--- title: Women Who Are Night Owls Have More Sex, Fewer Relationships description: Women who stay up late are more likely to get laid, but less likely to get married than women who get up early to do a sun salutation or whatever canonical: https://time.com/46735/sleep-sex-study-university-of-chicago-night-owls/ author: Charlotte Alter article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-04-02T16:49:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:55:05.503Z og:title: Women Who Stay Up Late Are More Likely to Get Laid, Less Likely to Get Married og:description: Women who stay up late are more likely to get laid, but less likely to get married than women who get up early to do a sun salutation or whatever og:url: https://time.com/46735/sleep-sex-study-university-of-chicago-night-owls/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt39656a262b4112b7/6986888406f2c1649832e2d7/482182953.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5600 og:image:height: 3150 og:image:alt: 482182953 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Women Who Stay Up Late Are More Likely to Get Laid, Less Likely to Get Married twitter:description: Women who stay up late are more likely to get laid, but less likely to get married than women who get up early to do a sun salutation or whatever twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt39656a262b4112b7/6986888406f2c1649832e2d7/482182953.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # To Sleep or to Sleep With? 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement.  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Apr 2, 2014 4:49 PM UTC  Woman asleep in bed Woman asleep in bedCultura RM/Greta Engel—Getty Images/Collection Mix: Subjects RM  by [Charlotte Alter](https://time.com/author/charlotte-alter/)  ## Charlotte Alter Senior Correspondent Apr 2, 2014 4:49 PM UTC You know what Ben Franklin said: Early to bed, early to rise makes a woman rested, safe, and married. A new [study ](http://www.epjournal.net/articles/night-owl-women-are-similar-to-men-in-their-relationship-orientation-risk-taking-propensities-and-cortisol-levels-implications-for-the-adaptive-significance-and-evolution-of-eveningness/)from the University of Chicago shows that women who stay up late tend to have similar risk-taking tendencies as men, and that night-owls of both genders were less likely to be in long-term relationships. Researchers found that men generally have higher levels of cortisol and testosterone than women, but that night-owl women have just as much cortisol as men. High levels of cortisol are usually associated with high energy, arousability, stress and even cognitive function, and some research has shown that successful people usually have higher cortisol levels. The researchers found that high cortisol levels may explain why night-owls take more risks. In other words, women who stay up late tend to get laid more often, but women who go to bed early and get up early might be more likely to be in stable relationships. Apparently the tendency to stay up late may have been an evolutionary trait that enabled our caveman ancestors to get frisky after the kids went to bed. “From an evolutionary perspective, it has been suggested that the night-owl trait may have evolved to facilitate short-term mating, that is, sexual interactions that occur outside of committed, monogamous relationships,” lead researcher Dario Maestripieri told [UChicago News](http://news.uchicago.edu/article/2014/03/31/night-owls-unlike-early-birds-tend-be-unmarried-risk-takers). “Being active in the evening hours increased the opportunities to engage in social and mating activities, when adults were less burdened by work or child-rearing.” By the way, men who are night-owls have twice as much sex as men who are early birds. But since [sleep loss](http://time.com/30238/study-sleep-loss-can-cause-brain-damage/) might cause brain damage, you might have to choose between sex partners and brain cells. \[[Journal of Evolutionary Psychology](http://www.epjournal.net/articles/night-owl-women-are-similar-to-men-in-their-relationship-orientation-risk-taking-propensities-and-cortisol-levels-implications-for-the-adaptive-significance-and-evolution-of-eveningness/)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/46735/sleep-sex-study-university-of-chicago-night-owls/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/46735/sleep-sex-study-university-of-chicago-night-owls/"},"headline":"To Sleep or to Sleep With? 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