It turns out there may be truth to the whole “morning larks vs. night owls” thing.

I’ve invited folks out for breakfast meetings or predawn workouts. Sometimes, I get an enthusiastic response. Other times, I get “I’m not a morning person,” which, until today, made me cringe. I always assumed that reply was either a copout or an indication of some degree of laziness.

I love the mornings. When I open my eyes naturally, no matter how early, I’m always happy to be awake and begin my day. I appreciate the early morning business call and sprints before sunrise provide me energy for the day. Over the years, I’ve come into contact with likeminded individuals and those who smack the alarm clock over and over daily. From worldsciencefestival.com:

Mounting research suggests that differences in lifestyle, personality, brain functioning, and even brain physicality define two distinct chronotypes (a person’s characteristic sleep pattern), which could roughly be defined as “night owls” and “morning larks.” Morning larks, those who naturally wake up early and are energized in the pre-lunch hours, are more suited to the typical American work schedule, while the propensities of night owls put them at odds with it, leading them to suffer from chronic social jetlag.

Now that we know that this is an actual thing, I can safely classify myself a morning person. I’ve noticed that my brain doesn’t work well later in the evening. I’m simply not as sharp as I am early in the day. I’ve always chalked that up to mental fatigue. There is some research to indicate perhaps I’m more prone to this than my counterparts who only see the sun dawning right before they hit the pillow. From Scientific American:

An hour and a half after waking, early birds and night owls were equally alert and showed no difference in attention-related brain activity. But after being awake for 10 and a half hours, night owls had grown more alert, performing better on a reaction-time task requiring sustained attention and showing increased activity in brain areas linked to attention. More important, these regions included the suprachiasmatic area, which is home to the body’s circadian clock. This area sends signals to boost alertness as the pressure to sleep mounts. Unlike night owls, early risers didn’t get this late-day lift. Peigneux says faster activation of sleep pressure appears to prevent early birds from fully benefiting from the circadian signal, as evening types do.

Alternatively, it may be that I’m just dumb. Night people are smarter. From Psychology Today:

Net of a large number of social and demographic factors, more intelligent children grow up to be more nocturnal as adults than less intelligent children.  Compared to their less intelligent counterparts, more intelligent individuals go to bed later on weeknights…and on weekends…

My sleep patterns may be influencing more than just my IQ test. I might have played better baseball if I was a night owl. From CNN:

Researchers tested participants’ leg muscle strength at various points in the day…Surprisingly, morning people’s strength tends to remain constant throughout the day, but night owls have peak performance in the evening…That may be because evening people show increased motor cortex and spinal cord excitability in the evening, about 9 p.m., meaning they had maximal central nervous system…

Morning people, on the other hand, never achieve this level of central nervous system drive because the excitability of the motor cortex does not coincide with the excitability of the spinal cord. In other words, these two measures never peak at the same time… Early birds’ brains were most excitable at 9 a.m. and slowly decreased throughout the day. Researchers don’t know whether this means evening people who are athletes are necessarily better off.

Although night owls may maximize their strength in the evening, they are at a serious disadvantage if they have to compete in the morning. Morning people, on the other hand, would have the same average performance regardless of the time of the competition

My lower intelligence notwithstanding, I wouldn’t change my makeup in this regard. I’d still encourage the night people to experience the virtues of the sunrise.

Strong (in the morning) mind,

Kap