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Science

Night Owls' Cognitive Function 'Superior' To Early Risers, Study Suggests (theguardian.com) 85

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
The idea that night owls who don't go to bed until the early hours struggle to get anything done during the day may have to be revised. From a report: It turns out that staying up late could be good for our brain power as research suggests that people who identify as night owls could be sharper than those who go to bed early. Researchers led by academics at Imperial College London studied data from the UK Biobank study on more than 26,000 people who had completed intelligence, reasoning, reaction time and memory tests.

They then examined how participants' sleep duration, quality, and chronotype (which determines what time of day we feel most alert and productive) affected brain performance. They found that those who stay up late and those classed as "intermediate" had "superior cognitive function," while morning larks had the lowest scores. Going to bed late is strongly associated with creative types.
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Night Owls' Cognitive Function 'Superior' To Early Risers, Study Suggests More

Night Owls' Cognitive Function 'Superior' To Early Risers, Study Suggests

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  • I just woke up (Score:5, Funny)

    by 50000BTU_barbecue ( 588132 ) on Thursday July 11, 2024 @01:02PM (#64619123) Journal

    And I agree with this story

    • These same scientists claim that your cognitive peak is at 9 to 10 am, so if you night owls would just get up earlier you would be even smarter than you already are!

    • I have builders here today. They started at 8am. I didn't even know there was an 8am. I thought the morning ended at 2am when I normally go to bed. I am not functioning today.

  • Comment removed (Score:3)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Thursday July 11, 2024 @01:04PM (#64619131)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • in less civilized countries, like the one I live in, the future of medical care is individualized medical insurance, tailored to provide the very least care possible to us, at the highest cost we will stomach, working plebes.
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • Well, uh, no? I vote, i think voting is the logical first step, not randomly shooting up places, that is psychopathic as far as I can understand it.
          • Comment removed based on user account deletion
            • Comment removed based on user account deletion
              • oh, I understood what you were refering to, however we don't (except for some morons on 6 Jan2021) just shoot our politicians whenever we like. We are supposed to try lesser remedies first. Like writing letters to our elected officials, meeting with them, and voting.

                • Re: (Score:2)

                  by MikeS2k ( 589190 )

                  Sorry your comment is looking rather out of date now! I fear what is to come in America!

                  • well, yeah. I am afraid that it is becoming a proud American tradition to shoot our politicians...Though, in all honesty, former President Trump has said he would hang political adversaries, and called for both Hilary Clinton and Mike Pence to be hanged. So, yeah, it is not just one side of the spectrum that has gone completely crazy

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by PPH ( 736903 )

      What time do the typesetters at The Grauniad send their work to the printer?

    • The UK is a good place to do this study though since, being on the Greenwich meridian, means that from a global perspective the Brits are pretty much average risers getting up just an hour behind the rest of Europe. Those of us in Western Canada get up about 7-8 hours later clearly making us some of the smartest people on the planet, although the real geniuses are clearly in Alaska, Hawaii and various pacific islands and ...err...sorry, Australia, but you can't argue with science! ;-)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mjwx ( 966435 )

      Well considering they have no sun in the U.K., of course they want to justify a vampiric lifestyle. :)
      On a serious note, I believe these models are useful for finding patterns, but the future of medicine is individualized medical care tailored to your specific body.

      It's more the fact the early birds spend all of their time telling each other about their morning run, stinking up the office with their body odour and patting themselves on the back about being complete wankers... Night owls just want their morning coffee and to be able to do their work in fucking peace. Little wonder they're more productive.

  • Well of course (Score:5, Funny)

    by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Thursday July 11, 2024 @01:05PM (#64619143)

    I could have told them that, if they'd just asked.

    Going to bed late is strongly associated with creative types.

    Also strongly correlated with handsomeness, charm, and wit. Not to mention humility.

    • Re:Well of course (Score:4, Funny)

      by sid crimson ( 46823 ) on Thursday July 11, 2024 @01:13PM (#64619165)

      I’m not just good at being humble I’m great at it.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Shaitan ( 22585 )

      I concur. I may be the humblest person I know.

      Kidding aside, as a night owl you tend to encounter other night owls and I've found this to be consistently true of THEM as well. Not everyone I know who is on the spectrum is high intelligence but virtually all very high intelligence people I know are on the spectrum, most night owls I know are at least higher intelligence.

  • Well, well (Score:5, Interesting)

    by war4peace ( 1628283 ) on Thursday July 11, 2024 @01:05PM (#64619145)

    I am one of those night owls.
    My brain is usually in full swing starting 7 PM, all the way to 2 AM, give or take. If I try to go to bed at, say, 11 PM, I will toss and turn while my brain yells at me about a gazillion different things.
    Am I smarter than the average? Definitely. Am I more creative? I guess.
    But I never thought to make a connection between waking hours and my skillset, I just assumed that's how I roll, individually.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by hattig ( 47930 )

      Yet your employer demands you get up before 7am so you're in the office nice and early in the morning, so they can get the absolute least out of you.

      • No, I've been very lucky so far.
        Working in Eastern Europe for US-based customers helped me tremendously. My workday started at 4 PM or 5 PM local time and ended at 1 AM or 2 AM, depending on DST. My coworkers didn't like that timing, at all, and I offered to act as a PoC and go-to for customers. I was paid extra for late/night shifts, my colleagues were happy they didn't have to work late, all was good.
        I now work largely the same hours, but starting at 2 PM usually. 24/7 support for Western European custome

      • your employer demands you get up before 7am so you're in the office nice and early

        I told my boss I wasn't really awake until about 9am. He said "why do we pay to be here at 7am." I told him for the inconvenience to me of being awake and looking alert for two hours. Of course he always wandered in later and then complained he had to stay late most nights. Not the sharpest tool in that shed.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Pascoea ( 968200 )

        I'm like OP, in that getting to sleep before Midnight just isn't a thing for me. I've been that way as long as I can remember.

        One reason (one of the many) I quit my last job was the asshat project manager scheduled a mandatory, in-person, 7:30 AM daily meeting. Nevermind that the traffic at that time of day dictated I leave my house at 6:30 in order to guarantee being to his useless meeting on time. Half-jokingly mentioned it to the dude. His response? "Go to bed earlier." As if I hadn't thought of that.

        • I'm like OP, in that getting to sleep before Midnight just isn't a thing for me. I've been that way as long as I can remember.

          One reason (one of the many) I quit my last job was the asshat project manager scheduled a mandatory, in-person, 7:30 AM daily meeting. Nevermind that the traffic at that time of day dictated I leave my house at 6:30 in order to guarantee being to his useless meeting on time. Half-jokingly mentioned it to the dude. His response? "Go to bed earlier." As if I hadn't thought of that. One of the few jobs I've had in my life that I don't look back on fondly. **** that place.

          How old are you? Back when I was in undergrad/grad school I'd peak around midnight, go to bed at 2-3, and wake up groggy at 10 or 11.

          First couple years of working and showing up at 9am were rough, but then I adapted, I peaked about 9pm, I went to bed at 11:00-12 and woke up groggy at 7:30 or 8.

          Overall, everything was largely the same but shifted back 3 hours.

          Now, waking up early is still tough because I'm often still at my peak 16 hours after waking when I should be going to bed if I want 8 hours of sleep.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Pascoea ( 968200 )
            Mid 40s. And yeah, I generally "shut down" around 10 or 11, spend an hour or two doing mindless shit, then crashing. The only difference between my current job and previous is that I can roll in at 8:30 +/- 15. They don't bust my balls if I'm not at my desk at "starting time", meetings before 8:30 are pretty rare. And if I do have a super early meeting they don't care if I call in from home then drive in. It's amazing what a difference traffic is like, too. It doesn't matter if I leave my house at 7:30 or

      • I do get to the office nice and early precisely to keep my most productive hours to myself.

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Bongo ( 13261 )

      I agree there's a daily cycle. My wife though is an early riser so I'm on that pattern, so I usually miss my ideal times.

      Basically for me, best time of day starts at 6pm onwards, but alternatively, getting up at 4am (after early to bed) is also a super clear mental time.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dbialac ( 320955 )
      I used to be a night owl until I went to Europe for over a month. I came back to the US and moved forward a little bit and am mostly no longer. Interestingly, now I still wake up at 2AM all of the time and then go back to bed about 2 hours later.

      • Interestingly, now I still wake up at 2AM all of the time and then go back to bed about 2 hours later.

        This might be of interest: https://www.bbc.com/future/art... [bbc.com]

        I have studied my, ahem, "condition" only to find out it's not really a condition, and perhaps everyone else is weird :)

    • My brain is usually in full swing starting 7 PM, all the way to 2 AM, give or take. If I try to go to bed at, say, 11 PM, I will toss and turn while my brain yells at me about a gazillion different things.

      Dude, that's your ADHD!

    • I am one of those night owls.
      My brain is usually in full swing starting 7 PM, all the way to 2 AM, give or take. If I try to go to bed at, say, 11 PM, I will toss and turn while my brain yells at me about a gazillion different things.
      Am I smarter than the average? Definitely. Am I more creative? I guess.
      But I never thought to make a connection between waking hours and my skillset, I just assumed that's how I roll, individually.

      I think the thing that makes you a night own is when you hit your "peak", is it shortly after waking or later in your waking cycle. I definitely fall into the latter.

      Realistically when you wake / go to bed is just your personal schedule, you could easily be a night owl who goes to bed at 9 and wakes up at 5. When I worked more regular office hours I'd always relatively useless in the first half of the day and crazy productive in the last couple hours before finishing off.

      I personally find the big difference

  • ...don't tell everyone who we are!
  • ... trains the imagination. Who knew!

  • Everywhere I have ever worked if there was a night shift I always tried to get on it. I always felt sharper and more alert at night. While in the Marine Corps I ran the night crew of avionics technicians for our Gumman A6 squadron. When writing software I always find I do my best work at night. Working at night is so much more relaxing too, few people around, few distractions, no managers/administrators to get in the way, NO MEETINGS, etc.. I always caught crap from the "Early to bed and early to rise makes

  • OR maybe (Score:3)

    by wakeboarder ( 2695839 ) on Thursday July 11, 2024 @01:27PM (#64619213)
    The sharper night owls are smart enough to not endure the pain of rising early.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Pascoea ( 968200 )
      I was curious of that myself, whether the late-rising was a cause or effect. (Not curious enough to read the article, obviously)
  • ... is for the cat.
  • Night owls claim to be superior to early risers.

    • Yeah, it's obviously too broad to be true and there was probably a common cause among test subjects and/or personality traits.

      e.g. Industrious folks enjoy getting up early and going to work and the test favored trait openness.

      Something like that will turn up.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Actually, it is the other way round: Early risers are always claiming to be superior without any actual factual basis to that claim. It is basically just mindless virtue signalling. The story is about an actual _study_ examining things. Obviously, you are not smart enough to understand what that means.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by q_e_t ( 5104099 )
        Yes, you have to get up early in the day to read this study and not understand it. Of course, the study might be compromised if they haven't adjusted for cat ownership which will result in you getting up early.
  • Ah, but what time of day did they run the tests?
  • I guess that being an early riser makes me stupid.
  • There are many creative types that start early.

  • What about... (Score:4, Informative)

    by The-Ixian ( 168184 ) on Thursday July 11, 2024 @02:15PM (#64619367)

    What about people who used to be night owls and reformed?

    I was an "all nighter" kind of person into my late 30's. I am now in my late 40's and the exact opposite.

    Today, I am in bed no later than 9pm and wake naturally around 5-5:30am

    I *feel* like I am smarter than I was in my 30's, but I suppose everyone is biased in that way to some degree.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by PPH ( 736903 )

      What about people who used to be night owls and reformed?

      So you can retrain yourself?

      Oh no! Now you've really gone and pissed off the night owls. Most of them claim that there's absolutely nothing to be done. And school* (and everything else) will have to be moved to accommodate them.

      *They did that here. Moved back high school start times. But to free up buses for transportation, they had to move up the grade school/middle school start times. Just to keep Spicoli happy. Now what happens to the poor little kids?

    • What about people who used to be night owls and reformed?

      I was an "all nighter" kind of person into my late 30's. I am now in my late 40's and the exact opposite.

      Today, I am in bed no later than 9pm and wake naturally around 5-5:30am

      I *feel* like I am smarter than I was in my 30's, but I suppose everyone is biased in that way to some degree.

      Did you change or did you shift? When do you hit your peak?

  • I'll come in to work early. You can come in late if that's your thing. Just stop throwing "night owls are superior" articles on the boss's desk.

  • I was a child prodigy who skipped a grade, not dissimilar to Sheldon Cooper, except I was better socialized, and excelled at athletics and was a leader in the Boy Scouts.

    I had a real problem getting to sleep at night and waking up in the morning. I would read in bed until late at night and be late in the morning.

    At some point in my early 20's I experienced a period of unemployment, and at my doctors advice I started tracking my sleep. We determined that I had a 27 hour biological clock. He said it was un

  • E: Be there at daybreak! L: Mm, can we make it 9? E: That's just way too late, I'm eating lunch in two hours. How about 2? L: I'm kinda hitting my roll then. 6? E: Dinnertime. L: Then after dinner...? E: I'm really not in to fighting before bed. L: Eh, what was the thing? E: Oh just some clickbait.

  • ... but I joined a social/athletic club some decades ago. Members were always arguing whether events should be scheduled in the afternoon or evening. Pretty soon the club split into the two groups. Just anecdotal, but the intervening couple of decades has not been kind to the night owl group physically.

  • a lot of this 'science' turns out to be just plain wrong.

  • To The Guardian authors: Is it too much to ask to link to the study? You know, it is the web, hyperlinks exist, use them.

    Anyways, here it is: https://bmjpublichealth.bmj.co... [bmj.com]

    One interesting aspect of the study the Guardian article doesn't mention is that according the the study, drinking alcohol regularly *increases* cognitive function. Unsurprisingly, this is in conflict to other studies and the authors are rather cautious about that part, but that's what the numbers say.

    This raises interesting questions:

  • I see the sun rise most every day.

    I really appreciate that.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by darenw ( 74015 )

      In northern Montana, in the summer the fading twilight is gone at around 11pm (standard not daylight time) and the earliest hint of morning twilight is... I'm usually not awake then... 2am? I'm not in the center of the time zone. Of course use of DST makes the clock times look more extreme. In the winter I joke that I like to make good use of both hours of daylight every day. Even night owls see sunrise and sunset in the winter. I like to say I get up about an hour after sunrise, but that's not realisti

      • Hmmm, that's very interesting. I'm in Missouri, 9PM-5AM darkness right now, that's about the minimum night period.

        Given your comments I would imagine our bodily rhythms adjust on a daily basis to day/night cycle changes. I wake right at the crack of dawn, before sunrise, every time if I go to bed before 11PM.

        I'm guessing everything is based on your "waking period", that seems to be a reset point for our minds and bodies, coming out of sleep (power on for the day).

        Unrelated, but I figure vampires hate the

  • How many of us night owls are also procrastinators?

    It's not a terrible strategy in that context, why slug through it now when I can wait until the evening when I'm productive.

  • My body and mind work better in the morning, so I guess that makes me stupid, right?

  • no one around so you can truly focus, the thrill of what youre doing provides more than enough energy to stay awake, and when you finally do feel tired, a quiet bed is waiting around the corner.

  • When you get tired, you start to lose inhibitions and get weirder thoughts. Creative people thrive on this mode, and I sometimes think that "squares" go to bed early because they're somehow afraid of the weird thoughts. But being tired isn't a question of chronotype per se -- you need to stay up late wrt your own chronotype to get into this mode.

    It's also my experience that creative people get tired more easily, but I think this is a symptom of other personality features that also contribute to creativit

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