Three centuries ago Benjamin Franklin quoted - Early to bed, early to rise keeps a man healthy, wealthy and wise. Now a new study has proved it right. It was found that people who wake up early are slimmer, happier and healthier than those who get up later in the day.

Researchers at the Roehampton University concluded that those who fight the urge to ignore the alarm clock complete morning chores faster pack their children off to school earlier and thrive in the workplace. However, night owls have a higher chance of feeling depressed or stressed and becoming overweight.

For the survey 1,068 adults were quizzed about their health and sleeping habits and found that morning people were out of bed by 6.58am on average, while ‘evening people’ waited until 8.54am to start their day.

However at the weekends both of them enjoyed about an extra hour under the covers, with early risers waiting until 7.47am to get up and night owls lying in until 10.09am.

There are morning people and evening people, and morning people tend to be healthier and happier as well as having lower body mass indices the Telegraph quoted Dr Joerg Huber as telling a British Psychological Society conference. These effects are small - and in some occupations and situations there are clearly advantages to being an evening person - but they are highly statistically significant. If you are an evening type, you are not necessarily a miserable person but there is some difference.

The survey also found that people who watch a lot of television are more likely to skip breakfast.