A recent study published in the journal, JAMA Psychiatry showed that waking up an hour before the normal time can reduce the risk of a person suffering from depression by 23 percent.
The study of 840,000 people, by researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, suggested that a person's propensity to sleep at a certain time influences depression risk.
According to the research, if someone who normally goes to bed at 1 am, goes to bed at midnight instead, and sleeps for the same number of hours, they could cut their risk by 23 percent and if they go to bed at 11 pm, they could potentially cut the same by about 40 percent.
It's unclear from the study whether those who are already early risers could benefit from getting up even earlier. But for those in the intermediate range or evening range, shifting to an earlier bedtime would likely be helpful.