The Morning Myth Read online

In a study done by the U.S. Air Force (shocker!), it was shown that recruits who are late risers are better at lateral thinking than morning types.

  A University of Southampton study found that night owls have higher incomes and higher standards of living overall.

  Professor Jim Horne, of Loughborough University, said, “Evening types tend to be the more extrovert creative types, the poets, artists, and inventors, while the morning types are the deducers, as often seen with civil servants and accountants.”

  He continues, “We have looked at morning and evening types and we found that personalities tended to be different. Evening types were more social, more people-oriented.”

  Now bear with me here, because I’m about to tie my personal life experience and observations of others into why night owls make more money on the whole.

  I happen to have a younger sister, along with a much younger half-brother and half-sister.

  As I watched them go through school, the one bit of advice I kept giving was this: “School doesn’t matter once you’re in the real world. All that matters are social skills. If you can be an outgoing, extroverted, people-oriented person, you will win in this world. That’s all there is to success.”

  Looking back on my own life, the major changes from struggle to success occurred as I got rid of my old introverted self and became an outgoing extrovert, always eager to socialize and meet new people.

  And—drumroll, please—that’s how business gets done and that’s how money is made.

  So, while this isn’t a controlled research study, if there’s one thing I’ve learned in life, it’s that social skills and the ability to be a people person are the true “secrets” to success, and as you now know, night owls possess these skills to an exponentially greater degree than our early riser counterparts, who tend to be introverted and socially awkward as a whole.

  Morning Madness

  Society still pushes Ben Franklin’s maxim to be early to bed and early to rise; however, the facts and the science contradict that maxim. In the real world, night owls make more money, have higher standards of living, more access to cars, more social success … more of everything, really. So remember the British study stating that there is no justification for early risers to affect moral superiority, and tell them to put up or shut up!

  CHAPTER 8

  Night Owls Are Smarter Than Early Risers: Night Owls Show Overall Higher Intelligence Than Morning People

  You now know that night owls make more money and are more successful, so it’s only logical to assume that they must be more intelligent.

  If you assumed so, you are correct. Studies show that night owls are more intelligent, have higher cognitive ability, are more creative, and much more.

  Satoshi Kanazawa, in an article in Psychology Today dated May 9, 2010, posits a hypothesis based on observation of certain cultures who rise and go to sleep each day in rhythm with the sun, versus those who stay up past dark and use those hours productively. To quote the article,

  Daily activities begin early in a Yanomamö village, and despite the inevitable last-minute visiting, things are usually quiet in the village by the time it is dark. Among the Maasai in Kenya, the day begins about 6 a.m., when the sun is about to rise, and most evenings are spent quietly chatting with family members indoors. If the moon is full then it is possible to see almost as well as during the day, and people take advantage of the light by staying up late and socializing a great deal. Among the Ache in Paraguay, after cooking and consuming food, evening is often the time of singing and joking. Eventually band members drift off to sleep, with one or two nuclear families around each fire.”

  He goes on to note that there is no indication in any of the enthographic evidence that any sustained nocturnal activities occur in traditional societies, and that they must have also limited daily activities to daylight, and that nighttime activities are likely evolutionarily novel, and therefore that more intelligent individuals are more likely to be nocturnal.

  Looking at modern society to confirm this hypothesis, an analysis of a very large sample of young American children was taken, across a broad number of social and demographic factors.

  Conclusion? The numbers show that the most intelligent children grow up to be far more nocturnal as adults than their less intelligent counterparts. More intelligent individuals go to bed later on weeknights regardless of what time they have to get up, and get up later all days when possible.

  Children with an average IQ of 75, considered “very dull,” went to bed at 11:41 p.m. on weeknights in early adulthood while those who had a childhood IQ of over 125, or “very bright,” go to bed as young adults at 12:29 a.m. on average.

  Oh, and the sample size in this study consisted of 20,745 subjects. That large a sample virtually guarantees that any coincidental or other outside effect on the numbers will not occur.

  More Science to Back Night Owls’ Superior Intelligence

  In a study published in Elsevier’s Personality and Individual Differences, Satoshi Kanazawa and Kaja Perina sought to determine where differences in individual values, preferences, and, yes, intelligence come from.

  Before getting into this, here’s the abstract of their study, summed up nicely:

  The origin of values and preferences is an unresolved theoretical problem in social and behavioral sciences. The Savanna–IQ Interaction Hypothesis suggests that more intelligent individuals are more likely to acquire and espouse evolutionarily novel values and preferences than less intelligent individuals, but general intelligence has no effect on the acquisition and espousal of evolutionarily familiar values and preferences. Individuals can often choose their values and preferences even in the face of genetic predisposition. One example of such choice within genetic constraint is circadian rhythms. Survey of ethnographies of traditional societies suggests that nocturnal activities were probably rare in the ancestral environment, so the Hypothesis would predict that more intelligent individuals are more likely to be nocturnal than less intelligent individuals. The analysis of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) confirms the prediction.

  In plain English, what they’re saying is that genetic predisposition programs humans to wake with daylight and drift off to sleep with nightfall; however, some humans have bucked that and pushed through to be awake and productive after dark, and the more intelligent individuals are more likely to be nocturnal (night owls).

  This particular study is the one that Mr. Kanazawa’s article in Psychology Today was based on. To expand on what’s already been stated, the study authors state that, while there is certainly a genetic component to circadian rhythms, there is room for individual choices and decisions, suggesting that above-average IQ in children is what drives them to fight to go to bed later, and ultimately fall asleep later than their less intelligent counterparts.

  So, when you’re fighting one or more of your kids to get to bed on time, just think, the one who drives you the most crazy is probably the smartest and will accomplish the most in life! See, there’s a silver lining to everything! (And yes, I have one of those …)

  To conclude: “Childhood IQ significantly increases nocturnal behavior in early adulthood. More intelligent children are more likely to grow up to be nocturnal adults who go to bed late and wake up late on both weekdays and weekends.”

  Night Owl MBA Students Achieve Higher Test Scores

  Another study published in Elsevier’s medical journal Intelligence, by researchers Davide Piffer, Davide Ponzi, Paola Sapienza, Luigi Zingales, and Dario Maestripieri, shows that MBA students who are night owls had significantly higher GMAT scores than their early riser counterparts.

  Here’s the study’s abstract:

  Individuals with a propensity to wake up early in the morning (“early-morning” types) and those who like to stay up late at night (“night owls”) often exhibit distinctive psychological and physiological profiles. Previous research has shown that night owls score higher than early-morning people on dif
ferent measures of cognitive ability and academic achievement. Baseline cortisol is one of the physiological variables associated with variation in chronotype and cognitive function. In this study we investigated whether a relationship between chronotype and performance is present also in the high range of intellectual ability and academic achievement, namely, among graduate students in a top-ranked MBA program in the US. In addition, we measured baseline cortisol levels in saliva samples collected in the early afternoon and analyzed them in relation to chronotype and GMAT scores. As predicted, GMAT scores were significantly higher among night owls than among early-morning types, regardless of sex. GMAT scores were also significantly higher among men than women, regardless of chronotype. Morningness eveningness was not significantly associated with variation in sleep amount or in undergraduate or graduate GPA scores, suggesting that the association between eveningness and high GMAT scores was not due to differences in study effort or skills. Sex, chronotype and baseline cortisol jointly accounted for 14% of the total variance in GMAT scores; baseline cortisol, however, did not mediate the effect of chronotype on GMAT scores. Consistent with the results of previous research, our study shows that the effects of chronotype on cognitive ability and academic performance are relatively small but detectable even among high-achieving individuals. The mechanism linking eveningness and high cognitive function remains unclear but the role of personality traits and neuroendocrine function warrants further investigation.”

  In discussing possible reasons for night owls being smarter than early risers, the authors state:

  According to the training effects hypothesis, evening types have a frequent need to overcome the inconveniences of everyday life caused by conflicts with social demands, (such as the daily schedules of academic institutions that are generally characterized by early starting hours) and this need would in turn lead evening types to develop higher problem solving abilities (Preckel et al., 2011). Another explanation suggests that the association between eveningness and greater cognitive function is a by-product of the fact that night owls generally sleep less than EM [early morning] types, and that more intelligent people regardless of chronotype tend to require less sleep due to more efficient neuronal recovery during night-time. (Geiger, Achermann, & Oskar, 2010). Finally, it has also been suggested that eveningness may have evolved by sexual selection, because being active late in the evening provided more opportunities for reproduction through short-term mating (Piffer, 2010); in this view, the greater intelligence of night owls might be related to their mating intelligence.”

  Or, to put it bluntly, night owls get laid way more than morning people. Take that!

  Regardless of which reason or hypothesis seems the most reasonable, there is no denying the fact that night owls are simply flat-out smarter and have higher intelligence than early riser counterparts. There is simply too much evidence to support that claim to even consider anything to the contrary.

  Want to Get Ahead? Be a Night Owl!

  While society loves to typecast us night owls as “unproductive” or “slothful,” a 2009 study conducted by researchers at the University of Liege in Belgium monitored 15 extreme night owls and 16 extreme early birds in a lab. The volunteers had their brain activity measured an hour and a half after waking up, and again 10.5 hours after waking up.

  In the morning test, the early birds and the night owls performed nearly the same in their responsiveness. But there was a gap at the 10.5-hour mark, at which time the night owls showed faster reaction times and were far more awake than the early birds.

  This goes back to what I told you about friends who have been following a program of getting up at four or five o’clock in the morning in order to experience “extreme productivity,” or whatever they call it. And if you remember, I had mentioned that these people were all morning types to begin with; they merely moved their waking time one to two hours earlier.

  Without fail, they cannot last beyond two to three o’clock in the afternoon. On the phone you can hear them endlessly yawning, and on a web conference you can see the raccoon bags under their eyes and the general look of fatigue and sleep deprivation that is so easy to recognize nowadays, when so many people have it.

  In many cases they’ve even told me that they’re done for the day and need to wind down. At 2:00 p.m.! I mean, seriously, I’m just getting warmed up and beginning to hit my daytime peak at two o’clock.

  Being mentally alert has a lot of uses, for example, having situational awareness on the road and therefore avoiding automobile accidents. However, for our purposes in this chapter, being mentally alert translates into having higher cognitive function and higher mental functioning. In other words, even if we’re born equal, the night owl still comes out ahead of the early riser in the brainpower department.

  Night Owls Are More Flexible with Work

  Being able to “go the distance,” as I like to put it, gives night owls yet another huge advantage in life over their early bird colleagues: Even though night owls must frequently adjust to an early morning schedule for work or school, they still thrive in those situations. And on top of that, night owls can adopt extended hours later in their day, or in other words, night owls not only work more effectively than early risers in the morning but can continue to do so all the way through to night!

  This chapter obviously ties into the previous one because having higher intelligence will naturally equate to being more successful and enjoying a higher income. There are exceptions, of course, and there’s little arguing that persistence alone has been the key to success for many. However, all else being equal, the night owls still come out on top.

  Did you know that 37% of all automobile accidents are caused by drowsy motorists, according to a University of Pennsylvania study? This ties back into the correlation between morning rush hour, excessive drowsiness, and the aggressiveness that can come from caffeinism. Even minor sleep deficits can have huge effects. According to Juliette Franco of Stanford University, sleep loss generates a proportionate need for “sleep rebound.”

  Famous, Intelligent, Successful Night Owls

  Want more proof that night owls have more brainpower? Here are some examples, from both the present and the past:

  Alexis Ohanian, founder of Reddit: He told Fast Company he goes to bed around 2 a.m. and tries to get up by 10 a.m. Reddit is currently valued at approximately $1.8 billion, and Ohanian has made it onto the Forbes 30 Under 30 list two years in a row.

  Elon Musk, founder of Tesla: Musk says he goes to bed around 1 a.m. He was a multimillionaire in his 20s, eventually became a billionaire, and Tesla now generates over $7 billion in annual revenue.

  Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States: President Obama, during his eight years in the White House, went to bed around 1 a.m. each night and arrived for work in the Oval Office at 9 a.m. Regardless of your views on his politics and his presidency, few can argue the fact that merely getting to the Oval Office in the first place is perhaps the ultimate measure of success in American society, and he did it as a night owl.

  Dharmesh Shah, founder of HubSpot: He says he goes to bed between 1:30 and 2:00 a.m. and sleeps around seven hours. He avoids early meetings and calls (as do I) and does not schedule anything before 11:00 a.m. Hubspot rakes in around $90 million in annual revenue.

  Winston Churchill, former Prime Minister of the UK: Winston Churchill gets a lot of credit for the Allies prevailing in World War II, and rightly so. However, what most people don’t know is that he was an extreme night owl, and in modern terms would likely be diagnosed has having delayed sleep phase disorder. Churchill got up at 11:00 a.m. and started his workday at noon, even during the war. His staffers became accustomed to having meetings with the Prime Minister in the bath, with the rest of the cabinet spread around the bathroom to take part, and they had to work for as long as he did every day.

  Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook: Routinely stays up until 6:00 a.m. Enough said. (Unsurprisingly, the first thing he does upon waking is
check Facebook.)

  There are many more, for example, J.R.R. Tolkien, Buzzfeed CEO Jonah Peretti, Box CEO Aaron Levie, Genius cofounder Tom Lehman, and more … the list could go on forever.

  Morning Madness

  Early rising doesn’t make you smarter, it literally makes you dumber! Night owls consistently show higher intelligence and cognitive ability, at all hours of the day, over early risers. In addition, a disproportionate number of the people we consider highly successful happen to be night owls.

  CHAPTER 9

  Night Owls Are More Productive: Want to Get More Done? Stay Up Later!

  Hearing the words “early to rise” or being admonished by some “wiser” member of society—usually someone older who merely claims to also be wiser by default—to get up earlier and rise with the sun, or whatever the nonsense-du-jour happens to be, I cringe.

  There’s nothing more off-putting to a night owl than to have it in the back of our minds that we have to get up very early the next day. This is why we don’t plan things that way. I know I personally have trouble sleeping if I have to get up early, which entirely defeats the purpose of “get up early to be more productive.”

  In addition, I experience an uncomfortable level of anxiety when I must get up earlier than my normal time. That’s because, when you get up at your natural waking time, your adrenal glands pump out cortisol, the stress hormone, to wake you up. But when you get up before that happens, the cortisol spike occurs when you’re already awake, hence the anxiety. And now that medical science has found that high cortisol levels—and not cholesterol—cause clogged arteries, it’s downright harmful to our health, which will be covered in a later chapter.