Studies show that the most successful people are early risers. CEOs and highfliers swear by waking up before 5 a.m., but for many, getting up at that hour is simply torture.
Some of us bounce out of bed in the morning; others recoil at the blinding morning sun. The idea that there are “morning” or “evening” people is much more than an urban myth.
Everyone has a body clock timetable (chronotype) that controls when they naturally wake, eat, work, play, and sleep, but the exact timings are different for each of us. A small proportion of us are primed to fire on all cylinders as soon as the sun rises (“morning larks”). Nearly a quarter of us are energized around sundown (“night owls”). The rest fly somewhere down the middle. Unfortunately, for owls, studies show that larks generally do better than them at school, live longer, and earn on average 5 percent more.
However, forcing yourself to be an early riser isn’t a good idea—night owls’ shorter life expectancy may be due to the biological strain of trying to live by a strict 9–5 work culture. Thankfully, the option of flexible work times is becoming more widely available to workers, and the owl-lark income divide is narrowing.
Although you can’t change your chronotype, you can work with it to get more out of your day. If you are a night owl, try to shift your routine to fit your natural energy levels. If you have no option but to get up early, try daytime napping—even 20 minutes during the post-lunch slump can be restorative. Consider also that some lifestyles and careers are actually better suited to night owls; for example, those working in hospitality or entertainment, or evening shift workers, will all be more successful if they are natural late risers.
Hormones in charge
The body clock is the conductor of your internal systems. The release of different amounts of hormones melatonin and cortisol at various times affects your mental and physical alertness throughout the day. This clock shows the hormone level of somebody who’s neither a lark nor an owl.
What is the body clock?
Your body clock is a tiny bundle of nerves called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) about the size of a pinhead, buried in the underside of your brain. Signals from specialized daylight-sensing cells in the eyes alert the SCN to release hormones that send messages to all body systems.