For those individuals who naturally classify themselves as night owls, sometimes blending in with the outside world can be a challenge. In an environment where 9-5 is the norm, being the type of person that thrives late at night can sometimes be a setback. However, recent research has found that there are actually some pretty unknown perks of being a night owl, mainly that night owls are typically actually smarter and more productive than their early-morning counterparts.
For true night owls, staying up late into the night is the only way to do things. In fact, just as most people are nodding off or getting ready to turn in for the day, night owls are just getting their real second wind and a much-needed burst of energy to really get their creative juices flowing. If you need a little more proof that night owls may just have the edge, here is some research to support this idea that late-nighters may really have the cognitive edge.
While the old adage “the early bird gets the worm,” may have some merit, according to one study from the University of Madrid, just because the early bird gets the worm, it doesn’t mean that it is necessarily more intelligent. This study, which looked at the sleeping patterns of approximately 1,000 teenagers, found that early risers were in fact, more likely to get better grades in school. However, when the study administered overall intelligence tests, the night owls scored much higher.
The London School of Economics also did a similar study which looked at children, their intelligence and difference adaptive behaviors. The study ultimately found that nocturnal individuals may actually have a smarter IQ. The study found that “more intelligent children” are more likely to grow up and be night owls who prefer to go to bed late and wake up late both during the week and on the weekends.
In terms of productivity, several studies have not only found that night owls tend to get more done, especially in their peak middle-of-the-night working hours, but that they tend to have more flexibility with their work schedule, which allows them to do more than the average employee. Many night owls have no choice but to adjust to a “typical” early morning schedule, even if they do stay up late. Over time, most night owls learn to thrive in these early morning situations, while still maintaining that extra boost of work ethic that comes late in the night. In short: night owls can be productive both in the early morning and late into the evening.
They also have more time to prepare themselves for the next day of work. While the average early-morning person has a limited amount of time between when they get home and when they need to get to bed to rest up for work the next day, night owls have a little more time on their hands. Ultimately, truly nocturnal adults have the added benefit of being able to plan out the entire next day, before that day even starts. Plus, just when you are about to argue for non-night owls who can get up earlier before work starts, most studies found that late-night types are actually able to function at a high level on less sleep.
Researchers from Belgium followed up on this idea studying both night owls and early birds and found that nocturnal participants, didn’t get weary when they stayed up late and that they were able to function at a similar level as their early-riser counterparts, even when they got less sleep. When the University of Liege in Belgium looked farther into what this “functioning” may mean, they conducted a study that measured the brain activity of both night owls and early birds. While both focus groups scored similarly in the morning, when the study tracked their brain activity ten hours later, the night owls vastly outscored the other test group.
In a world where everyone seems to truly believe that the early bird gets the worm, many night owls are changing the game and proving that sometimes staying up later is the way to go.