Benjamin Franklin may have believed that “early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise” but it appears he was wrong. At least that’s what researchers who have investigated the correlation between intelligence and circadian type (morning person or night owl). It appears that those who label themselves as night owls score higher on tests of intelligence.
I’m particularly excited about this study because I happen to be blogging this post at 3am! In fact, while my dad always taught me that “nothing good happens after midnight,” I actually believe nothing good happens before 10am. I prefer to answer emails and catch up on news/blogs until the coffee has fully kicked in around mid-morning, and my creativity and productivity seem to peak between midnight and 3am (hence the blog post). I like to say that I perfected vampire hours before vampires were cool!
I would love to see a follow-up study on the correlation between circadian type and critical thinking or decision making. While intelligence and critical thinking are correlated, it would be interesting to see if the same results hold true for decision making. Additionally, if night owls have higher intelligence, and are likely to perform better in the afternoon or evening, does that provide a strong argument for adjusting typical 8am-5pm work schedules to ensure maximum productivity?
The implications of this study are far reaching. For example, the high school in my neighborhood starts at 7:15am and releases students at 2:20pm. Students with a natural night owl circadian type may be more intelligent but not perform to the peak of their ability in those early hours. Should students who are night owls be allowed to take tests in the afternoon instead of in the morning?
Are you a night owl or early riser? What does this study mean to you?
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I would love it if schools were open @ night. I am a night owl – I agree with you that 10:00 p.m. should be the first hour of the day. I teach o.k. during the day, but I would be fabulous if I could teach @ night!
Linda- Thank you for commenting! I used to teach Organizational Behavior to college students. I had a 11am class and a 6:30pm class. I was convinced that semester after semester I always had more engaged students in the evening class. However, now I think they were just responding to my increased energy level. I wonder if night owls are more likely to enroll in online courses so they can work in the middle of the night when they are most likely to be energized.
I’m a short-sleeper, one of the few who needs only 4-5 hours of sleep a night. Aditionally, I’m a night owl where my most creative, enlightened thinking occurs after 10pm frequently as I’m trying to wind down with a hot shower. As a result, I’ve taken to keeping children’s bath crayons in the shower so I can scribble down ideas without having to interrupt my shower. The aftermath of these late-blossoming ideas often keeps me up well past my normal bedtime of 1am. My career is in IT and I can work from home implementing these ideas as I keep flexible hours.
I couldn’t support such a broad-ranging accomodation of night owls – especially at the student level for the simple fact that the rest of the world [generalizing] won’t accomodate them after graduation; and as such they need to learn to adapt to the rhythms of their career choices. I’m fortunate to have worked my way into an environment and a trust level with my employer that as long as my deliverables are met; they don’t care about the time of day that I work.
Ann- I really envy short sleepers! I typically sleep 4 hours at night then need an evening nap. Then I completely crash and sleep 12 hours each day on the weekend. It’s not exactly ideal, but it works for now. I love the bath crayon idea! I’m putting that on the shopping list now! You have to be ready when inspiration strikes! That’s really wonderful that you have an employer who is flexible with your ideal work schedule. I hope more organizations will move in that direction where possible, but I agree that many jobs just can’t accommodate all circadian types. It just isn’t realistic, but it’s a good argument for each person thinking about their sleep cycle when selecting a career.
What about people who’s circadian clock is set for 30 hours instead of 24? If I have no commitments for a full week or two, as with a “stay-cation” and let my body and brain do what it will with my wake/sleep schedule, I notice a shift into a 30-hour cycle, and still with only about 6 or 7 hours of sleep at a time.
But, I also have ADHD, and one of my major “Executive Function Defects/Deficits” is Time Management. It is something that has always gotten me into trouble, and has almost cost me my job until it was properly identified as part of my ADHD. Even today, I still have no less than 5 alarms on my cell phone to get me going in the morning so that I can possibly get to work by 10AM.
If I could have gone to School at the same 10AM-5PM period, I’d have been more alert and possibly more responsive to their teaching. LOL There are currently online high schools that are designed for night owls, and I know one student of an online school. He’s also very intelligent… the online school lets him work at his own pace and because of this, he may graduate early by a full year or two.
p.s. My 10AM-7PM shift at work is a balance between what the office would prefer and what I would prefer. I’d be in at noon if they let me. But considering we have offices from Rhode Island to Arizona and the difference in time zones, I’d miss all of the conference calls instead of just some of them. LOL
When the job wouldn’t fit my Night owl tendencies and I couldn’t find another that was better suited, I did work a 6AM shift, for years at a time, but that was how I almost lost the best job of my life.. Just a few minutes late clocking in for the 6AM shift, often enough that if I’d have been late 2 more times, I’d have been canned.
That was my current employer, back when I was hourly instead of salary. Thank goodness they really didn’t want to lose me and found a way for me to get promoted into the salary position, which also allowed me to blossom into the technical writer and process auditor that I am now. “Quality Assurance Specialist” fits better than “Call Center Phone Rep” anyway. LOL
I’m a Graphic design student, classes start for me at 9am and finish at 4pm, so I generally wake at 8am, have a full day of classes, go home and sleep from 4:30 to 6:30 pm, then I have a late night till about 3am. Thats my general schedule.
But now that I’m in my study break thats out the window, I wake up at 4:30pm, sometimes have a nap at 10pm, and go to sleep at 6 or 7 am.
I love my nocturnal life and hope I can get a job that is ok with that once I graduate.