“Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.”
This is the mantra that most of us were raised with. Go to sleep with the chickens and wake up at sparrow’s fart, and you’ll be successful. Or so it would appear.
Every other week, someone will post an article online on how to become a morning person, or a better morning person. These articles extol the virtues of being an early bird.
This doesn’t always work very well when you’re a night owl living in a lark’s world.
For a long time – and still today – staying awake later at night and waking up later in the day was seen as being lazy and wasteful.
The adage at the beginning might have some merit for some people, but it does not consider those of us with different chronotypes and different circadian rhythms.
Some people benefit from being awake and productive early, whereas some of us only hit our productive stride later in the day.
Life in general is slightly more difficult for a night owl, when we are expected to fit in with the larks running the show.
We’re talking bleary eyed mornings fuelled by the strongest coffee we can get our hands on.
Sadly, beyond being self-employed, we have very few choices by to make do and fit in. Especially so when working in the corporate world where the client with the contract makes the rules.
There have been numerous studies around the various chronotypes, and how to use your specific chronotype to your best advantage. Dr Michael Breus delivered the below Ted Talk based on his own research.