Australians go to bed the earliest

Australians are the worlds earliest population to call it a night, according to a new study.

The average Aussie goes to bed just after 10:45pm, which is more than an hour earlier than the late night Spaniards, the University of Michigan's global sleep pattern research found.

As well as the early nights, Australians are the first to rise along with Americans who both get up just after 6:45am.

The United Arab of Emirates population liked a sleep in, being the last to rise just before 7:45am.

The Dutch got the most sleep with eight hours and 12 minutes, while those in Singapore and Japan were the most deprived, only catching seven hours and 24 minutes of shut eye.

The study determined natural sleep clocks are easily overridden by social and cultural demands which led to later bedtimes.

Sleep is usually lost as it found going to bed later did not necessarily correlate to waking up later.

"We found a strong wake-time effect from users' biological clocks – not just their alarm clocks," University of Michigan professor, and co-author of the study, Daniel Forger said.

"These findings help to quantify the tug-of-war between solar and social timekeeping."

The study also found middle-aged men tend to get 30 minutes less sleep than women.

It also found more exposure to natural sunlight tended to mean an earlier bed time than those who got more artificial light.

The university examined the sleep patterns of 5400 people in 100 countries via a free smartphone app designed to reduce jetlag.