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Night Owls vs. Early Birds: Who Can Work Longer?

By Alex in Everything Else on Apr 26, 2009 at 8:20 pm


I’m a night owl, and I couldn’t tell you how many times I was told that I could be much more productive if only I switched my sleeping pattern to match that of early risers (I tried, by the way, and all I got was being tired all day long).

Thanks to science, night owls now have the perfect retort to the productivity myth: it turns out that they can actually work longer and focus more than early birds!

The researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging to monitor the brain activity of early birds and night owls who spent two consecutive nights in a sleep laboratory and periodically performed a task that required sustained attention.

The results, reported in the journal Science, suggest that night owls generally outlast early birds in the length of time they can be awake before becoming mentally fatigued.

After 10 hours of being awake, the early birds showed reduced activity in brain areas linked to attention, compared to the night owls. They also felt sleepier and tended to perform more slowly on the task.

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COMMENT
  1. Ali S.
    Apr 26th, 2009 at 9:39 pm

    *raises hand*

    Night owl here. I've tried to become an early bird but man trying to keep myself going through the day was hard.

  2. thesledgehammer
    Apr 26th, 2009 at 10:06 pm

    What do you mean I'm not a morning person? 2 AM is morning, right?

  3. Johnny Cat
    Apr 26th, 2009 at 11:07 pm

    Move on/ Hear the heart of a night owl callin'

  4. NicoNicoNico
    Apr 27th, 2009 at 12:07 am

    Is it just me, or do the majority of web denizens tend to be night owls? I see that poll, and it's confirming what I have suspected for years.

    I personally find myself better able to work at night. I'm most awake the second half of my day, and it's so much quieter at 1am than 1pm.

  5. CaptainHairy
    Apr 27th, 2009 at 12:09 am

    I am still awake, and it is 6am. I have been working all night. This is not normal, but it must be done.

    Night is the best time to work, so much quieter and cooler.

  6. Christina
    Apr 27th, 2009 at 12:16 am

    Definitely a night owl! In fact, it's 1:15 in the morning and I'm at work finishing up a document that's due tomorrow. The hardest part for me about leaving college and starting a job has been trying to get myself onto a daytime schedule. It's been almost 2 years and I still haven't managed to do it.

  7. DaveL
    Apr 27th, 2009 at 1:54 am

    Night time is the right time for design work. I turn into a machine that converts nicotine and caffeine into three dimensional mechanical part models.

  8. Sphintuss
    Apr 27th, 2009 at 3:17 am

    I am neither an early bird nor a night owl. I am an afternoon person. My 'power hours' are from about 14:00 to 22:00.

  9. Sphintuss
    Apr 27th, 2009 at 3:20 am

    P.s. YOu may have noticed that I posted at 03:17. While I am an afternoon person my boss has seen fit to place me on third shift. Not my best time to work.

  10. seefish3
    Apr 27th, 2009 at 4:18 am

    Once I quit drinking and smoking, I became an Early bird.
    Without having to struggle against eye-bleeding hangovers and nicotine poisoning, I found I was much more productive.
    Addictions probably skew the numbers a bit, though, huh?

  11. Miss Cellania
    Apr 27th, 2009 at 5:24 am

    I am naturally a morning person. I inherited that. But I am also way more productive after the kids go to bed, so I've ended up with two work/sleep cycles every day. If I miss my nap, I'm a mess.

  12. Mouserz
    Apr 27th, 2009 at 6:14 am

    I go to sleep at like 2am or 4am and wake up at 10am or 1pm.

  13. pins
    Apr 27th, 2009 at 6:40 am

    Poll needs a third option - I can adopt either early bird or night owl habits depending on what suits (atm I'm being a night owl).

  14. Jim
    Apr 27th, 2009 at 6:59 am

    The human race has alsways needed its "Moonwatchers" (2001 reference intended). I've worked night shifts in factories, preferred night duty in the Army, and did some overnight DJ work on the radio years ago. I liked the quiet and relative solitude that night work brought. Now I like to simply sleep at night-thank you.

  15. AL7AIR
    Apr 27th, 2009 at 7:18 am

    Night Owl, in bed at 2am at the earliest.

    @seefish3
    I'm neither a drinker nor a smoker, and I tried to switch to a "normal" life a couple of times to no avail.

  16. AL7AIR
    Apr 27th, 2009 at 7:21 am

    CEST timezone btw, so I'm not posting at 7am while sleeping but at 2pm about an hour and a half after I woke up ;) .

  17. Gauldar
    Apr 27th, 2009 at 8:23 am

    I'm a night owl but have worked myself into an early bird pattern. When not on a schedule, I easily fall back into the night owl routine.

  18. Madmolf
    Apr 27th, 2009 at 11:21 am

    Hi, i'm a bit like Miss Cellania, an early bird of the night owl family.
    I usually get up at 7:15, work all day, then take care of the kids from 5 to 9 and after they go to bed work again till 1am.
    I haven't found time yet to squeeze a small afternoon nap, but i'm sure it would help refocus concentration in early afternoon.

  19. Byrd Brain
    Apr 27th, 2009 at 6:27 pm

    Early bird or night owl? I don't like being pigeon holed into a particular category.

  20. Wise Owl
    Apr 28th, 2009 at 6:20 pm

    HAH!! I knew it. I've been arguing this one for years.

    I am a nightowl and proud to be pigeonholed as such.

  21. Stephanie
    Apr 30th, 2009 at 10:33 am

    Man... totally a night owl here.
    I really wish more things were open at night... like banks, restaurants other than waffle house, etc... I'd get so much more done... I never feel like running errands or eating out until one or two in the morning...
    Sometimes I get scheduled to work at 5 a.m. and it's easier for me to just stay up all night, rather than trying to go to sleep at 8 pm... which is a wholly unfathomable time to feel sleepy to me.

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