Since the coronavirus crisis started, my sleeping/wakeup routine has changed slightly. Normally, I am a night owl and struggled to be at the gym (a 5-minute drive) on Mondays and Wednesdays for “Walking to the Oldies,” an 8:30 a.m. one-hour program of walking around an indoor basketball court while listening to oldies music. Now, I try to start my morning walk around 7:30 or 8:00 in order to avoid later times when the walking trails are more crowded and to take advantage of cooler weather. Plus, I also try to shop for groceries early in the morning which is less crowded and is only for seniors at some stores. So, my natural night owl proclivities are being challenged which made me wonder about the differences between “morning people” or larks and night owls.
I can guarantee you that the people I see in their bathrobes and slippers walking their dogs in the morning are NOT morning people. And the people I heard at 11 p.m. laughing and talking from a 4th floor balcony must be night owls, but very stupid ones for having a party and congregating in a small apartment with drinks in hand. I am more understanding of the college students in Florida during spring break who were determined to party regardless of the worldwide pandemic. Their teenage brains harbor irrational logic naturally. But, the people on the balcony were young professionals who are supposed to have more sense.
According to the Tanya Lewis article “This One Factor May Explain Why You’re a Morning Person or a Night Owl” in Science Alert, most living things live by natural 24-hour cycles called circadian rhythms. These internal clocks determine whether you have a preference for waking up early or staying up late – something scientists call your chronotype.
Per BBC reporter Amanda Ruggeri some 50% of the population isn’t really morning- or evening-oriented, but somewhere in the middle. One in four of us, though, are night owls. There is a peak shift toward being awake more at night at around age 20 and a change back toward morning wakefulness at around age 50. Up to 47% of it is inherited, which means if you want to know why you pop up at dawn each day (or never do), you should probably look at your parents.
Larks are happier
In a 2012 paper, two University of Toronto psychologists note that morning people had higher positive affect across the board, compared with night people. “Waking up early may indeed make one happy as a lark,” the researchers conclude in the journal Emotion.
According to Ruggeri, compared with morning people, people who self-identified as night owls were almost twice as likely to suffer from insomnia and about two-thirds as likely to have been diagnosed with sleep apnea, a sleep disorder that causes you to repeatedly stop breathing while you sleep. By contrast, self-described morning people were less likely to need more than eight hours of sleep, to sleep soundly, to sweat while sleeping, or to sleepwalk. Self-reported night owls were also more likely to have depression.
Larks are persistent, cooperative, agreeable, conscientious and proactive
In a 2011 paper notable for focusing on adolescents, Christoph Randler of Heidelberg University of Education in Germany and a colleague claim larks scored higher than owls in terms of persistence and cooperation. These positive traits among morning types built on other personality work from Randler showing that larks tended to be more agreeable and conscientious, and that they tend to be more proactive than owls.
Larks procrastinate less than owls
A 1997 study led by veteran delay researcher Joseph Ferrari of DePaul University found that trait procrastinators called themselves “night” people. Being a night owl was associated with avoiding a task that needed to be completed, the study team (which included Ferrari) reported in the Journal of General Psychology.
Owls are wealthier and smarter
Per the Eric Jaffe article “Morning People vs. Night Owls: 9 Insights Backed by Science” in Fast Company, night owls had larger incomes than did morning larks per a pair of epidemiologists at Southampton University in England in a 1998 paper for BMJ.
In a 1999 issue of Personality and Individual Differences, psychologist Richard D. Roberts of the University of Sydney and Patrick C. Kyllonen of the Air Force Research Lab state that evening-types are more likely to have higher intelligence scores.
Owls have better memory, seek new experiences and are more prolific lovers
According to BBC reporter Amanda Rugger, night owls tend to perform better on measures of memory, processing speed and cognitive ability, even when they have to perform those tasks in the morning. Night-time people are also more open to new experiences and seek them out more. In a 2012 paper in Personality and Individual Differences, Christoph Randler of Heidelberg University of Education in Germany determined that evening types also proved to be prolific lovers.
Owls play baseball better
In a 2011 supplemental issue of Sleep, a research team that included a representative of the San Francisco Giants found that when morning types played in early games (with start times before 2 p.m.), they batted a respectable .267. But when evening types played in night games (with first pitch after 8 p.m.), they hit a dazzling .306 as a group — nearly 30 points higher. It’s worth noting owls suffered more than larks when game-time conflicted with chronotype: morning players hit eight points lower in night games (.259), but evening players hit 54 points lower in day games (.252).
Famous early risers
Apple CEO Tim Cook starts his mornings at 3:45 a.m., and Oprah Winfrey, Michelle Obama and Indra Nooyi have been known to rise at the crack of dawn. Thomas Edison, Napoleon and Ernest Hemingway were also morning larks. Bill McNabb, chairman of the Vanguard Group, wakes up around 5 and gets to his desk by 6:15 a.m. General Stanley McChrystal, retired U.S. Army four-star general, wakes at 4 a.m. and doesn’t eat until dinner. L. Rafael Reif, President of M.I.T., gets up at 5 a.m. and rarely skips breakfast. Scott Adams, creator of “Dilbert,” wakes at 4 a.m. to be his smartest.
Famous night owls
Famous night owls include former President Barack Obama, Buzzfeed CEO Jonah Peretti,
evolutionist Charles Darwin, former British prime minister Winston Churchill, photographer Fran Lebowitz and psychologist Carl Jung, along with authors James Joyce, Marcel Proust, Gertrude Stein, J.R.R. Tolkien and Gustave Flaubert and performers Keith Richards, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, John Travolta, Prince and Christina Aguilera.
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