor, and she has to see an oncologist every two months or so, in addition to taking regular medication.
“Once that runs out, I’ll get a lot more scared,” she said. “Of course, I’m not going to be stupid and leave it so long. If it does come to it, I’ll pay [for the insurance]. The idea that I would have to spend that each month is frustrating. I’m already not doing amazingly financially.”
The survey found that even those who re-enrolled in the ACA Marketplace may need to rework their household budgets.
More than half, or 55%, said they need to cut spending on food or other basic household expenses to afford their health care costs.
Among those with chronic health conditions, 62% of those who reenrolled in the ACA Marketplace said they will be cutting back on food and other basics.
The survey found that 22% of respondents did not re-enroll in the ACA Marketplace and got coverage through an employer, Medicare, Medicaid or another health plan outside the Marketplace.
Chamberlain, who also responded to the survey, said her kids qualify to be on state-run Medicaid. However, she said she doesn’t qualify because she makes too much in her current role working in probation.
She is hoping she can find another insurance plan to help cover health care costs.
“This is destroying people who have pre-existing conditions,” she said. “It is affecting people, especially single moms. We’re just trying to live.”
Demonstrators participate in a rally and march during an “ICE Out” day of protest on January 23, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Community leaders, faith leaders and labor unions have urged Minnesotans to participate in what they are calling a “day of action” as hundreds of local businesses are expected to close during a statewide general strike held in protest against immigration enforcement operations in the region. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Over the last several days, many Americans have seen upsetting, and often violent, images and videos of protests in Minneapolis amid a flood of ICE agents entering the city for a federal immigration enforcement operation.
Research has shown that images of extreme violence can impact mental health, increasing symptoms of anxiety and depression.
Among the videos and images that circulated widely in recent weeks have been the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens involving federal agents just 17 days apart: Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
Psychologists and psychiatrists told ABC News that witnessing a death can add an extra level of distress for some people and lead to long-lasting consequences.
Symptoms of anxiety and depression Studies have shown the symptoms of depression and anxiety can increase when exposed to negative news.
One 2011 study from the University of Sussex in Brighton, U.K., found that people had worsened mood and anxiety symptoms after just 14 minutes of negative news consumption.
Another 2022 study from Rutgers University, focused on COVID-19 news, found that greater daily exposure to news about the virus was linked to higher same-day and next-day worry about the pandemic as well as feelings of hopelessness and general worry.
Dr. Pierluigi Mancini, a psychologist and interim president and CEO of the nonprofit Mental Health America, told ABC News that witnessing any kind of violence whether through news, on social media or in person can lead to psychological effects
“So, people will experience fear, they’ll experience hypervigilance, they’ll experience emotional exhaustion, and they will have effects on their mental health,” he said.
Mancini added that witnessing violent events can activate the body’s “fight-or-flight response” which can include symptoms such as rapid heart rate, shallow breathing, nausea, irritability and difficulty concentrating, especially when the events happen in one’s own community.
“So, the individuals that are on site where they are witnessing these effects in their neighborhoods get affected at a much higher level, but even those millions more that end up watching it on social media or traditional news sites also have those experiences,” he said.
Witnessing deaths may be especially traumatic Research has shown that mental health impacts are even more profound when someone’s unexpected death is witnessed and shared.
A May 2021 article looked at emotional and mental health impacts after the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man who was killed in Minneapolis in 2020 after a white police officer knelt on his neck.
The team analyzed Gallup poll data and found that in the week following Floyd’s death, more than one-third of respondents reported feelings of anger and sadness.
Researchers found a 1.5-fold increase in feelings of anger and a 1.3-fold increase in feelings of sadness compared to poll data for the four weeks preceding Floyd’s death. Increases were seen despite already elevated levels of anger and sadness due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Johannes Eichstaedt, co-author of the study and an assistant professor in psychology at Stanford University, told ABC News he sees some similarities between the death of Floyd and the deaths of Good and Pretti, all of which occurred in Minneapolis.
He said there is scientific literature about linked fate, or the sensation someone has that a horrible event could have happened to them or someone they know.
“There is a very real fear response in the human body with lots of physiological consequences that are very real and when something like this happens and it’s recorded like this and then it traumatizes more or less everybody who watches this,” Eichstaedt said. “The problem is not that these things are getting captured in a video. The problem is that these things happen.”
Dr. Anthony Feinstein, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto, told ABC News that witnessing a death can be distressing to anyone, but that it is important to determine when the stress becomes pathological.
“I think any individual with a moral compass would be distressed by seeing someone die like this on television,” he said. “It’s a very distressing thing to witness. And to feel momentary dismay and stress and sadness or anxiety in response to it strikes me as a normal human response to an abnormal event. Where it becomes problematic is when that stress and that distress doesn’t go away, when it lingers.”
Experts said witnessing deaths on the news, such as what occurred in Minneapolis, can elevate the level of potential mental health impacts, especially among those who are most vulnerable.
“It is extremely traumatic to see someone die,” Mancini said. “Once that sinks in that you witnessed someone lose their life, especially in a violent situation. It’s always traumatic even if you’re next to a loved one who’s passing and you’re expecting it, but when it’s unexpected and when it is violent, it is extremely difficult to watch and to process.”
Mancini said some people may be desensitized to violence, but others can be severely impacted. Witnessing violence can violate a person’s feeling of safety and stability, he said.
“In Minnesota, many people are experiencing that escalating stress,” he said. “They’re experiencing that fear, that violence and uncertainty in their communities. So, it’s gonna make you question everything that you were taught when you were growing up.”
How to protect mental health For those who are experiencing mental health impacts, experts say there are steps people can take to protect their mental health.
Rather than avoiding the news altogether, Mancini said people can purposely limit the time they spend watching news coverage.
He added that watching the news is important to remain informed, but that it is just as important to have intentional engagement.
“So, for example, it is as simple as maybe … I will watch the news two times a day, and when I’m watching this news, I’m going to set a timer,” he said. “I’m gonna limit the time that I’m to be watching this news. That is the healthy thing to do.”
To limit mental health impacts, people can also take action by getting involved with a group focused on the issues they are most passionate about or joining an affinity group, which are supportive communities of people who share a common identity, experts said.
Feinstein said having psychosocial supports can help people maintain mental well-being and allow them to be more vulnerable as well.
“Peer support is important and there is literature out there that peer support is comforting and it’s protective and it’s helpful when it comes to managing situations like this,” Feinstein said. “Obviously you want to keep your responses within the letter of the law … but being part of a support group is helpful.”
Feinstein added that, in stressful times, it’s important for people to devote sufficient time to things that are healthy and meaningful in their lives, whether it be friendships, hobbies or interests.
“And, by the way, don’t feel guilty by doing it,” he said. “That’s really important. People feel, ‘Well, I’ve got a good life, and I feel guilty that I can go to the cinema and theater with other people.’ No, it’s really important that you hold on to those good positive things, because that’s how you maintain your mental well-being.”
In this stock image, an open bottle of Tylenol Extra Strength pain reliever is shown. (STOCK IMAGE/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Taking acetaminophen, also known by the brand name Tylenol, during pregnancy had no effect on children developing autism, according to a study of over 1.5 million children in Denmark published this week.
The study was published in JAMA Pediatrics.
Researchers analyzed 1.5 million children born between 1997 and 2022. About 1.8% of those who were exposed to Tylenol during pregnancy developed autism compared to 3.0% of those who were not exposed to Tylenol.
A prior study out of Sweden looked at siblings, finding no causal link between autism and Tylenol exposure during pregnancy. There are genetic associations and environmental triggers that are likely involved, but neither Tylenol nor vaccines has been shown to be the cause of autism.
The new study out this week comes after President Donald Trump and his administration had previously urged pregnant mothers to avoid Tylenol, without substantive evidence for the claims.
“With Tylenol, don’t take it. Don’t take it,” Trump said during a press event at the White House in September. “If you can’t live, if your fever is so bad, you have to take one, because there’s no alternative to that.”
The FDA then initiated a process to update the safety label on acetaminophen to suggest that its use during pregnancy and autism were linked.
At the time, Kenvue, the maker of Tylenol, wrote in part of a statement, “We believe independent, sound science clearly shows that taking acetaminophen does not cause autism. We strongly disagree with any suggestion otherwise and are deeply concerned with the health risk this poses for expecting mothers.”
At the time, medical organizations, like the American College of Obstetrician & Gynecologists, immediately pushed back, noting that Tylenol was one of the few options for pregnant women to treat pain and fever, which can be harmful when left untreated.
It is generally not recommended for pregnant women to take ibuprofen, Advil, during pregnancy due to the risk of complications.
Nevertheless, the claims made by the administration have led to confusion. A prior study found that Tylenol use in emergency departments dipped 16% immediately following the announcement by the administration.
ABC News reached out to Kenvue, the maker of Tylenol, for a statement but did not immediately hear back.
