Don't Hate Perky Morning People: It Might Be Their DNA's Fault.

New submitter Striek writes: Aggregated genome data from 23andme.com was analyzed and published in Nature magazine, and now further evidence has been added to the belief that being a morning person or a night owl is wired in our DNA. It's not the first time such research has been published, either. So those of us who work late into the night and prefer to rise at noon, much to the chagrin of our partners, can point to our DNA as the reason, not our lazy habits.

Re:

[dimko]

I also like to make your girlfriend moan.

Re:

[David_Hart]

Puns don't count....

Re:

[Noah Haders]

I don't see why people hate morning people. morning people make the world go round. I always though people who hated morning people were lazy and felt bad about it, so they lash out at others.

Re:Man, I hate...

[sjames]

Imagine your delight if someone breezed in and dragged you out of bed at 3:00 A.M. every day and expected you to be not just coherent but actually enthusiastic.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Better analogy: imagine if you were expected to show up for meetings at 7pm and work until 1am and be not just coherent but actually enthusiastic.

Morning people are proud of their supposed virtue and work ethic until the clock hits 6pm and they start yawning like a bunch of pussy lightweights. These shits will never know what it's like to hammer out 6 weeks of code in a single night of caffeine fueled mania.

Re:

[Noah Haders]

I do it. and its hard, but I do it anyway. I fail to see why I should excuse anybody who whines "waaa it's hard."

Re:Man, I hate...

[sjames]

So you personally choose to flagellate yourself daily so you figure that gives you the moral right to expect it of everyone else? I choose to stay up late. Why don't you quit being a lazy bum and stay up too?

Re:

[sjames]

Night is when thoughts run deep and great ideas arise.

Re:

[sjames]

One should wake when one wakes. One should spend at least the 1st half hour wordlessly. Then, only after sitting in the sun for a few minutes should they begin purposeful activities such as preparing for work.

If you're using an alarm clock and/or lights in the morning to start your day at an unseemly hour, you too are using technology to warp the natural order of life.

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[Hognoxious]

morning people make the world go round.

You should wear a top hat and say that in a German accent while dancing with Liza Minelli.

Re:

[jc42]

Hereabouts, in the Boston area, they're all called Moaning People, since in the local dialect, "morning", "mourning" and "moaning" are homophones. (And the rumors about where they "pahk theyah cahs" is actually quite wrong, since if you pahk yoah cah theya, the Hahvahd police will tow it away.)

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[TWX]

And you'll hahv ta take the Oanhg line ta Meffa or the Red line ta Somahville to the toah yahd ta gat it...

You Live In The Wrong Time Zone.

[zenlessyank]

Move.

Re:

[JustinKSU]

Move.

I'm pretty sure people start work around 8 or 9 no matter what time zone you are in...

Re:

[bughunter]

Many aerospace and other companies with East and West coast offices start their West coast shifts at 7:00 or 7:30 am so that the workers are working at approximately the same time.

I worked for Hamilton Sundstrand for 15 years and in CA we worked 9/80 schedules, 7:00 am to 4:30 pm.

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[diemartin]

Oh that explains it. Maybe he woke up too late for the morning whoosh of aircraft.

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[Solandri]

Changing time zones is only a temporary fix. My body's internal clock seems to be set for a 25 hour day. The early riser's internal clock seems to be set for a 23 hour day. I'm slow to get up but can work well into the night. They get up early, but crash sometimes before it's even dark outside.

Re:

[zenlessyank]

Confusing a flaky emotional foundation with early or late rising is an epic fail.

bad logic

[Anonymous Coward]

If someone's DNA is what makes them bad, then that is absolutely a reason why they are unsalvageable and should be killed immediately.

Re:

[rmandevi]

I misread your post; I thought that you had said "litigate" rather than "mitigate". Somehow, that works too.

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[Hognoxious]

Autistic & bipolar people are the reason at least half of the scientific breakthroughs & disruptive inventions since the dawn of human civilization exist at all.

The trouble is, we don't know which half.

Re:

[Falos]

>If someone's DNA is what makes them bad
So is this about the article's two pools? If so you forgot to actually say which one is "bad".

If so, it would also probably be good to substantiate the choice a little so people don't think you're a ranting dumbass. Objectively, at that point. Which means I just let this point (a eugenics demand) fly as "arguably valid opinion".

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[infolation]

Hopefully it's a recessive gene and 'morning people' will just die out eventually.

Re:Age might be a factor too...

[alvinrod]

My grandfather once told me that every morning at 6 he would have a healthy bowel movement. The only problem was he usually didn't wake up until 7.

I don't hate morning people.

[MrKrillls]

I hate their DNA.

Re:I don't hate morning people.

[TWX]

I hate their DNA.

I have a general rule, that I do not judge people on things like ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and other things that they are born-with and are beyond their control.

In this case I would have to make an exception.

backwards premise

[ThorGod]

In my experience it's the "morning people" that are judgey against non-morning people. It seems like it should be morning people that shouldn't hold their genes as "superior"

Re:backwards premise

[Anonymous Coward]

Agreed. I'll stop hating them when they stop requiring everything to be done in the morning and when working an extra 3 hours is considered better than coming in 20 minutes earlier and goofing off for 40 minutes.

Re: backwards premise

[Anonymous Coward]

Seriously. If you are the first person through the door every morning, that's great for you. Please don't complain about how other people choose to structure their day. Punctuality is a small part of work.

Re:

[brewthatistrue]

"Sounds like someone has a case of the Mondays."

http://big.assets.huffingtonpo... [huffingtonpost.com]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

I think the hate flows both ways.

Re:

[Noah Haders]

I don't think anybody is a morning person. I think a lot of people drag themselves out of bed because they have shizz to do. the difference between them and others is that others don't drag themselves out of bed.

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[hene]

I don't think anybody is a morning person. I think a lot of people drag themselves out of bed because they have shizz to do. the difference between them and others is that others don't drag themselves out of bed.

Cleaning my living habits made me a morning person. Not bragging, just saying. I just naturally started waking up earlier and going to bed earlier too. I do not feel superior to others. Stupidity, on other hand, appear in both groups. We all have equal amount of hours in day, who cares in which order they get used.

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[Noah Haders]

What does that mean, cleaning my living habits. I want to learn more!

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[tehcyder]

What does that mean, cleaning my living habits. I want to learn more!

Not regularly drinking yourself into a stupor until you pass out at four am and wake up with a traffic cone on your head in a pool of your own urine, I imagine.

Morning people are generally boring bastards. They actually choose to start meetings at ridiculous times like 8am, and ruin things for the rest of us.

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[hene]

Well, I sometimes tend to over do things and it is hard to say what affects the most. I don't drink or smoke at all (I did before) and I eat super healthy now. I try to follow all the health regulations and make sure I get all the micronutrients. I guess pushing yourself to the limits might be the biggest thing, mentally and physically. The extreme stress combined with adequate rest and meditation. It has been something like ten years since I started to clean my act, little by little it started to happen.

Morning people are generally boring bastards.

Y

Re:

[Noah Haders]

Morning people are generally boring bastards.

Yes we are! Before I was interesting but the world felt boring, now I'm boring but the world feels interesting.

Thank you for this, it is actually quite inspirational.

Re:

[Big Hairy Ian]

I don't have a problem with morning people as long as my Wood Chipper is working and they form an orderly queue

We don't hate them because they are perky....

[Anonymous Coward]

Us non-morning people don't hate morning people because they are perky. We hate them because they assume that everybody else should be a morning person too. Every asshole that suggests things like a 7:30am meeting is just rubbing their early-rising do-gooderness instead the late-riser's faces. They know you feel like a slacker if you suggest to your boss that it's too early for you. In offices with set-your-own-schedule, morning people also like to point out people who "show up late". "Geez, Bob, it's past 10. You're just coming in?!".... Despite the fact you stay at work until 9pm, the early risers who left at 5pm never notice or give credit to the people who stay late. To them they act like the world ceases at 5 in the afternoon until they come in again at 7am. I have so many minor knit-picks over this that bile is starting to form in my throat. I think I'll end.

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[TWX]

It really depends on where you live. The weather where I live is gorgeous probably 280 days a year, and when it's not gorgeous it's because it's too hot, not because of snow or other things that make the roads impassable. Here, it's common to work 7:00-3:30 in an office job, and starting as late as 9:00am is uncommon for office work. Trades often will start at 6:00am during the summer because of the heat.

Up north, with roads to clear, the northerly latitude leading to a later sunrise, and other proble

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[tehcyder]

Morning person time is having a meeting at 5:30 or 6:00

Not all of us live in the US.

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[Guybrush_T]

The opposite is true also. Some arrive at 9am and ask those who leave at 5pm "did you take your PM off ?". Depends on the company, depends on the country, depends on the persons.

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[TWX]

I've seen people reprimanded for not working the shift that they are expected to work, including a couple of people that were early and expected to leave early. Coverage was expected and not working the assigned shift messed with that.

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[tehcyder]

I've seen people reprimanded for not working the shift that they are expected to work, including a couple of people that were early and expected to leave early. Coverage was expected and not working the assigned shift messed with that.

Shiftwork is different.

All the smug morning people here should try doing a job where they have to work night shifts.

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[beastofburdon]

I would take a large amount of sadistic glee in watching them crash and burn.

EXACTLY!!!

[PortHaven]

^^^ THIS

Re: We don't hate them because they are perky....

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually people that come in at 9 SHOULD leave at 5. If you come in at 5 you should leave at 1. Americans and their belief that being on facebook or whatever else they call "working" while being at the office for 50 out of the 60 hours they "work" is actually a good thing. I'll never get it.

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[bitingduck]

I have had problems at work like that, and I function better at night, always have. It is definitely a "Diversity issue" but good luck getting people who badmouth people who have trouble with the morning schedule, to recognize this.

I'm like that, too. I generally can work a full day starting around 9-9:30, leave at a reasonable hour, and then have a sort of down period from 8 to 10 pm. Some time between 10 and 11 I usually have a second wind and work 4-5 more hours of pretty high productivity. Unless someone's been making me come in at 7:30 or 8 for meetings, which kills both my daytime and nighttime productivity. Fortunately, most of what I do has allowed the flexibility to work the hours that work for me.

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[tehcyder]

morning people also like to point out people who "show up late". "Geez, Bob, it's past 10. You're just coming in?!"..

More like:

Oh, good AFTERNOON Bob, har har har.

Ok, fine.

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

If it's so genetic, I'll agree to drop the hatred and adopt an attitude of dispassionate eugenics. Happy now, Mr. Sunshine?

Re:

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Depends on when you start the scenario: it's actually a very morning-person assumption that the day will begin when you wake up; rather than everything being over by the time yesterday's nigh owls have decided to call it a day and go to sleep.

Alternative mating strategies

[Bruce66423]

Perhaps the answer is that people bifurcate because this allows each a better mating strategy; the existence of both group increases the possibilities for non-monogamous behavior, increasing the prospects of otherwise infertile couples of having children...

Re:Alternative mating strategies

[Quirkz]

Or distributing childcare duties. Or splitting the night watch into a natural late shift and early shift.

got it

[superwiz]

Don't hate em. Hate their DNA. And they are full of it.

Our DNA must degrade over time then

[Anonymous Coward]

The argument that DNA makes morning people doesn't work for me. When I was younger I was a morning person - I'd routinely be out of bed before 5am and down at the field flying gliders as the sun came up, having a couple of hours' worth of peace and joy before dragging myself in to the slavery that is work. A couple of decades later and I'm flat out dragging myself out of bed before 7am on a week day or 9am on week ends. Maybe that's more a measure of how much work sucks the life out of you.

There are two kinds of people in the world...

[sconeu]

There are two kinds of people in the world...

Those who are bright and cheerful in the morning,
And those who want to take a wrench and beat the shit out of the first kind.*

*proud member of the second category

Re:

[al0ha]

Beat the sh*t out of me? In the words of Harry Calahan , "Go ahead, make my day."

Proud member of a tolerant society...

Clock time is relative

[PPH]

You don't roll out of bed at 10 am or noon. You do so at some time relative to external inputs such as light and temperature which affect your circadian rhythm. Temperature and to a certain degree light is under your control. Just like the time on your alarm clock. So set it. If you can't function until sunrise plus 5 hours, then get a light timer to turn on at 3 AM. Do whatever it takes to get up to speed for the 9 AM meeting. Even if that means going to bed at 7 or 8 PM.

Re:

[Striek]

get a light timer to turn on at 3 AM.

Works great if you sleep alone. Not so much if your s/o is an early riser.

More free time DNA

[allcoolnameswheretak]

I don't know if I'm a morning person or not. What I do know is that I go to sleep late because I want more me-time.

I think the influence is mild

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

I have always enjoyed sleeping in late and had trouble staying awake in the 8am classes. But finished college and had trouble showing up for work at 8 am. When the daughter came along, I had to get up early so that I could return early and take care of her. That sort of set the habit and now I am up at 5am weekdays even when I stay up watch the election debate till 11:30. And can't stay in bed after 7 on weekends.

I don't think I got it through DNA. Mainly circumstances and habit. If at all there was influence from DNA it is quite mild.

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[Gilgaron]

Kids are certainly a system shock as far as sleep goes... I have either learned how to let part of my brain sleep while I'm otherwise lucid enough to function minimally intensive tasks or it is just what happens in a sleep deprived state. It makes my head tingle and I don't feel like I missed as much sleep as I did the next morning.

Getting it backward

[nomentanus]

Correlation isn't causation, and what we now know about our biological clock makes the interpretation stated in the article ridiculous. Similar genetic discoveries often involve dopamine - anything that is more likely to key you to stay up, abuse artificial light and blow your diurnal hormone cycle. But in a generation or two we'll be smart enough to turn out the lights roughly when the sun goes down, experience much better health, and it will turn out that nobody was really a night owl (under even semi-nat

You don't have to...

[whitroth]

...live with my wife when she wakes up PERKY and CONVERSATIONAL at 06:00....

                mark

Re:

[PPH]

why East coast people don't use the time difference as an excuse to start work later.

Particularly with a 4 AM last call time. But then ....

dealing with East coast business hours is frustrating,

In my experience, most highly successful people are morning people. And not bar flies. So 4 AM closing times and late night entertainment don't enter into their plans.

get some extra sleep.

Umm, nope. People need a certain amount of sleep. Some need more, some need less. Where they put that ideal amount on the clock is a different issue. Getting up later would mean going to bed later. Needing more sleep is a sign that a person isn't managing their bed time/wake up time properl