Here is an interesting article on it.

http://www.divinecaroline...reFromWdgt

The Truth Behind Night Owls and Morning People
By: Brie Cadman (View Profile)

I used to work with one of my roommates and getting up in the morning and heading to our job proved to be one of the most trying times in our friendship. I was up with the alarm clock and onto my morning routine, whereas she would stay in bed well past the ringing. Convinced we would be late, I’d go in and give her some gentle nudging, which never went over well. She’d grumble and complain; sometimes she’d hurl insults like “Leave me alone,” or “I hate you,” or simply, “Die.” Offended, I’d sulk away, even more convinced of our impending tardiness. Later on, over a strong cup of coffee, she’d apologize and we’d have a good laugh, only for the same routine to be repeated the following morning.

Get Up by Your Own CLOCK
As it turns out, our sleeping preferences weren’t just due to the fact that I responded better to the alarm. The circadian rhythm, a 24.1-hour period that dictates the sleep-wake cycle, differs among people and can influence whether we are a night owl or a morning lark.

Studies have indicated that self-described morning people have shorter circadian rhythms than self-identified night owls. This means that morning people sleep through their peak hour of sleepiness, so they wake up feeling refreshed. Evening types usually wake up right around their peak hour of sleepiness, so they may have high levels of melatonin and feel groggy. No wonder it’s tough to rouse them.

Hormones and body temperature also differ between the sleep groups. Early birds have higher levels of cortisol in the morning, which may give them the perky edge. Body temperature tends to be low in the morning, peaks in the late afternoon, and decreases until bedtime. Early risers have a body temperature peak around 3:30 p.m., while night owls are hottest around 8 p.m.

Our sleep preferences are at least in part hereditary. Differences in the CLOCK gene (short for Circadian Locomotor Output Cycles Kaput), for instance, may contribute to differences in our favored times of activity. Sleep researchers at Stanford University found that people with one genotype had an increased preference for eveningness, while the other genotype had an increased preference for morningness.

Biology and Behavior
Though our sleeping and waking preferences may be partially innate, some are due to what we’re used to from childhood, the seasons, or what we’ve adapted to. This means we can—and do—change our sleeping patterns.

For instance, during the summer, when daylight hours are plenty, we may stay up later but rise earlier with the sun. In the winter, darkness and cold sets in early, making our beds all that much more alluring. It’s also harder to wake early in the winter when it’s dark out.

Age also alters our sleeping patterns. Different times in our lives lend themselves to different sleeping patterns. During the teens, for instance, hormones may change the sleep and wake patterns, and this is one explanation as to why so many teens tend to shift to a night owl schedule. (Socializing, studying, and busy schedules also contribute.) Alternatively, as people get older, work and familial demands tend to make people more morning focused, regardless of their preferences. Later in life, in the sixties and seventies, people tend to need less sleep altogether.

In Sleep as in Life?
In reality, however, few of us are true morning people who can effortlessly bound out of bed at five or six in the morning; likewise die-hard night owls are also rare. Researchers estimate that extremes comprise about 10 to 20 percent of the population, with the rest of us falling somewhere on the intermediate spectrum. And in fact, the majority of us prefer a common point in the 24-hour continuum: daytime.

So what does that say about the common belief that night people are more creative—the artist who stays up to the wee hours to paint or the musician who keeps a bedtime-at-dawn type schedule?

A few studies show that character traits may differ between the diurnal and the nocturnal. A Spanish researcher found that the time of day we prefer to be most active corresponds to certain personality traits. Early risers were more likely to be logical and analytical, and likely to use concrete information as sources of knowledge, whereas those that stayed up late were more imaginative and intuitive. Another study published in the February 2007 issue of Personality and Individual Differences determined that night owls scored better on creativity tests than did intermediary and morning people.

However, the research presents a bit of a chicken and egg conundrum: Does your internal clock shape your psychology or does your psychology help shape your sleeping patterns, and thus your internal clock? Many questions still remain and I’m sure there are many creative early risers and analytical late-nighters who would dispute the above studies.

Can an Owl See the Light?
Despite our preferences, we do live in a society where we pretty much follow an early riser’s schedule. If you are someone who has to conform to a regular work schedule, then there are some things you can do to help shift your sleep pattern into one. Many of them are tips on how to get a good’s night sleep in general. The National Sleep Foundation has the following recommendations:

Don’t bring it with you.
The bed should be used for sleeping and sex, not computing, watching TV, eating, etc. Though I read before going to bed, the NSF even recommends banning books from your boudoir.

Try to stay consistent.
Studies have shown that night owls tend to have inconsistent bed and waking times. One of the best ideas for a good’s night sleep is to try to go to bed around the same time every night. (I find this nearly impossible on the weekends.) This will not only help you sleep better, it can help shift your clock to an earlier (or later, if that’s what you want) bedtime.

Don’t pull the shades.
Our sleep patterns are affected by light, so letting the natural stuff in each morning will help you rise. Don’t put down the blinds or shades; the brightness will help you wake up. (If not totally make you mad.) In addition, when evening rolls around, dim the lights and make sure your bedroom is dark.

No midnight snacks or drinks.
The NSF recommends not eating two to three hours before going to bed and not drinking too close to bedtime either. Likewise, people who have a hard time falling asleep are generally told to limit late afternoon caffeine consumption.

Exercise regularly—it can help you fall asleep.
Exercising too close to bedtime can have the opposite effect, but generally if you finish within an hour or two of hitting the hay, you should be okay.

As it turns out, although I’m normally chipper in the a.m., I’m not a true morning person—I have to set an alarm and I like to hit snooze at least two to three times. And my late-sleeping roommate has now adjusted her schedule to her new job with early hours. And she gets up all by herself.

I am a complete and total night person. I have always struggled to get up in the mornings--ever since I can remember.

As a kid staying overnight at friend's houses--they always wanted to get up early and watch cartoons, I was like, "Who cares? "

I remember my brother waking me up at 6am on Christmas b/c my parents wouldn't let him open gifts unless I was awake. I was like, "Leave me alone. "

I was always on the cusp of being late for school. My parents would have to yell up the stairs for me to get up numerous times. I would roll out of bed with barely enough time to get ready for school. Luckily it only took 10 minutes to get there.

Staying out til 5am (or later)? No problem! (I've been doing it almost every weekend lately.) Getting up at 5am? Forget about it.



It really started to bother me when I started working in the "real world" (ie. after college) because like the article says, most of society caters to the "early riser". On the weekends, I would be so exhausted from having to get up early all week that I would sleep half the day away. When I got up, I would feel so lazy, like I had wasted time that I could have been out doing stuff. I got so sick of it that I even went to a neurologist to see if something was wrong--I had to do an overnight sleep study with all sorts of wires attached to me and, like the article says, the results were that my circadian rhythms are set differently.

I tried melatonin to make me fall asleep earlier/reset the circadian rhythyms. It did make me fall asleep much earlier (like 9pm!!), but I still didn't want to get up in the morning, so I gave up on it. Sometimes I take ambien, but I don't like to do that--I am always afraid it will work too well and I'll oversleep completely.

I follow most of the suggestions in the article (no tv, food, computer in the bedroom, I don't drink caffeine after 12pm, I have ivory curtains that let light in, I try to go to bed at the same time every night) but nothing works for me. I have to set two alarms 30 minutes before I need to get up, and even that doesn't always work. If I go to bed at 11pm (early for me), I will just lie there, tossing and turning until 1am (my usual bedtime). It's a horrible cycle, because I have to get up at 7:30am and so after 5 days of 6.5 hours of sleep/night (if I'm lucky, and I usually need 8-10), I am exhausted...and often end up sleeping more than I want to on the weekends.


I have just resigned myself to the fact that I am not a morning person.


As a night owl, New York is great because there is always something open--even in the middle of the night. But at the same time, it's an "enabler" because I end up staying out late when I really should be sleeping!


If anyone has any suggestions for becoming more of a morning person, please tell me...I would love to not have to always be rushing around/running late in the mornings because I overslept.

Anybody I talk to on here can tell you exactly what I am.

NIGHT.

I could stay up 'till the break of dawn NO PROB.

Getting up early is agony. AND I get really grumpy.

If it weren't for caffeine I don't think that I would do well in the work force.

PurpleJedi said:

Me too. Everyone at my old job knew not to really talk to me until about 10:30am-11am. My friends and parents do not call me before 11am on the weekends unless it's an emergency.

I'm definitely a morning person. Unless I'm sick, I will wake up by 7 AM and that includes weekends. I usually wake up in a good mood and I feel energetic and I'm all . It's a different story when it starts getting late. I can get very grumpy if I stay up really late.

Neither, actually...it sounds crazy, but true.

Thank you for this...I forwarded it to my boss!! She cannot understand how I can't wake up in the morning. I'm late every day!!!!

Nite person

Night, night, night, night, na-na-na-na-naaa-naaaaah NIGHT!!!!!

Depends on my insomnia. It is now 5AM and I am wide awake, but it's against my own will.

I remember biting my roommate's gentleman caller's head off. It offended him. She had to tell him that I am a total bitch in the morning.

My boyfriend just says that I am agreeable to be disagreeable in the morning.

night

I work nights (7p-7a) and sleep during the day

Both. I like to wake up early and stay up late. I like naps during the day.

AlexdeParis said:

Naps rule!

Definately a night owl,but I can stay up until 1-1:30,and still be fine with being up at 8-9 in the morning.

I'm more of a night owl, but try and be up as early as I can each day, obviously especially when working

I get up early cause I have to not because I want to
Definitely a night person

Definitely a night person.

It used to be all about the mornings, but now I've slowly evolved into a night owl.

DevotedPuppy said:

I can very much relate .

RenHoek said:

I should've mentioned that at heart I'm a morning person. That's when I'm at my best. Still, I like staying up late.

I'm a night person, but have no problems waking up at any time needed.

I don't know about this study. I think it's a matter of a routine. I have no routine, which means I am used to change, and if I need to wake up in the morning, then I just do You won't find a grumpy Ariel

Nite.. all the way..

A morning person. I feel terrible if I sleep past 9am.

JDInteractive said:

JD!!!

REDFEATHERS said:

I should be in bed in a bit. I's 8.36pm here.

JDInteractive said:

WAYYY past your bed time!

Yes we have a clock on the wall that says 8.36pm here.. well now its 8.47pm

REDFEATHERS said:

Gansamnida for telling me the time.