Why trying to be a morning person is pointless

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Stop bullying yourself.

We constantly hear motivating statements: to be successful, you need to get up early. Apple CEO Tim Cook gets up at 3:45 am. Fiat car company executive Sergio Marchionne got up at 3:30. Richard Branson, founder of Virgin, wakes up at 5:45 am.

Against the background of such tough guys, poor fellows who hardly get up at 10, or even lie in bed until noon, do not look very advantageous. But they can be encouraged: science believes that being an owl is natural. And there is no need to worry about this.

Each chronotype has its own advantages

Research on the Relationship between chronotype and temperament / character among university students shows that morning larks are more assertive, independent, and pleasant to talk to. They set themselves lofty goals Are achievement goals different among morning and evening-type adolescents?, plan better Morning is tomorrow, evening is today: Relationships between chronotype and time perspective their life and are more positive Happy as a lark: Morning ‑ type younger and older adults are higher in positive affect. Compared to owls, they are less prone to depression, alcohol abuse and smoking. Genome-wide association analyzes of chronotype in 697, 828 individuals provides insights into circadian rhythms.

But while those who get up earlier in the morning are better at learning academics, their opposites, owls, have stronger memories, faster processing speeds, and better cognitive abilities (even in the morning!). This is confirmed by Chronotype, cognitive abilities and academic achievement: A meta-analytic investigation by scientists from the University of Trier. Owls are more open to Chronotype, Sleep Behavior and the Big Five Personality Factors for new experiences and are eager to seek adventure Relationship between morningness – eveningness and temperament and character dimensions in adolescents. They tend to be more creative Creativity and habitual sleep patterns among art and social sciences undergraduate students (although this is still a controversial issue of Effects of Chronotype and Synchrony / Asynchrony on Creativity).

And contrary to the statement of Benjamin Franklin "Who goes to bed early and gets up early, becomes healthy, rich and wise" and the prevailing stereotypes, statistics from Larks and owls and health, wealth and wisdom demonstrate that owls, in principle, are as healthy and smart as larks. And even a little richer!

You won't be able to change your chronotype

You still can't get rid of the thought that by becoming a morning person will increase your chances of becoming the CEO of a large firm? Don't rush to set your alarm for five in the morning. Katharina Wolfe, a biologist at the University of Oxford who studies chronobiology and sleep, states:

If people stick to their natural sleep patterns, they feel much better. They are much more productive, and their mental abilities are higher. Regime shifting can even be harmful.

Katharina Wolfe

The owl's body, waking up earlier than its usual time, continues to produce melatonin. This can lead to weight problems:

By forcibly changing your sleep pattern, you can provoke such negative consequences as impaired sensitivity of the body to insulin and glucose, which causes obesity.

Katharina Wolfe

Matthew Walker, director of the Center for Human Sleep Science at the University of California at Berkeley, argues that the chronotype is independent of your will. In his book Why We Sleep, he writes:

Owls are criticized (usually by early risers), mistakenly believing that such a schedule is their own choice, made due to lack of organization. And if they were more disciplined, they would easily wake up in the early morning. However, for owls, this is not at all a matter of free choice. They are tied to such a schedule by a rigid circuit of their own DNA, so this is not their deliberate mistake, but rather genetic fate.

Matthew Walker

Walker's words are supported by a number of studies. The chronotype we have is genetically laid down. Our internal clock is regulated by the genes PER1 Gene distinguishes early birds from night owls and helps predict time of death, PER3 Why some of us are early risers, and ABCC9 A genetic factor that regulates how long we sleep, and they are different in owls and larks. For example, owls need more sleep than larks because of the PER3 gene.

When a person wakes up by an effort of will before the usual time, the prefrontal cortex of the brain, which controls complex thought processes and logical reasoning, “remains in a disconnected, or 'autonomous' state,” Walker writes. It is like a cold car engine: it will not work until it warms up. Therefore, an owl, having pierced its eyes at dawn, will think worse and move more slowly than a lark.

Michael Breus, a clinical psychologist and specialist for the American Council of Somnology, in his book Always On Time, argues that it is pointless to fight your nature:

I am often asked the question: is it possible to change your chronotype? The chronotype is determined by genetics. It's in your DNA. It is impossible to change it, as well as eye color and height. You can only move your usual activities by one or two hours within your biological time.

Michael Breus

The chronotype can change From Lark to Owl: developmental changes in morningness ‑ eveningness from new ‑ borns to early adulthood by itself, with age. Children usually get up quite early, but the regime changes during adolescence. From the age of 21 to 65, the chronotype will settle down, and you will become an owl or a lark. After 65, the biorhythms change again: older people tend to get up early, as in childhood. It is impossible to influence these processes. It only remains to adapt.

Trying to change your chronotype is not only in vain, but also useless. As the study Is the shift in chronotype associated with an alteration in well-being found? scientists from the University of Warsaw, when the owls tried to rise as early as possible, it did not improve their mood and overall satisfaction with life.

So all sorts of business coaches and coaches say, "Get up at 5 am and be the second Tim Cook," are overly optimistic.

So learn to live with it

As Matthew Walker states in Why We Sleep, when people lived in caves, the division into owls and larks was very helpful for survival. When most of the group was asleep, the owls stayed awake and guarded their comrades. If the community was in danger (for example, a saber-toothed tiger accidentally peeking into the light), the night owls could raise the rest of the alarm.

Much has changed since then. The development of agriculture, and then the industrial revolution, forced people to get up at sunrise. We now live in a lark-oriented world. To keep up with school, university, work, you need to get up early. And those who rise at dawn are considered ambitious and promising, and those who like to sleep are considered lazy.

But this is not true. Among the owls, there are also enough successful people.

The most productive programmers I know, as well as writers and other creatives, tend to work best when others are asleep because they face the least amount of distractions.

Tim Ferris writer, hacker, investor

Aaron Levy, CEO of Box, go to bed at 3 AM and get up at 10 AM. And then he walks in bed for another half hour, reading e-mail. Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit, is 2am and gets up around 10am (or when his cat wakes him up). BuzzFeed CEO John Peretti, as well as writers James Joyce, Gertrude Stein and Gustave Flaubert are also called night owls.

A study on Homeostatic Sleep Pressure and Responses to Sustained Attention in the Suprachiasmatic Area at the University of Liège in Belgium found that owls stay awake much longer than larks do. This means they can do things that require concentration for longer and not get tired. After 10.5 hours without sleep, the larks involved in the test were already nodding, and the owls continued to work productively.

And owls are also gifted with high intelligence Morningness – eveningness and intelligence: early to bed, early to rise will likely make you anything but wise!, their daytime sleep is not harmed by caffeine Modeling caffeine concentrations with the Stanford Caffeine Questionnaire: preliminary evidence for an interaction of chronotype with the effects of caffeine on sleep, they have great potential Chronotype Influences Diurnal Variations in the Excitability of the Human Motor Cortex and the Ability to Generate Torque during a Maximum Voluntary Contraction in sports (if they train in the evenings), and especially in baseball Sleep type predicts day and night batting averages of Major League Baseball players. Yes, and owls have more sex. Eveningness is related to men’s mating success. So, as you can see, being a night owl is not so bad.

It always seems that someone else's chronotype is better. But instead of dreaming about it, take a closer look at your own bio-temporal peculiarities.

Michael Breus

Michael Breus and fellow neurologist Jeffrey Durmer recommend the following to owls:

• Find flexible work. Or become a freelancer and work remotely.
• Sleep 7-8 hours. This also applies to larks, in general.
• Eat at least 2-3 hours before going to bed.
• Find the right time to exercise. Owls are most physically active in the evenings.
• Make time for your friends. Many owls are prone to loneliness, not because of introversion, but because when they are awake, all of their buddies are already in bed. Set a time frame for when you can meet people you know. Or chat with other owls.
• Go to bed only when you feel tired. Not earlier. Limit your exposure to light, especially from a smartphone or tablet. “Light is actually a more powerful wake-up factor than caffeine,” says Durmer.

Adapt to your chronotype and see that your life is no worse than those who wake up at 4 in the morning.