Why 'waking up early' has no connection to health and wellbeing for the majority. Early awakenings against biology: a narrative review of peer-reviewed evidence (2011-2026)

The social structure of modern society is built around early awakenings, particularly family life with children. Peer-reviewed data from the past fifteen years put this norm into question. In this narrative review I bring together six lines of chronobiological, endocrinological, gendered, and sociological research supporting a single thesis: systematic early awakening against the biological chronotype of the majority of the population constitutes a public health problem, not an individual failure of discipline. I examine: (1) the genetic determination of chronotype based on GWAS data from 697,828 participants; (2) the phenomenon of social jetlag and its association with obesity, depression, and metabolic dysregulation; (3) the mechanism of the cortisol awakening response, tied to the moment of awakening rather than absolute clock time; (4) the gendered asymmetry of biological sensitivity to sleep loss; (5) the uneven distribution of morning and nighttime parental caregiving, falling disproportionately on mothers; (6) the phenomenon of revenge bedtime procrastination as a compensatory pattern that aggravates chronic sleep loss in working mothers. The cumulative evidence justifies the need for systemic social change. Above all, a revision of school and work start times, rather than individual strategies for HPA-axis adaptation. I propose five directions for further research and public health policy interventions.