New research has suggested that 9am lectures are actually bad for your health.

Researchers in the US have discovered that not everybody is blessed with a body clock suited to an early start to the academic day, and if you’re more of a late riser, trying to prise yourself out of bed might actually be having a negative effect on your grades. The most badly affected fell back by almost half a point, in the US four-point grading system.

A similar study in a UK state school found that pushing the school day back from 8.30 to 10am saw a huge drop in illness rates, and an improvement in grades. Sleep psychologist Dr Guy Meadows has said that British schoolchildren are the most sleep deprived in the world.

Research has yet to confirm that Cambridge students are the most sleep deprived undergraduates in the world, but this is definitely what we all tell ourselves. But actually, if you’re more of a night owl than an early bird, it might not be the FOMO-induced noctural socialising in the basement of Waterstones that is causing your fatigue, but actually to the 9ams one must attend in order to get a degree. Although, if your body clock is wired the other way around, then the opposite will be true, so basically no one is a winner here.

Given that Cambridge still starts the week on a Thursday, its unlikely that we can expect any timetable reshuffles any time soon, but the moral of this story is that with exam term coming up, there are no lectures (or Friday life), so don’t feel bad if you need a lie in. It’s not you, it’s your body clock. Just don’t become the next personified anecdote of sleeping through an exam.