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I’m a night owl, so I’m interested when I come across studies about what happens to people who habitually stay up late. Sometimes they can be disturbing, and sometimes they’re innocuous. But sometimes — like the latest one I’ve read — they come with a silver lining. Today’s study comes to us from the medical school at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. It involves tracking the sleep habits and health outcomes of nearly 24,000 people over 10 full years. Let’s give you the results up front: good, bad, and the reason to look on the bright side. Writing in The Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease, the Dutch researchers said they tracked the sleep habits and the degree to which they displayed cognitive decline over the same period. The results were disconcerting on their face for night owls; people who habitually stay up late wound up with faster cognitive decline than those who go to bed early. But, there was an unexpected twist. The less education night owls had, the less likely they were to experience similar levels of cognitive decline over the study period. That finding begs for an explanation, and researcher Ana Wenzler, a Ph.D. candidate in the university’s department of epidemiology, offered a few: First, as we saw in another recent study, people who stay up late are less likely than their early-to-bed peers to exercise during the day. Second, people who go to bed early simply sleep through many of the times when other people smoke, drink, and eat unhealthy foods most often. Finally — and this might be the most interesting — the increased correlation between more education and more cognitive decline for night owls might stem from the fact that, statistically, more educated people wind up trapped in a daytime work hours environment, even when their natural rhythms might be better served by a different schedule. As Wenzler explained in an accompanying statement: “That probably has to do with their sleep rhythm. They are often people who have to go back to work early in the morning and are therefore more likely to sleep too short, giving their brains too little rest. We suspect that lower- or middle-educated people are more likely to have a job that allows them to take their sleep rhythm into account, such as a job in the hospitality industry or one with night shifts. If this is not possible, your brain does not get enough rest and you are more likely to adopt bad habits. It would be nice if more consideration was given to evening people who now have to work early: for example, by giving them the option of starting later.” This is the part I look at as a silver lining. Because, even as workplaces have evolved during the 10 years or so that the study period covered, many highly educated night owls have, in fact, adjusted. More of us work remotely, more of us work for ourselves, and more of us have worked out flexibility. We’ve actually given ourselves “the option of starting later” if it fits our schedules better. In my personal situation, that’s exactly what’s happened. If you go back to the earlier parts of my career, I was chained to an inflexible schedule at work. As an example, I had a job that required me to battle a Los Angeles commute and be sitting at my desk by 7:30 a.m. each day. Let’s just say it was a struggle. Today, I’m fortunate in that I answer to nobody but myself, and so I set my own hours. I probably put in a lot more time each week than I once did when I was on someone else’s schedule, but the hours I work are better suited to my natural chronotype (or “biological clock”). Of course, we’re hearing about this study just as many big companies are swinging the pendulum back the other way, requiring employees to be in the office more often, and limiting remote work and flexibility. Maybe that’s a competitive opportunity if you’re running a business. Great employees come in all chronotypes: night owls and early birds alike. Call it another silver lining. By Bill Murphy Jr. This article originally appeared on Fast Company’s sister publication, Inc. Inc. is the voice of the American entrepreneur. We inspire, inform, and document the most fascinating people in business: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters that represent the most dynamic force in the American economy.
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E-Commerce
The U.S. economy expanded at a surprising 3% annual pace from April through June, bouncing back at least temporarily from a first-quarter drop that reflected disruptions from President Donald Trumps trade wars. Still, details of the report suggested that U.S. consumers and businesses are wary about the economic uncertainty arising from Trump’s radical campaign to restructure the American economy by slapping big taxes tariffs on imports from around the world. Headline numbers are hiding the economys true performance, which is slowing as tariffs take a bite out of activity, Nationwide chief economist Kathy Bostjancic wrote. America’s gross domestic product the nations output of goods and services rebounded after falling at a 0.5% clip from January through March, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. The first-quarter drop, the first retreat of the U.S. economy in three years, was mainly caused by a surge in imports which are subtracted from GDP as businesses scrambled to bring in foreign goods ahead of Trumps tariffs. The bounceback was expected but its strength was a surprise: Economists had forecast 2% growth from April through June. From April through June, a drop in imports the biggest since the COVID-19 outbreak added more than 5 percentage points to growth. Consumer spending registered lackluster growth of 1.4%, though it was an improvement over the first quarter’s 0.5%. Private investment fell at a 15.6% annual pace, biggest drop since COVID-19 slammed the economy. A drop in inventories as businesses worked down goods they’d stockpiled in the first quarter shaved 3.2 percentage points off second-quarter growth. A category within the GDP data that measures the economys underlying strength weakened in the second quarter, expanding at a 1.2% annual pace, down from 1.9% from January through March and the weakest since the end of 2022. This category includes consumer spending and private investment but excludes volatile items like exports, inventories and government spending. Federal government spending and investment fell at a 3.7% annual rate on top of a 4.6% drop in the first quarter. Wednesdays GDP report showed inflationary pressure easing in the second quarter. The Federal Reserves favored inflation gauge the personal consumption expenditures, or PCE, price index rose at an annual rate of 2.1% in the second quarter, down from 3.7% in the first. Stripping out volatile food and energy prices, so-called core PCE inflation rose 2.5%, down from 3.5% in the first quarter. On his Truth Social media platform, Trump heralded the GDP gain and stepped up his pressure on the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates: “2Q GDP JUST OUT: 3%, WAY BETTER THAN EXPECTED! Too Late MUST NOW LOWER THE RATE. No Inflation! Let people buy, and refinance, their homes!” Trump sees tariffs as a way to protect American industry, lure factories back to the United States, and help pay for the massive tax cuts he signed into law July 4. But mainstream economists viewed with disdain by Trump and his advisers say that his tariffs will damage the economy, raising costs and making protected U.S. companies less efficient. They note that tariffs are paid by importers in the United States, who try to pass along the cost to their customers via higher prices. Therefore, tariffs can be inflationary though their impact so far has been modest. Paul Wiseman, AP economics writer
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E-Commerce
Historically dry conditions have combined with gusty winds to make it harder for crews to get a handle on a wildfire burning along the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, causing containment figures to plummet as the blaze nearly tripled in size in just a few days.Crews had managed to contain about 26% of the Dragon Bravo Fire last week, but that dropped into single digits as unfavorable conditions helped the flames to spread across more than 110 square miles (about 285 kilometers) by Tuesday.The fire made one of its biggest runs on Monday as it raced across 25 square miles of terrain.The periods when the fire is most active is spanning longer durations of the day, leaving less time for firefighters to make up ground, fire spokesperson Lisa Jennings said.“These record dry air masses are just the tip of the iceberg on what has created this fire weather, because it’s also been a dry season here and we haven’t got any of the monsoon moisture that usually comes in early July,” Jennings said.She added that type of fuels towering mixed conifers and ponderosa pines along with the topography of the rim are contributing to the fire’s spread.Crews on Tuesday continued work to reinforce protections near the Kaibab Lodge, which is surrounded by national forest land. Managers also were keeping an eye on a refuge for the state’s fish the Apache trout in the North Canyon and a bison herd in the House Rock Valley.The fire was sparked by lightning on July 4 and initially was managed to clear out vegetation to improve forest conditions. It wasn’t until a week later that dry and windy conditions helped to fan the flames, prompting evacuations of visitors and employees at Grand Canyon National Park’s North Rim. The historic Grand Canyon Lodge and dozens of cabins were destroyed. The rim remains closed for the season.A bipartisan slate of Arizona’s elected officials has questioned the handling of the fire, suggesting more could have been done early on. Following an aerial tour of the damage, Gov. Katie Hobbs met with federal officials and said U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum committed to an independent review. Sejal Govindarao, Associated Press
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