Posted on 07/05/2010 7:52:33 PM PDT by Huntress
We are all morning or evening people. Scientists have established that our genes dictate around half of what they call our “chronotypes” — our natural preference for certain times of the day.
Evolution has produced a range of humans capable of being alert to danger at every hour of the day. Our experience confirms these findings. We all know people who love to be at work bright and early, with a cup of coffee to hand and decisions to make, and others who would rather stumble through the day until reaching a state of relaxed clarity around dusk, when their minds are purring.
The problem is that those with the genetic gift of “morning-ness” tend to be more highly rewarded. Morning-ness is perceived as a sign of activity and zest, whereas evening-ness implies laziness and loafing. How often did we have to see David Cameron on one of his early-morning runs to get the idea that here was a leader of potency and vigour? How different would it have been if he slunk out of bed to work, then exercised at around 8pm? Could a Prime Minister be elected today who worked like Churchill, reading, writing and thinking in bed before getting out of it at noon?
History is full of great bores praising the virtues of early rising, but few have made the case for letting the day drift by until you kick into gear around happy hour.
Yet the research continues to mount, arguing that evening people have qualities which should be nurtured. They tend to be more creative, intelligent, humorous and extroverted. They are the balance to morning people, who are said to be more optimistic, proactive and conscientious.
Evening and morning are the right and left sides of our brain, the creative and the analytical, both of which we need to organise, process and advance our lives.
New research by Christoph Randler, a biology professor at the University of Education at Heidelberg, however, concludes that morning people are more likely to succeed in their careers because they are more proactive than evening people.
He surveyed 367 university students, asking them when they were most energetic and willing to change a situation. It was the morning people who were more likely to agree with statements such as “I feel in charge of making things happen” and “I spend time identifying long-range goals for myself.”
Discussing his research in the Harvard Business Review, Randler says: “When it comes to business success, morning people hold the important cards. My earlier research showed that they tend to get better grades in school, which gets them into better colleges, which then leads to better job opportunities. Morning people also anticipate problems and try to minimise them. They're proactive.”
Christopher Coleridge, the founder of V Water, the fast-growing vitamin-enhanced water brand, has a different view on the advantages of morning-ness. “Morning is always the best time to get people to make decisions because people are full of optimism in the morning. By 9am, nothing really can go wrong. You're full of hope. By 4pm, at least six annoying things will have happened, so by the evening you're slightly annoyed and frustrated. Fortunately, you then have the rest of the evening to pick yourself up.”
Earlier in his career, when Coleridge worked in advertising, he found the culture much more focused on the evenings, when conversations over drinks would lead to creative ideas. But as an entrepreneur, he found mornings were the best time to corral people's energies.
Evening-ness, he says, can be exploited by companies that are full of young people. But mornings appeal more to people with families who want a schedule which allows them to get in early and leave on time. For the growing army of part-time and freelance workers, tight schedules are just as important. “They tend to be very focused because they are moving from project to project and they don't have time to yack away.”
In certain environments, morning-ness is unavoidable. In the City, many of the most significant meetings take place before the markets open. Schools, however, force morning-ness on teenagers at a moment when everything else in their lives — their hormones, their social lives, their working patterns — is drifting towards the evening.
But can one change one's chronotype from evening to morning? Randler says “somewhat”, but it can be hard. He cites one study that showed half of school pupils were able permanently to shift the time they woke up by one hour. Chronotypes, however, do evolve over one's life. Adolescents tend towards evening-ness; from the ages of 30 to 50, people are evenly split between morning and evening; and over-50s are more morning types.
The challenge for companies, Randler says, is to accept that evening-ness is an inherent trait and, rather than battling against it, find ways to “get the best out from their night owls”.
I hate morning people with their chipper attitudes and conversation around the coffee machine. Screw them. Good night.
I used to be in business with a couple of guys who were convinced of their superiority as morning people. They would chide me for not being in the office by 8 a.m., but they didn’t see any problem with leaving every day at 2 p.m. to play golf. I was putting in more hours than they were, so I told them to spare me the lectures. I’m not in business with them any more.
I am a very early morning person. Two dogs.
Will save to read much after midnight ...
But now, before the plot can near fruition, some loose-lips is bound to spout off on his facebook page.
Damn you internet. Damn you to hell!
I grew up in a family of morning people. I never knew that other people might not be so chipper in the morning until I went to college. I used to meet my friends in the dining room of our dorm early in the morning for breakfast and I would start right in with my chatting and laughing. They used to tell me to STOP and I honestly thought they were joking. I had no idea that I was bothering them because I didn't know that some people don't function in the morning. To me, once you're awake, you're alert. I don't think I really ever realized that I really was bothering them until years later when I learned about "morning people" and "evening people."
Dogs/cats = morning-people makers!
I have always been a night owl. My most productive, most creative time to work is from 7:00PM - 2:00AM. When I worked for an IT shop, I was usually up working late, coming in late (9/10 AM), and going home late. I got so much work accomplished between 4:00PM and 7:00PM.
I’ve always been a night person, but trained myself to be an morning person. As long as no one speaks to me before 10:00 am or so, every thing is fine. However, it only takes one all-nighter to put me right back on night person status.
Come to think of it, night people aren’t even noted in the article.
It’s always morning somewhere in the world.
I love being up early in the morning...not enough to ever actually do it though.
Yeah, that’s kind of my deal too. I’m definitely a vampire but my job forces me to be a morning person. But I very easily slip back into my nocturnal rhythm. Even over the course of a three day weekend, like this weekend, I will drift back and then have to readjust. Like I’ll probably be up until 1 or 2am tonight and will regret it tomorrow morning.
lol. I hear ya. I’m a nighter too. not going to say a thing about birds and worms. :-). lots of wormies at night.
Nope, I’m a night person and don’t like to talk in the morning, and usually if I attempt to do anything productive before noon, odds are I will have to re-do it.
I think its genetic. a couple of my son's are night owls and so was my mother and one of my sisters....But I am retired and can now afford to sleep when I feel like it...
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