Gemma Atkinson's House Is in Bed by 9pm. A 10,362-Adult Study Says Same-Time Sleep Matters. Not Everyone Agrees

It is 8pm in a Singapore flat. Your seven-year-old is finally asleep, your partner is on the sofa, and you tell yourself you will be in bed by 10:30. On Friday it is 1am. On Saturday the kids are up at 7 anyway.

The short answer: a new study of more than 1 million nights suggests that when you sleep, night after night, may matter for your health, not just how long you sleep. British presenter Gemma Atkinson already lives that way. She told Good Housekeeping her whole house runs on fixed bedtimes: her son Thiago around 7:30pm, her daughter Mia around 8pm, and the adults in bed at 9pm with the alarm at 6am. "For us, consistent bedtimes make all the difference," she said.

Three findings worth knowing:

10,362 adults in a US wearable study: each 29-minute increase in how much their sleep length swung from night to night was linked to a 24% higher risk of serious heart events.
60,977 people in the UK Biobank: the most regular sleepers had a 20% to 48% lower risk of death from any cause than the least regular group.
119 Singapore university students: bedtimes averaged 1:42am, and those whose sleep length varied more reported poorer mood and motivation after waking.

What did the new study actually find?

The research was released by the American Heart Association on 2 November 2026, ahead of its Scientific Sessions in Chicago. Researchers used fitness tracker data from the US National Institutes of Health "All of Us" programme, covering about six months of sleep per person, then followed people for a median of 3.7 years. None had heart or metabolic disease at the start.

Night-to-night changes in sleep timing were linked to a 20% to 23% higher risk of events such as heart attack, stroke and heart failure. Lead researcher Dr Nguyen Minh Tuan Viet of Boston Children's Hospital said sleep irregularity "is often due to weekends," pointing to later Friday nights and shift work.

Why aren't the experts convinced yet?

This is where it gets interesting. The study is a conference abstract, which means it has not been peer reviewed. It is observational, so it cannot show that irregular sleep causes heart problems. Sleep was tracked by wrist devices at home rather than in a sleep lab, and only 3.1% of participants were Asian.

Marie-Pierre St-Onge, who directs Columbia University's sleep and circadian research centre and was not involved, said we are "still lacking the data to support a causal, independent impact of sleep regularity on cardiovascular disease risk." Her practical point was gentler: stable schedules can help people get enough sleep in the first place.

Does a regular schedule matter more than hours?

A larger, peer-reviewed study leans that way. In 2024, researchers at Monash University calculated a Sleep Regularity Index from more than 10 million hours of accelerometer data in 60,977 UK Biobank participants. Regularity predicted the risk of death from any cause more strongly than sleep duration did. It is still an association, not proof, but it is the same direction as the new heart data.

What does irregular sleep look like in Singapore?

Closer to home, a National University of Singapore team tracked 119 students over 2,471 nights. They averaged just 6.03 hours of sleep. Students whose sleep length jumped around more woke up in a worse mood and with less motivation, while their average sleep length showed no such link.

Work shifts show the same pattern. In a 2024 NUS study of 96 junior doctors at a Singapore teaching hospital, interns on irregular 24-hour call schedules scored 56.1 on the regularity index versus 69.4 for those on a night float roster with blocks of consecutive night shifts, and they reported poorer sleep quality. We covered how far late nights can drift in Is Revenge Bedtime Procrastination Costing You an Hour of Sleep?

| Study | Who | Key number | |---|---|---| | AHA abstract, 2026 (not peer reviewed) | 10,362 US adults, 1 million+ nights | 24% higher heart event risk per 29-minute swing in sleep length | | Windred 2024, SLEEP | 60,977 UK adults | 20% to 48% lower all-cause death risk for more regular sleepers | | Ng 2023, Sleep Medicine | 119 Singapore students | Average bedtime 1:42am, 6.03 hours of sleep | | Massar 2024, JAMA Network Open | 96 Singapore interns | Regularity score 56.1 on call vs 69.4 on night float |

Is going to bed earlier worth it too?

Possibly. A separate trial published this week by NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing followed 196 adults with prediabetes who slept under 6.5 hours. Across everyone, each hour earlier that people fell asleep was linked to greater weight loss of about 1.3 pounds (roughly 0.6 kg) over eight weeks. Blood sugar did not change, so it is a small, early signal rather than a reason to panic about your bedtime.

Why is a fixed bedtime harder in Singapore?

Heat is part of it. A study of 150 Singapore residents reported by The Straits Times found bedrooms averaging 28.4°C at night, well above the low to mid 20s generally linked to good sleep. If you wake up sweaty at 3am, keeping the same wake time the next morning gets harder. That is one reason people here choose lighter, breathable bedding, from a thin cooling blanket to a cooling weighted blanket, instead of a heavy weighted blanket built for colder countries. NightFury's specifications page lists the fabric and weights if you are comparing.

Sleep scores can also give mixed messages, as Lewis Hamilton found in Lewis Hamilton Felt Rested in Singapore. His Sleep Score Said 40%.

How can you make bedtime more regular?

Fix the wake time first. Dr Viet singled out "waking up at the same time every morning" as something people can control. Atkinson's alarm stays at 6am.
Set a screen cut-off. Atkinson stops looking at her phone after 8pm and reads or watches a show before sleep.
Keep weekends within reach. The researchers flagged later Friday nights as a common cause of irregular sleep, so try keeping weekend bedtimes close to weekday ones.

If you have ongoing trouble sleeping, or heart concerns, talk to a doctor. A routine is a habit, not a treatment.

So what breaks your bedtime most often: weekends, work or the heat?

Sources

American Heart Association. Is a consistent sleep schedule important to heart health? News release, 2 November 2026. https://newsroom.heart.org/news/is-a-consistent-sleep-schedule-important-to-heart-health
Good Housekeeping UK. Gemma Atkinson on her early bedtime and why she wears blue light blocking glasses, 31 August 2026. https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/uk/lifestyle/a73510924/how-i-sleep-gemma-atkinson/
Windred DP, et al. Sleep regularity is a stronger predictor of mortality risk than sleep duration: a prospective cohort study. SLEEP, 2024. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37738616/
Ng ASC, Massar SAA, Bei B, Chee MWL. Assessing 'readiness' by tracking fluctuations in daily sleep duration and their effects on daily mood, motivation, and sleepiness. Sleep Medicine, 2023. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37804715/
Massar SAA, et al. Sleep, well-being, and cognition in medical interns on a float or overnight call schedule. JAMA Network Open, 2024. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39392631/
NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing. Earlier bedtime linked to weight loss in prediabetes, 2 November 2026. https://nursing.nyu.edu/w/news/press-release/earlier-bedtime-linked-weight-loss-prediabetes
The Straits Times. What's the temperature in the bedroom in Singapore? A muggy 28 deg C, 2026. https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/environment/whats-the-temperature-in-the-bedroom-in-spore-a-muggy-28-deg-c-says-new-study-on-residents