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”.
It’s also 5:00 somewhere. :-)
Humans can’t see well in the dark.
We do our best work during the day. This “night-owl” crap started with the advent of the light bulb.
Having worked a lot of 60 to 80 hour weeks, a good disposition is no problem.....it doesn't exist ;^)
I wonder if there are people here like my husband. He is both a morning person and a night person. He never sets an alarm and always wakes up by 5:30 at the latest. And he goes to bed around 11 or 12. Even if he went to bed at 3 a.m., he’d wake up at 5:30. He’s 51 and has been this way ever since I’ve known him—about 25 years. I’ve never known someone who needs so little sleep. And when he’s awake, he’s ALWAYS busy. He never just sits and does nothing.
Darn, got tired just reading you post. :)
~~~ NIGHTOWL PING ~~~
Perfect time for it too, ehhh? Right at midnight :)
While in the Airforce (flightline maintenance) I managed to spend almost my entire time on graveyard shift. This was when most of the actual, productive, work was done. There were no officers, only NCO's running things. (I think there may have been a lieutenant nominally on duty, but presumably the NCO's locked him an office somewhere where he couldn't do any damage.)
During daylight hours the military dictum, "if it moves, salute it, if it doesn't move, paint it," took over. Even worse than usual, since this was a headquarters base, only a couple hours drive from D.C.
The few weeks I spent on dayshift I was continually shocked by the mass idiocy and meaningless (at best, more often counterproductive) activity occurring everywhere around me. What was most horrifying was everyone pretending (or could they possibly believe?!) this was all normal.
The return to graveyard was like being released from an asylum.
Sounds familiar. All the tyrannical morning people in my office are constantly bragging about how early they got in, the inferior people who came in later, blah, blah, blah. You'd think it was a test of manhood or something - or maybe they're just insecure. And what do they do all morning with the extra time? Well, having partaken in it a few times, it appears there's lots of yapping and coffee drinking going on, and not a lot of actual work. Of course all the morning nazis leave early as well, and the later crew sticks it out and gets work done (vs. drinking coffee and talking).
It isn’t the go-getters who are voting for the rulers we have now.
Control freaks...
A title and article obviously written by a morning nazi. We're so superior, if you don't get up by 4am you're lazy and don't ever work, blah, blah, blah.
I get up at 4:20 AM to go to work.
I can haz cheezburger!
As a wise old bat once said, “Children of the night, what music THEY make”.
bttt
Bump to read in the morning, when it will just piss me off and make me drink another cup of coffee while I ignore the Morning People.
We do our best work during the day when it's light. This “night-owl” crap started with the advent of the light bulb.
There - fixed to be consistent with your first statement. And with the advent of the light bulb, half (or maybe more :) of the latent potential of the human race was unleashed - the untapped reserves of the people of the evening!
Friend of mine was a morning person. Came in around 6A and said he loved the couple of hours to work without being interrupted. I loved the couple of hours after five where I could work without being interrupted.
I get that too. I am a night person and everyone at work knows it. It doesn’t matter whether I work 10, 14, or 18 hours for 6, 10 or 20 days in a row, if I’m not at the plant at 7AM or earlier, I get crap for it. I do plant start ups. The morning is for the ridiculous meetings I have no interest in, as well as the morning mechanical and electrical stuff. Most of the work is accomplished after all of the management, electricians, and mechanics all go home, so I have free reign of the plant to fix wiring problems, adjust stuff, program and test things...6pm-1am is optimal. Even if I work until 3AM every day, its not worth crap unless I’m there at 7.
Agree to just about everything you said!
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