Are you an early riser or a night owl? Advantages and disadvantages

Are intelligent people more morning or evening people? This is the question asked by a team of researchers from the University of Ottawa in Canada.

The saying that goes “ The future belongs to those who get up early » is it true? We tend to believe that the latter succeed better in life than those who prefer to work in the evening, or even first part of the night. Here’s what the science says about it.

A link between intelligence and chronotype

You may know the success of Miracle Morning? In his best seller, Hal Elrod describes his method for successfully completing a project or realizing one of our dreams. It involves getting up one to two hours earlier each morning in order to dedicate time to it. By working on what we want most in the morning, it allows us to start the day in a motivating way. In addition, it is during the morning that our brain has the greatest capacity to learn.

And science joins Hal Elrod since a study, carried out by scientists from the University of Ottawa in Canada and published in the Current Research in Behavioral Sciences(1)compared cognitive abilities and whether people prefer to perform activities in the morning or evening. They were thus able to establish a link between intelligence and being an early riser or a night owl.

Better verbal communication skills for early risers

To carry out their study, the scientists asked 61 participants aged 20 to 78 to wear a device measuring their cognitive abilities. This includes problem solving, planning, reasoning, memory and attention. The researchers used the test Cambridge Brain Sciences. They noted that “ people with an earlier morning chronotype have greater inter-daily stability », reports the site Neon. This means that people who tend to rise early have a good internal clock allowing them to alternate between sleep and sleep compared to night owls.

Also read – Why do you wake up in the middle of the night, at the same time?

It was especially interesting to note that people who wake up early have better verbal skills. No differences were found in short-term memory. This is why Dr Kat Lederle, therapist and sleep specialist said: “ They both have advantages and disadvantages that were useful to our ancestors ».

Respect your biological clock

Whether you are an early riser or a night owl, the main thing is to listen to your biological clock. People who are more of a morning person will naturally go to bed early and follow the sunset. For their part, night owls will undoubtedly go past midnight and have more difficulty getting up in the morning.

To feel good, it is better to respect your natural rhythm. If your body clock is out of sync, it may affect your sleep. If you are unfortunately constrained by hours that are too early for you due to your work, do not constrain yourself on weekends or during vacations. This will allow your body to return to its biological rhythm. It is possible to wake up later during these days to allow your body to recover the sleep lost during the week, for example. It is by listening to your body and its sleep needs that you will be able to stay healthy. Last tip to resynchronize your biological clock: follow regular bedtimes and wake-up times. This allows our body to anticipate the mechanisms allowing us to fall asleep.