It is a good match for the daily patterns of night owls, who tend to be sluggish and unproductive in the mornings and become alert in the evenings.īut who is a night owl? To answer that question, we must first talk about body clocks.
Thus goes the description of Harry, a character in Herman Hesse’s novel Steppenwolf, which first appeared in English in 1929. Share on Pinterest ‘The morning is a wretched time of day…’ for night owls. In this Spotlight feature, we look at what makes a night owl, what other types there are, and how and why being a night or evening person impacts various aspects of health and well-being. In more general terms, research about individual body clocks and sleep-wake patterns can help us build a healthier and happier society. Given the high number of people who are naturally inclined to go to bed late and wake up late, it is essential to understand what impact their rhythms may have on their health, and why. The study’s authors also add that research conducted in Western countries indicates that an even higher number of college students qualify as night owls in Western societies. While few studies have analyzed what percentage of people among the world’s populations are night owls, the research that does exist on this topic seems to suggest that a significant number of people do their best work in the evenings.Ī study from 2011, which focused on college students in Saudi Arabia, and worked with 540 male and 219 female participants, all aged between 18–32, found that 26.9% of the study participants were “evening types,” who performed better later in the day. “There is a romance about all who are abroad in the black hours, and with something of a thrill we try to guess their business,” wrote Robert Louis Stevenson in Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes (1879), his account of hiking in the French mountains.ĭespite the romantic, mysterious image that books and movies might portray about night owls, many studies warn that people who frequently stay up until the early hours of the morning are placing their health and well-being at risk.įor instance, a 2018 study analyzing the relationship between bedtime habits and health in 433,268 adults found that night owls are more at risk of developing diabetes, and 10% more likely to die prematurely when compared with individuals who identified as morning people.
The fact that they keep unusual hours, and that they are most productive in the evenings or even at night can make them seem mysterious - both appealing and somewhat frightening. Literature often romanticizes night owls. If, like Bram Stoker’s famous character Dracula from the 1897 novel of the same title, you are most active when the moon is up and tend to go into hiding at sunrise, then you might not be a vampire, but you probably qualify as a night person or night owl. Share on Pinterest What health risks do night owls face, and why? And should they strive to turn into morning larks?
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