But, being a night owl may also just be in your genes. "A recent study has actually shown that a genetic change in a gene called CRY1 is common among people who have a condition called delayed sleep phase disorder, or DSPD," explains Dr. Ayish.
A night owl, evening person or simply owl, is a person who tends to stay up until late at night, or to the very early hours of the morning. Night owls who are involuntarily unable to fall asleep for several hours after a normal time may have delayed sleep phase disorder.
By contrast, if you're a night person, or a night owl, you likely enjoy staying up late, sleeping late, and hitting the snooze button. Night people tend to feel better later in the day, especially at night. Understanding these individual tendencies means looking at the different sleep chronotypes.
Night owls may be at higher risk for chronic disease, prior research has shown. A 2022 study found night owls were more sedentary, had lower aerobic fitness levels, and burned less fat at rest and while active than early birds.
But having night-owl tendencies may come with serious health effects. Recent studies have discovered that, regardless of their lifestyle, people who stay up late had both higher levels of body fat and an increased risk of developing other health problems, such as diabetes and low muscle mass, than did early birds.
Studies show that late sleepers tend to be more creative people, while night owls tend to be more intelligent people.
Types of sleepers: lion, wolf, bear and dolphin. The American sleep scientist, Michael Breus, revised the owls and larks model and identified a total of four types of sleepers. Whoever knows what type of sleeper they are can optimise their daily routine accordingly, thus improving their performance.
When night owls are exposed only to natural light, their internal body clocks shift earlier. Exposure to bright light in the morning is considered one of the best ways to become more of a morning person and shift your chronotype earlier.
But during sleep, or as we are falling asleep or waking up, the veil between the conscious and unconscious is at its thinnest. These can be the moments when we are more able to tap into more creative and lateral problem solving and solutions.” The quiet of night can also be a prime environment for creative thinking.
“Night owls are reported to have a higher risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease when compared with early birds,” he said.
Studies show that night owls and those who wake up later actually are smarter and more creative than their early rising counterparts. They also have higher IQs according to The Independent. Unfortunately, night owls have slightly lower academic scores than early risers (by about 8%).
Other well-known night owls include Winston Churchill, Fran Lebowitz, Bob Dylan, Carl Jung, J.R.R. Tolkien, John Travolta, Prince, Christina Aguilera, and, believe it or not, Barack Obama. Some research even suggests that those who stay up late and sleep in regularly are smarter than those who don't.
Those that prided themselves in staying up late proved to have faster response times during the evening test than those that went to be earlier on a regular basis. The results showed that regardless of wake times, night owls are able to sustain a sense of mental alertness for longer than those that go to bed early.
Should You Become a Morning Person? Being a lark isn't better than being a night owl, but if you find that the hours you're keeping are getting in the way of work, school, healthy habits, social functions or other commitments, it might be helpful to shift your daily activity to operate more in the morning.
There's a risk of suffering from tiredness, eyestrain, stress, irregular heart beats, diabetes and even cancer. You become a pessimistic person and may develop depression or some other psychiatric conditions. Staying awake late at night or pulling an all-nighter can make you have erratic eating patterns.
The answer for most night owls is “Yes, you can,” according to sleep experts. How successful you will be at changing your sleep preferences, however, may be dependent on your genes and your willpower.
Is it better to be an early bird or a night owl? As long as you're getting the 7–9 hours of high quality sleep recommended by the National Sleep Foundation each night, it doesn't really matter what time you choose to wake up and go to sleep.
Wolf chronotypes are the opposite of the lion, as they're considered the “night owl.” If you're a wolf chronotype, you stay up late into the night and wake up in the late morning or early afternoon.
Specifically, sleeping on the side or back is considered more beneficial than sleeping on the stomach. In either of these sleep positions, it's easier to keep your spine supported and balanced, which relieves pressure on the spinal tissues and enables your muscles to relax and recover.
The most common type of sleeper is the side sleeper, in part because there are so many variations for sleeping on your side (like the fetal position). Side sleeping has many upsides, including the alleviation of insomnia or chronic sleep deprivation and the reduced chance of sleep apnea.
A study published in the journal Sleep found that sleep is important for cognitive performance and that individuals who have better sleep quality tend to have higher intelligence scores.
But, being a night owl may also just be in your genes. "A recent study has actually shown that a genetic change in a gene called CRY1 is common among people who have a condition called delayed sleep phase disorder, or DSPD," explains Dr. Ayish.