How many people are nocturnal

Wieth and Zacks determined the chronotype of test participants then randomly assigned them to a morning or late afternoon test session. During the session, the participants had to solve six problems.

Brief pause for an example insight problem: An antique coin dealer gets an offer to buy a bronze coin with the date B. No coin truly made in B. In the journal Thinking and Reasoning , Wieth and Zacks report that, overall, people were more successful at the analytical problems. But participants had a higher solution rate for insight problems when doing them at their non-optimal time of the day—say, an owl doing the test in morning—than at the time that aligned with their chornotype.

The results lend support to the incubation theory of creativity : taking a break from a problem, often out of mental fatigue, can produce unexpected insights. AWS Deloitte Genpact. Events Innovation Festival. Follow us:. By Eric Jaffe 9 minute Read. Andre Valadao via Shutterstock. If anything, owls might be a bit smarter on the whole. Flickr user Kristina Servant.

No, literally, they play baseball better. Baseball players all fared better when game times matched their chronotype—though night owls had better averages than morning larks. American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Owls are partial to bad habits—namely, smoking and drinking. Larks are persistent, cooperative, agreeable, conscientious, and proactive. They also procrastinate less. Morning types may be happier. Both types may be more creative on their off-hours.

Test participants were better at analytical problems, but had a higher success rate for insight problems at non-optimal times. If not everyone needs to sleep at the same time, then some members of the tribe can stand guard and protect those who are resting. A recent study of a modern-day hunter-gatherer tribe found that during a three-week period, there were only 18 minutes during which all of the 33 tribe members were asleep simultaneously.

Another theory is that variation is simply how genetics works. Colin Espie, professor of sleep medicine at the University of Oxford, says this mirrors differences in hair, eye and skin colour, or height.

Natural night owls are fundamentally different to insomniacs or people who stay up until the early hours because of family or work circumstances. Jessica Batchelor is a medical writer who feels most productive at 11pm in the evening.

Owls like myself internalise this message, and we believe we must be lazy, depressed and irresponsible. Espie has treated night owls who want to adapt their sleeping patterns. He does this by asking night owls to gradually shift their sleeping pattern earlier, usually by 15 minutes or half an hour per week, through doses of bright light in the morning. This causes the brain to shut down the production of melatonin, the hormone that causes sleepiness.

In the evening, night owls must make their bedrooms as dark as possible. Many think that the ideal solution for night owls is to find work that better suits their natural rhythm. For some, this may be shift work, while others opt for flexible employment, such as setting up their own business or freelancing. She left her role as a fashion buyer, working 9am to 5pm, to start up her own business selling natural soaps, working 11am until 3pm, then again between 8pm and 1am.

Hannah Edwards, who runs her cake business after her children have gone to bed, agrees. It means my productivity, creativity and output levels are then incredibly high compared to others who have nothing left in the tank. Flexible work schedules are currently not the norm, but sleep experts believe they should be.

While morning larks equally benefit from being allowed to arrive at work early and leave early, Kring feels that the battle is hardest for night owls, who experience more stigma. Chronobiology International, 28 10 , — Schmidt, C.

Frontiers in Neurology , 6. Vetter, C. Journal of Psychiatric Research, , — Xiao, Q. Meal timing and obesity: Interactions with macronutrient intake and chronotype. International Journal of Obesity, 43 9 , — A beginner's guide to the brain and nervous system. Do you believe any of these common neuromyths? Test your knowledge. Read More.

For Educators Log in. Photo by Pablo Heimplatz on Unsplash. About the Author. References Horne, C. Also In Sleep. What's New in Neuroscience? Trending Popular articles on BrainFacts. The Neuron.