There’s also this certain social connotation of morning people being “good” and evening people “bad”, especially in religious communities. Like, if you are sleeping in, you must’ve been up sinning like one of those party people.
Sarah Fellows I remember begging to be at the afternoon classes, in Brazil we do had that. I couldn’t get it, because one is state managed and the other city’s managed. But later on, it was amazing to be able to go to school in the afternoon. At some point from 2-7 (middle school). By the time I went to college at night, I need to worked by day anyway, and I usually study later on after arriving home close to midnight, from 1 to 2 in the morning, I love the silence of the night. I worked many years far from home, so I have to be up by 5:30 in the bus by 7, if I missed that bus I could not be at work on time. That time was the worse time of my life, always moody, always rude. People would labeled me. Now I know and I am happy the way I am. When I worked in the USA from 6 to 1 in the morning, I loved. Can’t do that anymore, I guess something change because I am up early if I want it or not, lol.
@Lauren May having to get up at 5.30am and study sounds so difficult. I'm the same as you, I love studying in the afternoon /evening and into about 1 or 2am. I try to stop myself though as I know it's going to mess my sleep pattern up. Wish it was law to check a person's chronotype and try to fit shifts around it lol
My Dad was a morning person, and thought everyone else should be to. I've always been an extreme night owl. It's extremely hard for me to fall asleep and extremely hard for me to wake up. I feel better at night, I function better in the evening. I always felt abnormal and lazy. I wish I were a morning person, but it takes more than will power. Everything you have said about owls is true of me. It's nice to hear there are positives to being an 🦉.
On occasions when I've had to be up at -- say -- 4:30 or 5:00 a.m. (I work the polls for elections and you have to get there early) I actually feel physically ill -- light-headed and nauseated. It doesn't clear up until about 10 a.m.
My adult son and I are the very same as you. I even prefer cleaning at night, even as a teen when my parents were out I would do my chores at night. On the rare occasions I have to be up at 4 or 6am for a trip i will just stay up all night because the risk of sleeping in or simply feeling awful isn't worth going to bed. ie; it's 2am and I'm still at it. Funny, I used to get up for school ok or when my son was young but it's like I don't fight it now, given a choice.
Tell your irksome boss who demands to know why you ate late for work yet again that you suffer from a rare, very serious condition called "Cognitive Jetlag". (There's no such thing but it's amusing to study their reaction as they wonder what your condition is and whether you should be placed on the redundancy hit list....
Curse you, Ben Franklin! I think his axiom: "Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise" (which he totally didn't follow himself) has done more to stigmatize evening people than anything else. Morning people have an image of "virtue" and "energy," while evening people are branded as "lazy" and "self-indulgent." As an RN who worked the 3-11 shift for her entire career, I can say that the evening nurses were far from lazy! I did notice (completely anecdotal "evidence" here) that the 7-3 shift nurses tended to be more rule-bound and less flexible and independent than the later shift nurses. Like Dr. Grande, I also needed a lot of decompression time after work and before bed. Which only seems normal to me. How many people go to bed within an hour or so of the end of their work day? Very interesting video. Thanks, Dr. Grande! (And you're just fine the way you are.)
The evening shift has far less Doctors and other supervisory people ready to pounce on any fault. Seems that explains the different shifts more than anything
You have made a really important point here, about the false virtue of getting up early. And that those that ascribe to that way of thinking do have a very particular mindset. Why can't we just be different and allow for that, why does one have to rank as best. It is interesting that it is the morning people that feel the need to push their "agenda" so to speak on others as better, not something I see evening types doing. Example, all the "how to get up before 5am and be productive" videos around. No "get up at 10 am and be productive until 10pm videos". Then there are the sleep trainer people, and society just basically runs on the type A, busy body, early bird model.
Morning people rule the work world and the social world today. Before lights to allow work 24 hours a day, some people needed to be awake at night at guard everyone else who was sleeping. I think this may have been part of the evolutionary history of larks and owls......
@@nancyneyedly4587 I just love this comment. You'd be amazed at the number of sick people who don't feel inclined to eat breakfast at 7:15 a.m. and have their last meal of the day at 4:30 p.m. However "appealing" that may be to administration.
Love this! Societal expectations are so biased toward the value of being a morning person - "early bird gets the worm" (I'm not interested in getting worms) and encourage/demand that us evening people conform to prove our worth as "hard workers". (As if we are somehow not). Tried for years, unsuccessfully, to change my circadian rhythm to accommodate work only to be more stressed, tired and feeling less authentic. Everything shifted for the better when I listened to my body and decided to only take work from late afternoon into the night. Thank you for covering this topic, Dr. Grande!
So what about mothers who get up at the crack of dawn with the kids and do an evening job when their partner gets home? Their sleep is all over the place, and they may not be morning or evening people, but those who just have to get on with it. Because I worked evenings during both of my pregnancies, both of my kids are evening people, so far until they have their own kids and jobs and then who knows? The important thing to remember is that humans are adaptable. Nothing in life is set in stone. What works best is loving what you do, whatever the time of day, and you'll adapt to being that time of day type. Of course when you do 12 hour shifts as I have in the past, it takes 3 days to get over it and by then, you're back at work again!
This topic has been very helpful. I have struggled with being a night-person (Owl) my whole life. As much of society runs on an early clock. Told by “Larks” that I need to get my circadian rhythm synchronized to their’s. I have noticed that most of the comments are from “Owls.” Probably because they have experienced the same criticism.
I have always felt worse when I wake up than when I went to bed. I have Periodic Limb Movement in Sleep and nocturia from diabetes insipidus. Do you have trouble keeping covers on your bed? Sleep apnea and PLMS are common causes of feeling sleepy during the day and not being alert until evening. People don't know they have these problems because they occur while they are sleeping.
This is interesting, too because my 5-year old nephew seems naturally evening. He’s impossible to wake up in the mornings, always gloomy and sluggish and seems much happier in the evening with a later bed-time and later morning wake time. His parents are considering a private school which begins at 10:30 am because of this. So, I think it must be a natural thing.
Sounds just like me as a kid. Everything was a struggle. I would have done so much better in school if it had started at 10:30am. It would be sgreat if you could get him into a private school like that! Good luck!
@@dedesunbeam9361 I had something like 33 absences from my first period class and they barely let me graduate but the problem was that I also had the highest grade in the same class. Happened every semester until I got to college and could choose classes after 10 am. My GPA went from barely a 3.0 to 4.0 almost every semester and it was easy. People called me lazy my whole life for it, and all the rest. I even got accused of giving hippies bad name once for "sleeping in" (getting a good 6 or 7 hrs. sleep.) Luckily I decided long ago that I don't care what people think and people like that I can drive all night without batting an eye.
@@vyoufinder whenever I hard a long drive ahead of me I always drove at night. Less traffic, less stress, just more deer to the watch out for on the road. But I was always very alert and never had any kind of accident. Only accident I ever had was at 6:30am when I had to work a morning shift....
Sounds like ME as a kid. There is something TO this Phenonomen. I also have chronic insomnia since a child. I wish they had a PILL to stop it that would WORK!! None of them WORK THOUGH. I started driving Trucks because of this malady. I looked at it like, "If I am going to be AWAKE all night, I might as well make some MONEY. But I NEVER made any money doing that. It was the 1970's on, the TRUCKING DEPRESSION. It got better in the 90's and oughts, but it SUCKS, has NEVER paid what it is really worth. The Government always screwing with it RUINS it. The goverenment RUINS everything it touches. BB
@@fatuusdottore people have strange sleep patterns after retirement: go to sleep at 8-10 pm, then completely wake up at 4am, have some naps during day or other crazy schedules.
Mornings are for the necessary things, like work. Sometimes I even feel "supressed" in the morning. The evening is much more calm, free and somewhat melancholic, which makes it easier for me to think more philosophical and be myself. I know, that sounds kinda corny, but you know what I mean. Also - personally - I have a hard time truly appreciating art in the earlier hours of the day.
I do to. It's as if I'm on psychedelics or some kind of mind drug. I get creative in ways that I could never think of during the day. I seem to solve problems too.
I am more of an evening person as well. I’ve worked so many different shifts and I’m always miserable if I must get up early in the morning. The most depressed I think I’ve ever been in my entire life was when I worked a 5am-1p schedule. I had to go to bed at like 9pm and get up at 3:30 am and I cried all the time and felt generally awful. I ended up having to get on antidepressants during that period but discontinued after I quit the schedule. I also detested 9am-5pm schedules. I also hated school the entire time I was in school and I think it was largely because of an early bed time (which I often fought) and waking up so early. I still think school is way too early in America for children. Right now I’m working a third shift position from 7pm-7am three days a week but the happiest I felt was when I worked 3p-11p which I’m returning to in April. I roughly stay on the 3-11 schedule anyway on my days off now so I can’t wait. I liked the time after work (I usually went to bed about 1 or 2am) and slept until 9 or 10am. It’s also great for me because it’s typically the least desired shift due to people with family obligations. The only negative I have for 3-11 is that I like to go to the movies a lot and during the week the chances are shot so I have to go on weekends when it’s usually busier. Other than that, no real complaints. Thanks for the video!
3-11 schedules are amazing. I worked one at a restaurant and for the first time, did not dread getting my day started, because I never felt exhausted and drained of energy. I would also usually stay up until 1 or 2am and wake up fully rested at 9-10am. It really is a nice schedule, not too extreme, not too early.
Omgg i had to wakeup early for school too and tbh have cried once anddd would avoid ppl cuz i m not tht talkative in the morning but as u get older can u turn into a morning bird instead..?
I cannot do 9-5!! I've tried. I went into Real estate so that I could set me schedule to after 10am and my distaste being out in public is limited. I don't know how ppl go in at 9 and sit in the same desk all day til 5. I simply cannot do it. I must have a variety of schedules that are not the same day over and over-- groundhog day!
I also feel more depressed in the mornings. When I wake up at 10/11am my day flows like water. If I have to wake up at about 7/8am I feel depressed at around lunchtime, for then being back to normal again. Evenings I just feel great. It's soooo weird.
Hitting my three month mark on working a 5am-1pm shift and it’s god awful. In order to sleep I’m popping melatonin and Benadryl like candy and while I sleep I still feel bad, it’s not until the weekend where I pass out at 12 and wake up at 8 that I feel actually well rested and normal. Most of my jobs have been second shift hours but I never realized that I may have been a night person this entire time..
i've been a night owl all my life. swing shift was a great time to work because i was fully rested and ready to go. even now, getting up before 8 am feels like death.
I'm also an evening person. Some have told me that if I use an alarm clock and set a schedule, I can adjust to being a morning person. This just isn't so. Alarm clocks will never win over one's internal clock. Trying to conform to being a morning person only results in being very tired most of the time. Thank you for your interesting insights.
I’m a lark, raised by larks and grew up surrounded by larks. I married an owl who also had owl parents and siblings. The whole thing just blew my mind, I couldn’t wrap my head around it. I didn’t know about day and night people, I assumed everyone was a day person. How wrong was I! I’ve been married for 19 years now, and have gotten used to owls as our offsprings are also owls. I do struggle with a few things, but try to work around them. Good talk. Thank you Dr. Grande.
I remember my years in HS where if I were very invested in an assignment or project (usually art) I stayed up all night and still walk to school fine at 6 am. I just keel over and die during algebra though 😴😴😴
I’m definitely an owl. Sleep till 10, stay up till 1 or 2. One thing that is rough is that everything closes at night. I still want to socialize, have hobbies, do errands, sit in coffee shops and go to the library but everything is closed. We just end up sitting alone in the house. I play RUclips videos constantly just so I don’t feel as lonely.
It's the same with me. I work mostly until 11 pm, sometimes even later. And I also need at least 1.5 - 2 hours at home until I go to bed. My brain just needs that time to process everything that happened during the day.
Dr Grande, I'm 61, and only found the freedom to be an owl when I retired in my mid 50's. All my working career I would have to force myself to get up at 5am to be awake enough to be ready for work at 8am. Within 2 weeks of retirement, I was up until 1am, then 2am, getting up at 9am, and maybe a small lie down in the afternoon. Now, I've fully adjusted to the way my body wants to be. I go to bed between 3:30am and 5am, sleep until 10:30am or so, and love it. I believe any negatives in the past were from always living out of step. Might sound corny but I love the night because when I look up I can see what's really out there. At night the curtains to the universe are opened up. During the day, the curtain is drawn.
Dr. Grande- a few observations about the chronotype- I come from a family of morning people and I never have been (despite consistently having to be up early for sports practice, work, etc). My parents observed that I was a "night owl" even as a baby, so it's something I've ALWAYS been! And I still struggle with it greatly. I know many writers/journalists and slightly creative types (not necessarily saying they are in a creative field per se0 , but think creatively who are night owls. Like them, I have never worked in a creative field, but am a very creative person. I feel like many creative types are night owls, and I've discussed this openly with friends who are. In my experience night owls are very conscienscious, which is why we can't sleep. We rhuminate about our day, and what we should have done differently or better and perhaps how we may have affected others. I'm probably biased because like attracts like - but I work in a field that is predominantly "Hyper Type A" morning people and so occasionally I'll meet a fellow night own and we tend to flock together ;0
Dr Grande...I think you are quite Okay!😉 I am an evening type person and think this video is validating even considering the downside. I was born this way and there isn't any changing it. Great video!
Teenagers, who would be happier living on an afternoon and evening schedule, are compelled to conform to the morning schedule with the way high schools are arranged. would of course be more prone to depression and anxiety than those students who are happy living on a morning schedule. When they do have the option of being able to arrange their schedule to more closely fit their circadian rhythm, tend to be much happier.
I’m a night owl, always have been... I graduated high school nearly 20 years ago and I still cringe when I remember how miserable I was every morning because I could only sleep 3-4 hours and it would take several classes to get going. Awful.
@@Red88Rex Same. In college, if I had a spare, I'd go to the health centre and sleep. It was AMAZING. I credit those naps with getting me through the rest of my day.
I would argue the reason evening types are more likely to suffer from psychological issues is because the world of work is generally not structured for them, and therefore this causes them stress and anxiety. It’s a social issue as opposed to a biological issue which places the blame on the individual. Something psych research often tends to do.
I’m an evening person and, like you, I shaped my career to accommodate that so I could get 8 hours sleep regularly. I would have to say that sleep prolonged deprivation from working early morning shifts did change my personality characteristics.
So glad to know you understand what it's like to be an evening person. Been one my entire life, even as a baby, according to my mother. Morning people have it made in general in our society regarding schedules for the most part, but after raising four now adult children, I have seen a few advantages to being a night person, as well. Thank you for this and all your other very informative and helpful videos.
Thank you so much for this video, Dr. Grande! I have long thought something was "wrong" with me because I do indeed feel and function better in the afternoon and evening. But I spent many years working rotating shifts even in the same week. Some days I would have to be up at 3:30am, other days I would go to work at 5pm and work til 2 in the morning so I could never get accustomed to any type of regular schedule, I survived on usually less than 2 hours sleep per night, and was constantly exhausted. If I could have been allowed to just work evening shifts I would have been much better off. As always, thank you so much for "normalizing" something that morning people often assume is weird. You're the best!
I’m an extreme night owl and always have been. Everything you said about evening people suits me to a tee. Everyone has always told me it was something I need to change, like it’s that simple.
This video made me think of the sleep pattern of my daughter since she was very young. It was impossible to put her to bed at reasonable time: she couldn't stay down. That still holds true at 26, a real night owl!
Don't worry, Dr Grande! My cat is much more active at night than in the day-time and he's great. I also work at night, so my cat and I are a good match in this regard.
It's nearly 3am as I'm watching this, and I'm definitely an evening person and am high on openness. However, I also score the most highly on conscientiousness. Therefore, I do think that there's confounding factors which come into play including personality traits. Thank you for addressing this interesting topic.
When you said that evening people are constantly working against their internal clock. . That hit my right in the medical complications and sleep apnea.
I’ve always been a night owl. I was miserable when I first tried to force myself to work first shift because that’s what everyone did. I first tried a 3rd shift job when I was 23 and it changed everything for me. I’m 36 now and still live the night life, it’s wonderful going to the store or the gym at 1am. I do find I’m very creative at 3-4am, I get the urge to play guitar all the time then! I’m single with no kids and so I live my life as I want and I’m happy. For what it’s worth, I have no disorders, no problems with anxiety or depression, not on any medication - I would be if I was forced to work on a first shift schedule though.
Yes! Fellow owls! Hoot! I’m relieved that there’s some science about morning people and night people. I’ve been a night person for the majority of my adult life and I don’t feel so lonely, knowing there are others out there that are owls :3
Your description fits me well, Dr. Grande. I am a true owl, my brain simply works a lot better at night, when everybody's already asleep. The majority of my family and friends are larks, so they never understand why I look like a zombie during daytime, yet look so alive around midnight. I am a freelance artist, also been struggling with schizoaffective disorder (depression type) for more than a decade. When I force myself to be a lark, somehow I always end up feeling ill/very fatigue 😥
Thank you so much Dr. Grande for the enlightenment! I didn't knew that this kind of studies existed. Finally somethings make sense in my life 😊 In my childhood i had to get up early in the morning and i always felt bad about it. During my life i never woke up early in the morning to do something optional, only the mandatory things. I always felt more concentrated, focused, awaken, productive in the afternoon and specially at night. I practiced sport for many years and i always had more energy at the end of the day. I became a nurse, the afternoon and evening shifts were perfect for me. But when i worked only in the morning shifts i always felt like i didn't fit in. In the afternoons, when i arrived at work, i always had a strange feeling with my morning colleagues, like we were on different speeds, like they had a dynamic that i couldn't get in but in another hand my afternoon colleagues and me were in the same page always. Even the moods were different. I think that is social jetlag but i always thought there were something wrong with me. At night i always liked to see movies, read, listen to music, socialise, go to events. I always found that much more interesting at night. Trough my life i met few evening people and "society in general" doesn't understand what is like to be an evening person. When i was young i felt bad about it but i learned that wich one of us is unique and there are somethings about ourselves and our lives that we have to embrace it. I'm glad i did it with this characteristic.
Very interesting topic! Like you, I'm an evening-type person, night owl. But then have difficulty sleeping-in late or napping during the day. This leads to a sleep deficit that detrimentally impacts my body-mind-spirit health. If I can get at least 5-7 hours sleep and especially dream (or lucid dream), it's is a major boon for feeling better.
I've always been a night person, and learned some years ago that I really couldn't change it. For two years, I had a job where I had to be in at 4 a.m. every day. I pulled it off, but was pretty miserable and felt exhausted all of the time. As soon as I got a better job, I felt better.
Love the thumbnail. Thank you so much Dr. Grande. I’ve been feeling out of whack and sleepless since rising at 4. Didn’t consider the connection, you’ve given me a lot to think about. If it helps: the night is serene, star-filled; and night-time parasympathetic activation makes for better conversation. The best idea I’ve ever had for a paper, came in a dream; after days sleepless, I dozed off in the library at 2 am, awoke and typed. Unfortunately, not a common occurrence. I’m more often delirious.
I'm with you, Dr. Grande! I'm definitely an evening type. I hate mornings and have much more energy in the evenings. I also teach in the eves. That works much better for me than when I worked an 8-5 job. It can be frustrating that there's this common misconception that if you go to bed later and get up later you're lazy. I sleep and work the same amount of hours. They're just at different times.
I've had so many arguments on this subject...The thing is, I'm certainly an evening-type person and there are so many people who think that it is "wrong" and that I have to change my rhythm by force. Which I've tried, oh so so many times. I've never succeeded and it has filled me with such guilt that I can't change that aspect about me. I do have a mental illness, and friends and family suggest that my daily rhythm is detrimental for me. But all my attempts to change it have been useless and only filled me with more shame that I'm not "normal". My argument has always been that my eveningness seems to be so intrinsic, I don't remember a time when I would have been a morning person. Mornings have always been hard for me and i've been energetic only in the evenings throughout my life...
Really liked the fact you revealed something about yourself Doc! I'm a night person who happens to love the early morning so like usual I don't fit ! Keep up the great work Doctor.
All of those issues stem from society revolving around morning types. Since I started working evening shifts I've become healthier, more awake and more capable in every regard.
I’m so glad I’ve watched this. I’ve always been an evening person. I do suffer with depression but am treated and well. No substance use. No issues with impulse control. I just work so much better and think more clearly and deeply at night. I tell my friends that I don’t live in their time frame....Thanks again Dr Grande.
The personal interlude in this video is so unexpected yet so appealing! We are knee deep (as usual) in facts and all of a sudden there is a real person there to be related to!! Nice switch up🙂
I worked graveyard shift for the majority of my career and loved the lifestyle. The downside was putting on weight and concerns about coronary health. Since retirement I'm always awake and raring to go at 3:30 AM. I'm much more productive in the early mornings. I also require less sleep as a lark than when I was a night owl. (I love the bird labels.)
Great video! Cool to know you’re an evening person. Your chill demeanor made me think that you were. I’ve always been an evening person. As a child, I knew I am exactly that! I remember in elementary school having to make myself wake right up at 6 AM and the only motivator for doing so was to keep my mom from fussing at me. I would be soooo tired and I was made to go to bed by 9 PM. In college I worked in the evenings as a CNA on the second shift, 3 PM to 11 PM. I would never register for classes starting before 10 AM lol! I did, however, have to take Philosophy at 8 AM and it was hell! I think my whole class were evening people except for on guy because no one would really answer the professor’s philosophical questions but that morning guy. It was just too damn early to think about those kinds of questions 😂 Years after college now, I work 8:30 AM to 5 PM and I’m always late for work. Trying to explain my circadian rhythm to my Supervisor has been very annoying so I just stopped explaining and told her that I will never be on time. Having to wake up before 10 AM keeps me tired all day no matter how much coffee I drink and I don’t sleep well at night anyway. It’s just after 2 AM, Monday morning as I type this and I am definitely awake lol! I’ve recently earned my Full Stack Web Development certificate so I can work remotely in this pandemic and possibly set my hours later in the day. I will be so relieved once I’m able to make my schedule more conducive to my biology!
Doctor! You've just opened up about YOURSELF!❤ And you sometimes laugh a bit, too. I'm very proud of you! No worries, nothing bad will happen to an owl that is making such huge progress, this is absolutely certain. 👍
One less thing to feel ashamed of. I feel more productive at night. I thought i might appear to be a troublemaker Or id be judged negatively I actually walk around my house In the dark alot. But now that ive processed this presentation. Im thinking and seeing how Im a full grown adult. Im free. Not incarcerated It truly doesn’t matter! I am responsible and too old too feel ill be answering to someone About being up late. The vibe in the air is better too. So i feel alive. Glad people are in their homes. Being observed everyday for 2 years 13-15 has had an effect on my perceptions. Feelings of safety, Anxious attachment, I live alone now. Its important because i see what is actually the. Issue has nothing to do with the external world. Or what if i owned my house with a cat ,good looks my own income and car was pd too. I have all that. And im always on top of watching your opinions Because i respect the research. I respect your presentations and opinions. FAVORITE PERSON ON YOU TUBE 😂😂😂 facts are what they are. Always valuable
I know that I am an owl bc my writing can go anywhere between 3 to 4 hours of research. Being an aspiring writer has been on my bucket list for some time. Congratulations DR. GRANDE for sharing with us about being an owl or a lark!
A video on cohabitation of morning and evening people would be interesting. On the positive side, both get opportunities for alone time. You can help each other, like the lark making coffee for the owl on a day when they must get up early, or the owl picking up groceries at night when the lark is already in pajamas. On the negative side, it's harder to find leisure time together. When the lark is done with work and ready to relax, the owl is right in the middle of their most productive time.
I’ve been an 🦉 all my life and with that comes the distain and scorn of the morning evangelists. 😒 But after watching, this video was quite reassuring for me, especially since you outed yourself as an 🦉 too. Thanks again for another interesting topic!
I’m glad you brought this up! What you’re talking about is DSPS. There is a diagnosis for it in the DSM -5. I have had severe DSPS, delayed sleep phase syndrome. It started in high school and I’ve had it for over 45 years. It caused major life problems. I wish I would’ve known what it was back then, because it was so confusing to me and everyone around me. There are some excellent groups on Facebook and Reddit for DSPS, so if you think you might have it check those groups out. The people on there can tell you all about it, but I guarantee you your doctor can’t. In the last year mine has been shifting to sighted non-24, which is a very rare sleep disorder that’s much more difficult to deal with. Some doctors have used chronotherapy to treat DSPS, but this can lead to non-24 so the people that have been through that will tell you NOT to do it, 99.9% of doctors, psychiatrists and neurologists know nothing about this. You have to see a doctor that specializes in circadian rhythm disorders, otherwise you’re just wasting your time. I don’t see it as a preference as I clearly have no choice in the matter. Trying to live against your chronotype will cause you to be very ill eventually.
100% night owl. I have been aware of this since mid-childhood. The supposed negative qualities of that fit, too - lifelong mild depression, vague dissatisfaction with life, and so on. I had two jobs in my life that fit my personal prefernce, but nearly all of my adult life I was miserable having to conform to the rest of the world's schedule. Now, I'm retired...problem solved!
As an extreme evening type, I would put the societal disadvantages much more strongly than you did. Although I don't know whether there's any evidence of it to date in the literature, I would strongly suspect that evening-type people who find a way to fit their work schedules to their chronotypes no longer have a correlation with any personality disorders. Sleep deprivation in itself is enough to trigger or worsen any potential mood disorders or psychopathologies.
Definitely an evening person. I've been this way my whole life. My ideal bed time is between 1 am and 3 am. I'm currently a university student and this semester I don't have to get up before 10 am and I'm really hoping that there won't be an 8 am lecture next semester
Thank you for your insights. There may be evolutionary selective pressure to have a portion of the ape (including humans) herd be active at night, as sentinels; some autistic traits also appear (to me, and I'm uneducated) to be geared for detecting threats at night--- augmented vision, hearing, smelling for example. The book _SLEEP THIEF, Restless Legs Syndrome_ mentioned the studies on circadian rhythm, and how people kept in darkness tend to aggregate around a 25-hour cycle. My body requires that I sleep from around 2:30 AM to 11:00 AM, but I am not allowed to sleep after 6:30 AM. This means I get perhaps 3 hours of sleep a night, no matter when I lay down to sleep. I lay awake in bed for 5 or 6 hours before I sleep, utterly exhausted and weary but not in the least bit sleepy. I was cursed with augmented intelligence (147 on a short IQ instrument, 136 on a long IQ instrument), so there is another "data point" for IQ having an effect. I have always been a vampire, avoiding sunrise when I am allowed to do so.
This is so true. Being an evening person is difficult in my experience. Consider that 80% of the population is NOT like you and that in general the world is designed for morning people. I also agree with the vulnerability to neuroticism, mood & sleep issues 😥
I am an evening person too. My experiences are more or less the same as yours. I discovered at 12 years old that I was fitter and more into working in the afternoon and even better after 6 pm. I veworked many years for aviation, and the mornings were simply impossible, despite me working my way through them and often without sleeping, but a lot of motivation adrenaline doing a good job. With the age and difficult schedules and situations, this has had a toll on me. My young body could easily recover, but after 45, and even more so after 50, it felt challenging, specially the recovery seemed almost impossible. I have always been a huge defender of this theory, and would really try to bring this into companies that work with shifts, so everyone can do his best performance. My mini thoughts on this.
I have worked overnite shifts for 15 years. I love the peace and quiet while the rest of the chaotic world is asleep. Focus is better, less distractions, less “drama”. Love it.
I'm probably in the other 50%, I have had my sleep rhythm kind of stretch by sometime, all the time, where I could be a morning person for a while until I just really, really wasn't anymore and after a long while I was again. For years now, I've been using melatonin to keep it in check, but I still need like an hour of "don't do anything interesting/exciting before going to sleep", which I fail occasionally and end up being unable to sleep for hours, even if work requires me to wake up at 7.45. That said I've been listening to your videos while I eat breakfast on workdays and it's almost a ritual now after doing it for about two months. It really sets the mood for me to get ready for work. I really enjoy the way you talk and hopefully I can learn to have similar demeanor. It feels like "this is the way a professional should talk to both, other professionals and clients". Oh and every morning, every single morning, "insider look at METAL HEALTH topics" HELL YEA. I know I'm dumb, but it brings me joy.
i enjoy your approach to research, and your opinions are organized and well thought out... this is an interesting topic + it's always good to hear multiple sides to the story, which you always provide. i always used to be an evening person, and i still am, but due to scheduling and my sleep cycle changing, i've also come to enjoy being a morning person as well. i just despise the afternoon, funnily enough. wonder what THAT says... haha my younger brother has chronic insomnia (which most of my family has to some degree), and it's hard to see him have to get up at 6am to get ready for school when he had just fallen asleep at 4. the fact that adolescents and teens are generally evening people based on their biology is part of why schools [particularly middle + high schools] should start at a later time. it's unproductive to disrupt someones biological clock daily to go to classes if you want them to actually be able to learn. this video is great, and it leads down many alleyways, and you managed to touch on many of them without getting off-task . thank you!
I have always been an owl and my sister a lark. In my childhood school days, she always had to wake me up so I can make it to my 7 AM classes, even up to my college days. I always used to study through the night snd go to bed right on or close to midnight. As I aged, and stopped working, it became more clear to me that I am an evening person. I appreciate your comment Dr Grande, where you said many owls are forced to be morning people because their schedules demand it, like school or work. It helps to have someone like you confirm this point, because many relatives and friends find me to be odd, since I go to bed around 2 or 3 AM and get up close to or after noon every day. For me, it feels just right. My mind functions better after mid day, not early mornings.
First I want to thank you for all the informative videos. I watch them a lot. Even though it might not seem this way, as this one here is already one year old and it was new to me:D They helped me to understand myself better as I dealt with social anxiety and depression a lot. I like the pure information as it calms me down and there were times, when I was quite the target for wishful thinking and unreasonably stretched believes (don't get me wrong, I'm very spiritual and it helps me with my mood and my art, but I always try to stay grounded when it comes to applicating new concepts into my life). There is a chance that social anxiety saved me from joining a cult like community. But back to the topic. I tend to be an evening type. I'm an artist and I get more productive in the evening, often staying up until very late in the night. I have better ideas and more mystical thoughts in the dark. On the other hand I find myself to be happier in times when I get up early and manage to be tired at 10pm. So I sometimes switch, thankfully I'm free to do so. For me it is a balance between intellectual/spiritual endeavour (which flourishes better in the evening) and more fulfilling satisfaction from activities and sports (which is more likely to happen when I get to start before noon). Anyways, that are just some of my first thoughts after watching this video. Take care!
It's so interesting, thank you! I find it interesting re school performance, schools usually operate and expect best performance in the mornings so no surprises that morning people have better results. My nice has just started HS and they start 10-11am. To give the teenagers a chance to sleep and also study later but that's their preference 👍
Glad you shared some personal info hehe I think I'm speaking for the great majority of the viewers that we want to know always more about our favorite Dr. 😊
100% an evening person! All the descriptors of it sound like me! However I've been a consistent evening person my whole life. I didn't go through a morning phase as a child. I've always struggled with the morning style schedule of society. I wonder if it's rare to be consistent like this throughout life?
I think some of the correlations may be due to two things: (1) the world, in general, is designed for morning people and we owls have to adapt to the work and study schedules designed by larks; (2) moral connotations have been associated by those rule-following larks.
Hi Dr. Grande, I like this sort of topics, please talk some more about what is "normal". This is quite interesting. I am a morning lark, mornings are for me. Mornings come with an explosion of energy, mental clarity and energy, sunshine and enthusiasm, and joie de vivre ! Nights are for sleep, because I am seriously tired and depleted after all that running around ! (Thank you for taking a break from all those pathologies.) I am your enthusiastic student.
I love this video. I'm going to show it to my dad, not that it will make much difference... he is an extreme extrovert and a morning person. I'm introverted, kind of a hermit, and my natural sleep cycle is 4am to noon. I almost never have been able to follow that sleep schedule of course. my dad always thought I was lazy because even back in elementary school, I would get in bed at a normal kid bedtime, but my mom would have to drag me out of bed every day to go to school. I would read with a flashlight for hours after bedtime. I was utterly miserable and constantly tired during the day, and I did not do well in school, but I could NOT seem to change it. I missed a lot of school because of illness. I also learned to read when I was four years old. I'm in my forties now, my evening preference never budged.. my dad has finally resigned himself to the fact that I am just weird. :P oh, and yep I've always suffered from pretty severe anxiety, depression and insomnia.
I have been saying for years that high school should start later, and elementary school earlier, because of circadian rhythm changes. Myself and so many other people I know remember being consistently exhausted and burned out in high school because of very early bus rides (I had to wake up at 5:00am) and inability to sleep early at night. I would wake up exhausted, be useless in my first class at 7:25am, fall asleep on the bus in the afternoon, take a nap on the couch, then wake up at 6:00pm and have to do my homework and eat. By the time I was finished, I would be unable to sleep until past 11:00pm. Consistently. The napping wasn't helping but oftentimes I could not stay awake due to years of sleep deprivation.
I've always been an evening person. I love to clean house at night and the sleep part he explained is me 100% I barely sleep and have depression but I manage it pretty well and don't cause issues for others around me.
As an extreme night owl, I’ve always felt like a social outcast. But reading the comments to this video, most of which are from other night owls, makes me realize I’m not alone. It’s been over 18 years since I’ve been “allowed” to live as a night person, due to family and job responsibilities. And I’ve felt perpetually exhausted all that time, for most of the time. And the chronic exhaustion makes me feel much less motivated to get things done. Before being forced to live as a morning person, my “nightness” went through several different permutations. - In one phase I worked the 1 PM to 9 PM shift in a nursing home for about 3 years. I stayed up until about 2 AM most nights, and got up at 11 AM. I was NEVER tired during waking hours during those years. It was a really good schedule for me. But one time I thought I needed to get on a “more normal daytime routine,” and went to the 7AM to 3PM shift instead, which was a DISASTER for me. I felt like I was walking through a thick fog all day. So, I went back to the 1PM to 9PM shift within 2 weeks, and quickly felt normal again. - In another phase, which lasted about 3 years, I had a waiter/bartender job from 4:30 PM to about 10 to 10:30 PM. During this chapter of my life, I became an EXTREME night owl. I would often be falling asleep as the sun was rising, and would sleep until 3 PM almost every day. And I felt GREAT living that way. And I loved the lifestyle too. As an introvert, I could go to a 24 hour gym after work, and not be surrounded by too many people. I could go grocery shopping at 11 PM, and have the whole store almost to myself. I enjoyed watching movies at night, listening to music, and reading. - And in my last phase as a night person, before I was forced to live as a morning person, I bartended from 10:30 AM to 5:30 PM. This did reign in my extreme night tendencies a tad, since I had to get up at 9:30 AM, which was actually kinda hard for me. I went to bed around midnight or 1 AM during this phase. This was the least preferable of my 3 different night phases. Now I’m forced to get up at 6:30 AM most days, and I HATE it. I can very much relate to many of you, who have observed that the world is run by morning people, and that us night people are often misjudged as having some kind of character defect. I’m a few months away from theoretically having complete control of my sleep/wake cycle, and I’m excited about it. It will be interesting to see what I naturally revert to, at age 57, once I no longer have to be up early. I have several different businesses I’m thinking about starting, but, after seeing this, I think I’m going to have to choose a business-model which allows me to be my best, happiest, and most productive self, by giving myself permission to go to bed and arise when my body wants to. Even if that means a slightly lower income from my business. Because no amount of money is worth feeling tired all the time, due to being forced to live on a schedule which simply isn’t congruent with one’s natural circadian rhythm. I’ve had about 18 years to supposedly “adjust” to being a morning person, and I never did. My inner night person is desperate to reassert itself.
No matter how late I get home, or " finish" my day, I always need time to " decompress" before going to sleep. The amount of time, and activities during that may vary somewhat, but I still do seem to " need" that time. As you stated in your video, I was, out of necessity, a ," Lark" for many years. As I have aged, I have changed my habits, and since it's no longer required that I get up really early, I relish sleeping until 8:30- 9am. No matter my schedule, I still " require" (for myself) some quiet time in the mornings, and before bed. Ironically, when I was a young Mother of 4, College Student, and working full-time, all in the same time period of several years, I would make sure to set my alarm. So that I had one hour of quiet time before " Life full blown" began each day. For me, this saved my sanity, lol. It also allowed me to be ready mentally to get everyone up & off to work, School, etc., with a positive, and much more patient frame of mind. A win- win for everyone in our home.
This was a really good topic. I am definitely a morning person. I simply can’t do evenings. I remember working my way through college. I often worked double shifts from 3:00 to 11 and then 11:00pm to 7:00 am. The night shift people loved there shift and couldn’t imagine any other shift. They were wonderful people but very different. They were introvert and had some friends but very few. They definitely were a different group..... I would love to see more topics like this. Very interesting.
I too for many years worked evening shift and my day even when off seemed more awake and together after 2pm. However I have retired and trained myself to get up at 5am. Yet I still find that I cannot really "get together"until afternoon. Evening person at heart I guess .Humans are amazing.!
I've once read an article that discussed the hypothesis of diferent cyrcadian rythms within a population being an evolutionary adaptation... Back when we lived in the wild, it was very important to have alert people at all times of day and night, and by having different rythms, there was always someone awake, looking around and being vigilant, and doing some kind of work (tending to fires, sick people, etc)! So interesting!
I have been a night person my entire life. The rest of my family were early risers. I like being night person. I love sundown and all the quiet that comes with it. My only concern, and one that I have had for many years, is the judgement implied by morning people that we are some how lazy. This criticism has always been delivered with self-righteous proclamations that some how they are better because they wake up early. I mean would any of them like to call 911 at midnight and be told to call back in the morning. Natural night people have been essential to the survival of our species. From guarding the cave to studying the night sky to determine seasons and the best planting times to the actual invention of the calendar and the 24 hour day; all night people. There is no real difference in the contributions to mankind. Morning folks are asleep early in the evening and I find that silly, childish and boring. Who says we sleep 'late'? I sleep 8 hours and now that I'm retired I do that in the way nature intended. It is the actual best part of retirement. I can go to sleep and wake up in the way that is best for me.
I’m certainly an owl although I do love a nice crisp summer morning. Something about it that is so fresh and uplifting. But I am an owl, I like the night, it doesn’t make me tired.
My body prefers to sleep in two short sleep cycles (5-10a/p) per day with the active times being at night; day time hours tend to be more quiet activity time. It would be interesting to know if this has any kind of prevalence today or precedence in human history. That said, sleep cycles have always fascinated me; so, this was a good way to get the brain working this morning!
I have learned a new and valuable word. Chronotype. I am most definitely not a day dweller. 19 years of early morning work didn't do a thing to alter that.
I am an owl. I had played piano gigs until early morning for 30 years. At 50 I earned an MA in Ed. I substitute-taught and worked as an adjunct math professor. It was super difficult, playing a Saturday gig until 1 am Sunday, packing up and driving home, and waking at 4 am Monday to look at homework and be in class at 8 am in another city. Sunday nights were the worst. Retirement is better. Grande is best.
There’s also this certain social connotation of morning people being “good” and evening people “bad”, especially in religious communities. Like, if you are sleeping in, you must’ve been up sinning like one of those party people.
& you are judged negatively for being tired in the morning. I wish everyone understood chronotypes, then society could get the best out of people.
Sarah Fellows I remember begging to be at the afternoon classes, in Brazil we do had that. I couldn’t get it, because one is state managed and the other city’s managed. But later on, it was amazing to be able to go to school in the afternoon. At some point from 2-7 (middle school). By the time I went to college at night, I need to worked by day anyway, and I usually study later on after arriving home close to midnight, from 1 to 2 in the morning, I love the silence of the night. I worked many years far from home, so I have to be up by 5:30 in the bus by 7, if I missed that bus I could not be at work on time. That time was the worse time of my life, always moody, always rude. People would labeled me. Now I know and I am happy the way I am. When I worked in the USA from 6 to 1 in the morning, I loved. Can’t do that anymore, I guess something change because I am up early if I want it or not, lol.
Nina Galvani what is heard when I said I went to the 11:00 Sunday service was that’s the drunks’ service. Rather hurtful. The bastards. Lmao.
@Lauren May having to get up at 5.30am and study sounds so difficult. I'm the same as you, I love studying in the afternoon /evening and into about 1 or 2am. I try to stop myself though as I know it's going to mess my sleep pattern up. Wish it was law to check a person's chronotype and try to fit shifts around it lol
Evening people are seen as 'lazy'
My Dad was a morning person, and thought everyone else should be to. I've always been an extreme night owl. It's extremely hard for me to fall asleep and extremely hard for me to wake up. I feel better at night, I function better in the evening. I always felt abnormal and lazy. I wish I were a morning person, but it takes more than will power. Everything you have said about owls is true of me. It's nice to hear there are positives to being an 🦉.
On occasions when I've had to be up at -- say -- 4:30 or 5:00 a.m. (I work the polls for elections and you have to get there early) I actually feel physically ill -- light-headed and nauseated. It doesn't clear up until about 10 a.m.
My adult son and I are the very same as you. I even prefer cleaning at night, even as a teen when my parents were out I would do my chores at night. On the rare occasions I have to be up at 4 or 6am for a trip i will just stay up all night because the risk of sleeping in or simply feeling awful isn't worth going to bed. ie; it's 2am and I'm still at it. Funny, I used to get up for school ok or when my son was young but it's like I don't fight it now, given a choice.
@@kesmarn Same with me.
@Kristy Kelly that's what I did to, stay up all night in order to be up early. Not quite as bad since I've gotten older.
@@ShazGreenock I know what you mean. I don't fight it either. 8 is the earliest I get up, that's for church.
"Social Jet Lag".... I'm gonna claim it for all my awkward moments, no matter what time of day they happen. Thanks, Doc!
Tell your irksome boss who demands to know why you ate late for work yet again that you suffer from a rare, very serious condition called "Cognitive Jetlag". (There's no such thing but it's amusing to study their reaction as they wonder what your condition is and whether you should be placed on the redundancy hit list....
Genius topic. I would like to see more topics, related to common routines.
twantenho great idea
Excellent and interesting!!!
Yes! How about:
Attack of the gym people!!! People who live at the gym vs people who go there and leave as soon as possible!
Curse you, Ben Franklin! I think his axiom: "Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise" (which he totally didn't follow himself) has done more to stigmatize evening people than anything else. Morning people have an image of "virtue" and "energy," while evening people are branded as "lazy" and "self-indulgent." As an RN who worked the 3-11 shift for her entire career, I can say that the evening nurses were far from lazy! I did notice (completely anecdotal "evidence" here) that the 7-3 shift nurses tended to be more rule-bound and less flexible and independent than the later shift nurses. Like Dr. Grande, I also needed a lot of decompression time after work and before bed. Which only seems normal to me. How many people go to bed within an hour or so of the end of their work day? Very interesting video. Thanks, Dr. Grande! (And you're just fine the way you are.)
The evening shift has far less Doctors and other supervisory people ready to pounce on any fault. Seems that explains the different shifts more than anything
You have made a really important point here, about the false virtue of getting up early. And that those that ascribe to that way of thinking do have a very particular mindset. Why can't we just be different and allow for that, why does one have to rank as best. It is interesting that it is the morning people that feel the need to push their "agenda" so to speak on others as better, not something I see evening types doing. Example, all the "how to get up before 5am and be productive" videos around. No "get up at 10 am and be productive until 10pm videos". Then there are the sleep trainer people, and society just basically runs on the type A, busy body, early bird model.
Morning people rule the work world and the social world today.
Before lights to allow work 24 hours a day, some people needed to be awake at night at guard everyone else who was sleeping.
I think this may have been part of the evolutionary history of larks and owls......
@@nancyneyedly4587 I just love this comment. You'd be amazed at the number of sick people who don't feel inclined to eat breakfast at 7:15 a.m. and have their last meal of the day at 4:30 p.m. However "appealing" that may be to administration.
@@sherylb421 Good point!
Love this! Societal expectations are so biased toward the value of being a morning person - "early bird gets the worm" (I'm not interested in getting worms) and encourage/demand that us evening people conform to prove our worth as "hard workers".
(As if we are somehow not).
Tried for years, unsuccessfully, to change my circadian rhythm to accommodate work only to be more stressed, tired and feeling less authentic.
Everything shifted for the better when I listened to my body and decided to only take work from late afternoon into the night.
Thank you for covering this topic, Dr. Grande!
cbeautifulworld11 less authentic! You nailed that one. Bravo.
@@Donna-cc1kt Thanks! :)
Exactly
Early birds do get the worms but night owls get much more substantial prey!
I'm a morning person and I absolutely do not like working afternoon and evening shifts. I wish everyone could just be accommodated
“Attack of the Morning People” LOL
I thought he was refering to my neighbours lol.
andy pete hahaha!
My worst nightmare lol.
He kind of telegraphed his preference!
So what about mothers who get up at the crack of dawn with the kids and do an evening job when their partner gets home? Their sleep is all over the place, and they may not be morning or evening people, but those who just have to get on with it. Because I worked evenings during both of my pregnancies, both of my kids are evening people, so far until they have their own kids and jobs and then who knows? The important thing to remember is that humans are adaptable. Nothing in life is set in stone. What works best is loving what you do, whatever the time of day, and you'll adapt to being that time of day type. Of course when you do 12 hour shifts as I have in the past, it takes 3 days to get over it and by then, you're back at work again!
This topic has been very helpful. I have struggled with being a night-person (Owl) my whole life. As much of society runs on an early clock.
Told by “Larks” that I need to get my circadian rhythm synchronized to their’s.
I have noticed that most of the comments are from “Owls.” Probably because they have experienced the same criticism.
I have always felt worse when I wake up than when I went to bed. I have Periodic Limb Movement in Sleep and nocturia from diabetes insipidus. Do you have trouble keeping covers on your bed? Sleep apnea and PLMS are common causes of feeling sleepy during the day and not being alert until evening. People don't know they have these problems because they occur while they are sleeping.
This is interesting, too because my 5-year old nephew seems naturally evening. He’s impossible to wake up in the mornings, always gloomy and sluggish and seems much happier in the evening with a later bed-time and later morning wake time. His parents are considering a private school which begins at 10:30 am because of this. So, I think it must be a natural thing.
Sounds just like me as a kid. Everything was a struggle. I would have done so much better in school if it had started at 10:30am. It would be sgreat if you could get him into a private school like that! Good luck!
That is very insightful and supportive of your nephews parents!!
@@dedesunbeam9361 I had something like 33 absences from my first period class and they barely let me graduate but the problem was that I also had the highest grade in the same class. Happened every semester until I got to college and could choose classes after 10 am. My GPA went from barely a 3.0 to 4.0 almost every semester and it was easy. People called me lazy my whole life for it, and all the rest. I even got accused of giving hippies bad name once for "sleeping in" (getting a good 6 or 7 hrs. sleep.) Luckily I decided long ago that I don't care what people think and people like that I can drive all night without batting an eye.
@@vyoufinder whenever I hard a long drive ahead of me I always drove at night. Less traffic, less stress, just more deer to the watch out for on the road. But I was always very alert and never had any kind of accident. Only accident I ever had was at 6:30am when I had to work a morning shift....
Sounds like ME as a kid. There is something TO this Phenonomen. I also have chronic insomnia since a child. I wish they had a PILL to stop it that would WORK!! None of them WORK THOUGH. I started driving Trucks because of this malady. I looked at it like, "If I am going to be AWAKE all night, I might as well make some MONEY. But I NEVER made any money doing that. It was the 1970's on, the TRUCKING DEPRESSION. It got better in the 90's and oughts, but it SUCKS, has NEVER paid what it is really worth. The Government always screwing with it RUINS it. The goverenment RUINS everything it touches. BB
Some people just don't experience that magical feeling of night. I have different kind of thoughts during night compared to my day.
Константин Войнов I used to like being active at night, but I got health issues and that changed. Now I’m an old person, and a morning person.
@@fatuusdottore people have strange sleep patterns after retirement: go to sleep at 8-10 pm, then completely wake up at 4am, have some naps during day or other crazy schedules.
Mornings are for the necessary things, like work. Sometimes I even feel "supressed" in the morning. The evening is much more calm, free and somewhat melancholic, which makes it easier for me to think more philosophical and be myself. I know, that sounds kinda corny, but you know what I mean. Also - personally - I have a hard time truly appreciating art in the earlier hours of the day.
@@abrvalg321 I do that and I'm not even old lol. 4-6am is my favourite time of day and I love be being outside running as the sun rises 🙂
I do to. It's as if I'm on psychedelics or some kind of mind drug. I get creative in ways that I could never think of during the day. I seem to solve problems too.
I am more of an evening person as well. I’ve worked so many different shifts and I’m always miserable if I must get up early in the morning. The most depressed I think I’ve ever been in my entire life was when I worked a 5am-1p schedule. I had to go to bed at like 9pm and get up at 3:30 am and I cried all the time and felt generally awful. I ended up having to get on antidepressants during that period but discontinued after I quit the schedule. I also detested 9am-5pm schedules. I also hated school the entire time I was in school and I think it was largely because of an early bed time (which I often fought) and waking up so early. I still think school is way too early in America for children. Right now I’m working a third shift position from 7pm-7am three days a week but the happiest I felt was when I worked 3p-11p which I’m returning to in April. I roughly stay on the 3-11 schedule anyway on my days off now so I can’t wait. I liked the time after work (I usually went to bed about 1 or 2am) and slept until 9 or 10am. It’s also great for me because it’s typically the least desired shift due to people with family obligations. The only negative I have for 3-11 is that I like to go to the movies a lot and during the week the chances are shot so I have to go on weekends when it’s usually busier. Other than that, no real complaints. Thanks for the video!
3-11 schedules are amazing. I worked one at a restaurant and for the first time, did not dread getting my day started, because I never felt exhausted and drained of energy. I would also usually stay up until 1 or 2am and wake up fully rested at 9-10am. It really is a nice schedule, not too extreme, not too early.
Omgg i had to wakeup early for school too and tbh have cried once anddd would avoid ppl cuz i m not tht talkative in the morning but as u get older can u turn into a morning bird instead..?
I cannot do 9-5!! I've tried. I went into Real estate so that I could set me schedule to after 10am and my distaste being out in public is limited. I don't know how ppl go in at 9 and sit in the same desk all day til 5. I simply cannot do it. I must have a variety of schedules that are not the same day over and over-- groundhog day!
I also feel more depressed in the mornings. When I wake up at 10/11am my day flows like water. If I have to wake up at about 7/8am I feel depressed at around lunchtime, for then being back to normal again. Evenings I just feel great. It's soooo weird.
Hitting my three month mark on working a 5am-1pm shift and it’s god awful. In order to sleep I’m popping melatonin and Benadryl like candy and while I sleep I still feel bad, it’s not until the weekend where I pass out at 12 and wake up at 8 that I feel actually well rested and normal. Most of my jobs have been second shift hours but I never realized that I may have been a night person this entire time..
i've been a night owl all my life. swing shift was a great time to work because i was fully rested and ready to go. even now, getting up before 8 am feels like death.
I'm also an evening person. Some have told me that if I use an alarm clock and set a schedule, I can adjust to being a morning person. This just isn't so. Alarm clocks will never win over one's internal clock. Trying to conform to being a morning person only results in being very tired most of the time. Thank you for your interesting insights.
I’m a lark, raised by larks and grew up surrounded by larks. I married an owl who also had owl parents and siblings. The whole thing just blew my mind, I couldn’t wrap my head around it. I didn’t know about day and night people, I assumed everyone was a day person. How wrong was I! I’ve been married for 19 years now, and have gotten used to owls as our offsprings are also owls. I do struggle with a few things, but try to work around them. Good talk. Thank you Dr. Grande.
I knew you were evening when you described the silver lining but the rug was pulled out. I feel victorious.
Christina H. I knew he was a night owl because he was defending them. :P
The only reason us owls do worse in school is because we're sleeping in class
Berry Tears Don’t lie. It’s because you’re trying to make contracts with magical girls.
Berry Tears lol!
but we are wise
Lol but I was listening :)
I remember my years in HS where if I were very invested in an assignment or project (usually art) I stayed up all night and still walk to school fine at 6 am.
I just keel over and die during algebra though 😴😴😴
I’m definitely an owl. Sleep till 10, stay up till 1 or 2. One thing that is rough is that everything closes at night. I still want to socialize, have hobbies, do errands, sit in coffee shops and go to the library but everything is closed. We just end up sitting alone in the house. I play RUclips videos constantly just so I don’t feel as lonely.
Bigger cities are better for owls...
It's the same with me. I work mostly until 11 pm, sometimes even later. And I also need at least 1.5 - 2 hours at home until I go to bed. My brain just needs that time to process everything that happened during the day.
Dr Grande, I'm 61, and only found the freedom to be an owl when I retired in my mid 50's. All my working career I would have to force myself to get up at 5am to be awake enough to be ready for work at 8am.
Within 2 weeks of retirement, I was up until 1am, then 2am, getting up at 9am, and maybe a small lie down in the afternoon. Now, I've fully adjusted to the way my body wants to be. I go to bed between 3:30am and 5am, sleep until 10:30am or so, and love it. I believe any negatives in the past were from always living out of step. Might sound corny but I love the night because when I look up I can see what's really out there. At night the curtains to the universe are opened up. During the day, the curtain is drawn.
That such a cool way of thinking of it. Yeah it's so beautiful at night, and also I find it's often really too bright in the day
Dr. Grande- a few observations about the chronotype- I come from a family of morning people and I never have been (despite consistently having to be up early for sports practice, work, etc). My parents observed that I was a "night owl" even as a baby, so it's something I've ALWAYS been! And I still struggle with it greatly. I know many writers/journalists and slightly creative types (not necessarily saying they are in a creative field per se0 , but think creatively who are night owls. Like them, I have never worked in a creative field, but am a very creative person. I feel like many creative types are night owls, and I've discussed this openly with friends who are. In my experience night owls are very conscienscious, which is why we can't sleep. We rhuminate about our day, and what we should have done differently or better and perhaps how we may have affected others. I'm probably biased because like attracts like - but I work in a field that is predominantly "Hyper Type A" morning people and so occasionally I'll meet a fellow night own and we tend to flock together ;0
Dr Grande...I think you are quite Okay!😉 I am an evening type person and think this video is validating even considering the downside. I was born this way and there isn't any changing it. Great video!
Kathleen Smith I am of the opposite opinion and think he is not okay. :(
/s
Fascinating. This evening person very much appreciates your sharing your research with us so clearly.
Jeffrey Coleman google Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome, that’s what it’s called.
Teenagers, who would be happier living on an afternoon and evening schedule, are compelled to conform to the morning schedule with the way high schools are arranged. would of course be more prone to depression and anxiety than those students who are happy living on a morning schedule. When they do have the option of being able to arrange their schedule to more closely fit their circadian rhythm, tend to be much happier.
I’m a night owl, always have been... I graduated high school nearly 20 years ago and I still cringe when I remember how miserable I was every morning because I could only sleep 3-4 hours and it would take several classes to get going. Awful.
@@Red88Rex Same. In college, if I had a spare, I'd go to the health centre and sleep. It was AMAZING. I credit those naps with getting me through the rest of my day.
I did not become alert in high school until 10:30 AM. Still on the same schedule!!!!
I would argue the reason evening types are more likely to suffer from psychological issues is because the world of work is generally not structured for them, and therefore this causes them stress and anxiety. It’s a social issue as opposed to a biological issue which places the blame on the individual. Something psych research often tends to do.
I’m an evening person and, like you, I shaped my career to accommodate that so I could get 8 hours sleep regularly. I would have to say that sleep prolonged deprivation from working early morning shifts did change my personality characteristics.
So glad to know you understand what it's like to be an evening person. Been one my entire life, even as a baby, according to my mother. Morning people have it made in general in our society regarding schedules for the most part, but after raising four now adult children, I have seen a few advantages to being a night person, as well. Thank you for this and all your other very informative and helpful videos.
Thank you so much for this video, Dr. Grande! I have long thought something was "wrong" with me because I do indeed feel and function better in the afternoon and evening. But I spent many years working rotating shifts even in the same week. Some days I would have to be up at 3:30am, other days I would go to work at 5pm and work til 2 in the morning so I could never get accustomed to any type of regular schedule, I survived on usually less than 2 hours sleep per night, and was constantly exhausted. If I could have been allowed to just work evening shifts I would have been much better off. As always, thank you so much for "normalizing" something that morning people often assume is weird. You're the best!
I’m an extreme night owl and always have been. Everything you said about evening people suits me to a tee. Everyone has always told me it was something I need to change, like it’s that simple.
ivy layne google Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome, that’s what it’s called.
@@attheranch873 I have it and it sucks.
This video made me think of the sleep pattern of my daughter since she was very young. It was impossible to put her to bed at reasonable time: she couldn't stay down. That still holds true at 26, a real night owl!
Don't worry, Dr Grande! My cat is much more active at night than in the day-time and he's great. I also work at night, so my cat and I are a good match in this regard.
Awwww that's nice
JTucci100 yeah! Let’s hear it for cats and owls, and raccoons! What’s the problem there folks? Problem is judgements with humans.
It's nearly 3am as I'm watching this, and I'm definitely an evening person and am high on openness. However, I also score the most highly on conscientiousness. Therefore, I do think that there's confounding factors which come into play including personality traits. Thank you for addressing this interesting topic.
Kybele Kordax INTJ total agreement here!
I've always had the theory that the time of birth has a factor. I'm an owl; I was born at 12:40 a.m.
This is a very fascinating topic.
I was born at 10:30 at night. Maybe there's something to it as I have been a night owl all my life!
When you said that evening people are constantly working against their internal clock. . That hit my right in the medical complications and sleep apnea.
I’ve always been a night owl. I was miserable when I first tried to force myself to work first shift because that’s what everyone did. I first tried a 3rd shift job when I was 23 and it changed everything for me. I’m 36 now and still live the night life, it’s wonderful going to the store or the gym at 1am. I do find I’m very creative at 3-4am, I get the urge to play guitar all the time then! I’m single with no kids and so I live my life as I want and I’m happy.
For what it’s worth, I have no disorders, no problems with anxiety or depression, not on any medication - I would be if I was forced to work on a first shift schedule though.
Yes! Fellow owls! Hoot! I’m relieved that there’s some science about morning people and night people. I’ve been a night person for the majority of my adult life and I don’t feel so lonely, knowing there are others out there that are owls :3
Your description fits me well, Dr. Grande. I am a true owl, my brain simply works a lot better at night, when everybody's already asleep. The majority of my family and friends are larks, so they never understand why I look like a zombie during daytime, yet look so alive around midnight. I am a freelance artist, also been struggling with schizoaffective disorder (depression type) for more than a decade. When I force myself to be a lark, somehow I always end up feeling ill/very fatigue 😥
Thank you so much Dr. Grande for the enlightenment! I didn't knew that this kind of studies existed. Finally somethings make sense in my life 😊 In my childhood i had to get up early in the morning and i always felt bad about it. During my life i never woke up early in the morning to do something optional, only the mandatory things. I always felt more concentrated, focused, awaken, productive in the afternoon and specially at night. I practiced sport for many years and i always had more energy at the end of the day. I became a nurse, the afternoon and evening shifts were perfect for me. But when i worked only in the morning shifts i always felt like i didn't fit in. In the afternoons, when i arrived at work, i always had a strange feeling with my morning colleagues, like we were on different speeds, like they had a dynamic that i couldn't get in but in another hand my afternoon colleagues and me were in the same page always. Even the moods were different. I think that is social jetlag but i always thought there were something wrong with me. At night i always liked to see movies, read, listen to music, socialise, go to events. I always found that much more interesting at night. Trough my life i met few evening people and "society in general" doesn't understand what is like to be an evening person. When i was young i felt bad about it but i learned that wich one of us is unique and there are somethings about ourselves and our lives that we have to embrace it. I'm glad i did it with this characteristic.
Very interesting topic! Like you, I'm an evening-type person, night owl. But then have difficulty sleeping-in late or napping during the day. This leads to a sleep deficit that detrimentally impacts my body-mind-spirit health. If I can get at least 5-7 hours sleep and especially dream (or lucid dream), it's is a major boon for feeling better.
I've always been a night person, and learned some years ago that I really couldn't change it. For two years, I had a job where I had to be in at 4 a.m. every day. I pulled it off, but was pretty miserable and felt exhausted all of the time. As soon as I got a better job, I felt better.
Love the thumbnail. Thank you so much Dr. Grande. I’ve been feeling out of whack and sleepless since rising at 4. Didn’t consider the connection, you’ve given me a lot to think about. If it helps: the night is serene, star-filled; and night-time parasympathetic activation makes for better conversation. The best idea I’ve ever had for a paper, came in a dream; after days sleepless, I dozed off in the library at 2 am, awoke and typed. Unfortunately, not a common occurrence. I’m more often delirious.
Thanks for sharing this Tarren, I hope you're doing ok in Australia 😃🇳🇱
pocoeagle2 Most welcome Ben. I’m okay and feeling much better after your kind comment 🙂 wishing you a wonderful day in the Netherlands!
I'm with you, Dr. Grande! I'm definitely an evening type. I hate mornings and have much more energy in the evenings. I also teach in the eves. That works much better for me than when I worked an 8-5 job. It can be frustrating that there's this common misconception that if you go to bed later and get up later you're lazy. I sleep and work the same amount of hours. They're just at different times.
I've had so many arguments on this subject...The thing is, I'm certainly an evening-type person and there are so many people who think that it is "wrong" and that I have to change my rhythm by force. Which I've tried, oh so so many times. I've never succeeded and it has filled me with such guilt that I can't change that aspect about me. I do have a mental illness, and friends and family suggest that my daily rhythm is detrimental for me. But all my attempts to change it have been useless and only filled me with more shame that I'm not "normal". My argument has always been that my eveningness seems to be so intrinsic, I don't remember a time when I would have been a morning person. Mornings have always been hard for me and i've been energetic only in the evenings throughout my life...
I knew you were one of us 🌜! Evening ppl rock !!! 😁
Really liked the fact you revealed something about yourself Doc! I'm a night person who happens to love the early morning so like usual I don't fit ! Keep up the great work Doctor.
You are extremely productive, Doctor, no matter what your chronotype!
Yes! Dr. Grande is right there with the rest of us night owls!!!
All of those issues stem from society revolving around morning types. Since I started working evening shifts I've become healthier, more awake and more capable in every regard.
I’m so glad I’ve watched this. I’ve always been an evening person. I do suffer with depression but am treated and well. No substance use. No issues with impulse control. I just work so much better and think more clearly and deeply at night. I tell my friends that I don’t live in their time frame....Thanks again Dr Grande.
The personal interlude in this video is so unexpected yet so appealing! We are knee deep (as usual) in facts and all of a sudden there is a real person there to be related to!! Nice switch up🙂
Attack of the morning people sent me 😂 I love your humor Dr G.
I worked graveyard shift for the majority of my career and loved the lifestyle. The downside was putting on weight and concerns about coronary health. Since retirement I'm always awake and raring to go at 3:30 AM. I'm much more productive in the early mornings. I also require less sleep as a lark than when I was a night owl. (I love the bird labels.)
Great video! Cool to know you’re an evening person. Your chill demeanor made me think that you were. I’ve always been an evening person. As a child, I knew I am exactly that! I remember in elementary school having to make myself wake right up at 6 AM and the only motivator for doing so was to keep my mom from fussing at me. I would be soooo tired and I was made to go to bed by 9 PM.
In college I worked in the evenings as a CNA on the second shift, 3 PM to 11 PM. I would never register for classes starting before 10 AM lol! I did, however, have to take Philosophy at 8 AM and it was hell! I think my whole class were evening people except for on guy because no one would really answer the professor’s philosophical questions but that morning guy. It was just too damn early to think about those kinds of questions 😂
Years after college now, I work 8:30 AM to 5 PM and I’m always late for work. Trying to explain my circadian rhythm to my Supervisor has been very annoying so I just stopped explaining and told her that I will never be on time. Having to wake up before 10 AM keeps me tired all day no matter how much coffee I drink and I don’t sleep well at night anyway. It’s just after 2 AM, Monday morning as I type this and I am definitely awake lol!
I’ve recently earned my Full Stack Web Development certificate so I can work remotely in this pandemic and possibly set my hours later in the day. I will be so relieved once I’m able to make my schedule more conducive to my biology!
Doctor! You've just opened up about YOURSELF!❤ And you sometimes laugh a bit, too. I'm very proud of you! No worries, nothing bad will happen to an owl that is making such huge progress, this is absolutely certain. 👍
One less thing to feel ashamed of.
I feel more productive at night.
I thought i might appear to be a troublemaker
Or id be judged negatively I actually
walk around my house
In the dark alot.
But now that ive processed this presentation.
Im thinking and seeing
how Im a full grown adult.
Im free. Not incarcerated
It truly doesn’t matter!
I am responsible and too old too feel ill be answering to someone
About being up late.
The vibe in the air is better too.
So i feel alive. Glad people are in their homes.
Being observed everyday for 2 years 13-15 has had an effect on my perceptions.
Feelings of safety, Anxious attachment,
I live alone now. Its important because i see what is actually the. Issue has nothing to do with the external world.
Or what if i owned my house with a cat ,good looks my own income
and car was pd too. I have all that. And im always on top of watching your opinions
Because i respect the research. I respect your presentations and opinions.
FAVORITE PERSON ON YOU TUBE 😂😂😂
facts are what they are.
Always valuable
I know that I am an owl bc my writing can go anywhere between 3 to 4 hours of research. Being an aspiring writer has been on my bucket list for some time. Congratulations DR. GRANDE for sharing with us about being an owl or a lark!
A video on cohabitation of morning and evening people would be interesting. On the positive side, both get opportunities for alone time. You can help each other, like the lark making coffee for the owl on a day when they must get up early, or the owl picking up groceries at night when the lark is already in pajamas. On the negative side, it's harder to find leisure time together. When the lark is done with work and ready to relax, the owl is right in the middle of their most productive time.
I’ve been an 🦉 all my life and with that comes the distain and scorn of the morning evangelists. 😒
But after watching, this video was quite reassuring for me, especially since you outed yourself as an 🦉 too.
Thanks again for another interesting topic!
Interesting question and video. Night owls unite!!!
NIGHT OWLS FOREVER!
I’m glad you brought this up! What you’re talking about is DSPS. There is a diagnosis for it in the DSM -5. I have had severe DSPS, delayed sleep phase syndrome. It started in high school and I’ve had it for over 45 years. It caused major life problems. I wish I would’ve known what it was back then, because it was so confusing to me and everyone around me. There are some excellent groups on Facebook and Reddit for DSPS, so if you think you might have it check those groups out. The people on there can tell you all about it, but I guarantee you your doctor can’t. In the last year mine has been shifting to sighted non-24, which is a very rare sleep disorder that’s much more difficult to deal with. Some doctors have used chronotherapy to treat DSPS, but this can lead to non-24 so the people that have been through that will tell you NOT to do it, 99.9% of doctors, psychiatrists and neurologists know nothing about this. You have to see a doctor that specializes in circadian rhythm disorders, otherwise you’re just wasting your time. I don’t see it as a preference as I clearly have no choice in the matter. Trying to live against your chronotype will cause you to be very ill eventually.
100% night owl. I have been aware of this since mid-childhood. The supposed negative qualities of that fit, too - lifelong mild depression, vague dissatisfaction with life, and so on. I had two jobs in my life that fit my personal prefernce, but nearly all of my adult life I was miserable having to conform to the rest of the world's schedule. Now, I'm retired...problem solved!
As an extreme evening type, I would put the societal disadvantages much more strongly than you did. Although I don't know whether there's any evidence of it to date in the literature, I would strongly suspect that evening-type people who find a way to fit their work schedules to their chronotypes no longer have a correlation with any personality disorders. Sleep deprivation in itself is enough to trigger or worsen any potential mood disorders or psychopathologies.
Definitely an evening person. I've been this way my whole life. My ideal bed time is between 1 am and 3 am. I'm currently a university student and this semester I don't have to get up before 10 am and I'm really hoping that there won't be an 8 am lecture next semester
Thanks for posting this video! I learn something new every time I watch one of your videos! Love it 💚
Thank you for your insights. There may be evolutionary selective pressure to have a portion of the ape (including humans) herd be active at night, as sentinels; some autistic traits also appear (to me, and I'm uneducated) to be geared for detecting threats at night--- augmented vision, hearing, smelling for example. The book _SLEEP THIEF, Restless Legs Syndrome_ mentioned the studies on circadian rhythm, and how people kept in darkness tend to aggregate around a 25-hour cycle.
My body requires that I sleep from around 2:30 AM to 11:00 AM, but I am not allowed to sleep after 6:30 AM. This means I get perhaps 3 hours of sleep a night, no matter when I lay down to sleep. I lay awake in bed for 5 or 6 hours before I sleep, utterly exhausted and weary but not in the least bit sleepy. I was cursed with augmented intelligence (147 on a short IQ instrument, 136 on a long IQ instrument), so there is another "data point" for IQ having an effect. I have always been a vampire, avoiding sunrise when I am allowed to do so.
This is so true. Being an evening person is difficult in my experience. Consider that 80% of the population is NOT like you and that in general the world is designed for morning people. I also agree with the vulnerability to neuroticism, mood & sleep issues 😥
This was fascinating. And I liked the personal touch too.🙂 lovely to hear you talk about yourself. 🏴🇬🇧 (edited. I am definitely a lark.)
I am an evening person too.
My experiences are more or less the same as yours. I discovered at 12 years old that I was fitter and more into working in the afternoon and even better after 6 pm.
I veworked many years for aviation, and the mornings were simply impossible, despite me working my way through them and often without sleeping, but a lot of motivation adrenaline doing a good job.
With the age and difficult schedules and situations, this has had a toll on me. My young body could easily recover, but after 45, and even more so after 50, it felt challenging, specially the recovery seemed almost impossible.
I have always been a huge defender of this theory, and would really try to bring this into companies that work with shifts, so everyone can do his best performance.
My mini thoughts on this.
I have worked overnite shifts for 15 years. I love the peace and quiet while the rest of the chaotic world is asleep. Focus is better, less distractions, less “drama”. Love it.
Great for my CPTSD too- nights are scary for me, much better to just work through it at night, and sleep during the day instead.
I'm probably in the other 50%, I have had my sleep rhythm kind of stretch by sometime, all the time, where I could be a morning person for a while until I just really, really wasn't anymore and after a long while I was again. For years now, I've been using melatonin to keep it in check, but I still need like an hour of "don't do anything interesting/exciting before going to sleep", which I fail occasionally and end up being unable to sleep for hours, even if work requires me to wake up at 7.45.
That said I've been listening to your videos while I eat breakfast on workdays and it's almost a ritual now after doing it for about two months. It really sets the mood for me to get ready for work. I really enjoy the way you talk and hopefully I can learn to have similar demeanor. It feels like "this is the way a professional should talk to both, other professionals and clients".
Oh and every morning, every single morning, "insider look at METAL HEALTH topics" HELL YEA. I know I'm dumb, but it brings me joy.
Dr. Todd Grande,
I thank you for your sessions, I thank you for your teachings.
Thanks for this - it explained a lot about my preference. I've been a night owl all my life.
i enjoy your approach to research, and your opinions are organized and well thought out... this is an interesting topic + it's always good to hear multiple sides to the story, which you always provide.
i always used to be an evening person, and i still am, but due to scheduling and my sleep cycle changing, i've also come to enjoy being a morning person as well.
i just despise the afternoon, funnily enough. wonder what THAT says... haha
my younger brother has chronic insomnia (which most of my family has to some degree), and it's hard to see him have to get up at 6am to get ready for school when he had just fallen asleep at 4.
the fact that adolescents and teens are generally evening people based on their biology is part of why schools [particularly middle + high schools] should start at a later time. it's unproductive to disrupt someones biological clock daily to go to classes if you want them to actually be able to learn.
this video is great, and it leads down many alleyways, and you managed to touch on many of them without getting off-task . thank you!
I have always been an owl and my sister a lark. In my childhood school days, she always had to wake me up so I can make it to my 7 AM classes, even up to my college days. I always used to study through the night snd go to bed right on or close to midnight. As I aged, and stopped working, it became more clear to me that I am an evening person. I appreciate your comment Dr Grande, where you said many owls are forced to be morning people because their schedules demand it, like school or work. It helps to have someone like you confirm this point, because many relatives and friends find me to be odd, since I go to bed around 2 or 3 AM and get up close to or after noon every day. For me, it feels just right. My mind functions better after mid day, not early mornings.
First I want to thank you for all the informative videos. I watch them a lot. Even though it might not seem this way, as this one here is already one year old and it was new to me:D
They helped me to understand myself better as I dealt with social anxiety and depression a lot. I like the pure information as it calms me down and there were times, when I was quite the target for wishful thinking and unreasonably stretched believes (don't get me wrong, I'm very spiritual and it helps me with my mood and my art, but I always try to stay grounded when it comes to applicating new concepts into my life). There is a chance that social anxiety saved me from joining a cult like community.
But back to the topic. I tend to be an evening type. I'm an artist and I get more productive in the evening, often staying up until very late in the night. I have better ideas and more mystical thoughts in the dark.
On the other hand I find myself to be happier in times when I get up early and manage to be tired at 10pm.
So I sometimes switch, thankfully I'm free to do so.
For me it is a balance between intellectual/spiritual endeavour (which flourishes better in the evening) and more fulfilling satisfaction from activities and sports (which is more likely to happen when I get to start before noon). Anyways, that are just some of my first thoughts after watching this video.
Take care!
I think it’s awesome that you had ambiguity’s with your evening type diagnosis. Very interesting topic.
It's so interesting, thank you!
I find it interesting re school performance, schools usually operate and expect best performance in the mornings so no surprises that morning people have better results. My nice has just started HS and they start 10-11am. To give the teenagers a chance to sleep and also study later but that's their preference 👍
Glad you shared some personal info hehe I think I'm speaking for the great majority of the viewers that we want to know always more about our favorite Dr. 😊
100% an evening person! All the descriptors of it sound like me! However I've been a consistent evening person my whole life. I didn't go through a morning phase as a child. I've always struggled with the morning style schedule of society. I wonder if it's rare to be consistent like this throughout life?
I was, too. I was NEVER a morning person. But, i am also an extreme night owl - not getting sleepy till 3 or 4 am.
Ugh! Why is this video so early! I haven't finished my coffee yet. 😉🙃🤣
Thank you for your analysis. I enjoy your approach and rationalization to many of these topics. Keep up the good work.
I think some of the correlations may be due to two things: (1) the world, in general, is designed for morning people and we owls have to adapt to the work and study schedules designed by larks; (2) moral connotations have been associated by those rule-following larks.
Love mornings, sunrises and your videos Dr. Grande! 💖
Best psychology channel ever
great topics and breakdowns of real actual characters
Hi Dr. Grande, I like this sort of topics, please talk some more about what is "normal". This is quite interesting. I am a morning lark, mornings are for me. Mornings come with an explosion of energy, mental clarity and energy, sunshine and enthusiasm, and joie de vivre ! Nights are for sleep, because I am seriously tired and depleted after all that running around !
(Thank you for taking a break from all those pathologies.) I am your enthusiastic student.
I love this video. I'm going to show it to my dad, not that it will make much difference... he is an extreme extrovert and a morning person. I'm introverted, kind of a hermit, and my natural sleep cycle is 4am to noon. I almost never have been able to follow that sleep schedule of course.
my dad always thought I was lazy because even back in elementary school, I would get in bed at a normal kid bedtime, but my mom would have to drag me out of bed every day to go to school. I would read with a flashlight for hours after bedtime. I was utterly miserable and constantly tired during the day, and I did not do well in school, but I could NOT seem to change it. I missed a lot of school because of illness.
I also learned to read when I was four years old. I'm in my forties now, my evening preference never budged.. my dad has finally resigned himself to the fact that I am just weird. :P oh, and yep I've always suffered from pretty severe anxiety, depression and insomnia.
I have been saying for years that high school should start later, and elementary school earlier, because of circadian rhythm changes. Myself and so many other people I know remember being consistently exhausted and burned out in high school because of very early bus rides (I had to wake up at 5:00am) and inability to sleep early at night. I would wake up exhausted, be useless in my first class at 7:25am, fall asleep on the bus in the afternoon, take a nap on the couch, then wake up at 6:00pm and have to do my homework and eat. By the time I was finished, I would be unable to sleep until past 11:00pm. Consistently. The napping wasn't helping but oftentimes I could not stay awake due to years of sleep deprivation.
I've always been an evening person. I love to clean house at night and the sleep part he explained is me 100% I barely sleep and have depression but I manage it pretty well and don't cause issues for others around me.
As an extreme night owl, I’ve always felt like a social outcast. But reading the comments to this video, most of which are from other night owls, makes me realize I’m not alone.
It’s been over 18 years since I’ve been “allowed” to live as a night person, due to family and job responsibilities. And I’ve felt perpetually exhausted all that time, for most of the time. And the chronic exhaustion makes me feel much less motivated to get things done.
Before being forced to live as a morning person, my “nightness” went through several different permutations.
- In one phase I worked the 1 PM to 9 PM shift in a nursing home for about 3 years. I stayed up until about 2 AM most nights, and got up at 11 AM. I was NEVER tired during waking hours during those years. It was a really good schedule for me. But one time I thought I needed to get on a “more normal daytime routine,” and went to the 7AM to 3PM shift instead, which was a DISASTER for me. I felt like I was walking through a thick fog all day. So, I went back to the 1PM to 9PM shift within 2 weeks, and quickly felt normal again.
- In another phase, which lasted about 3 years, I had a waiter/bartender job from 4:30 PM to about 10 to 10:30 PM. During this chapter of my life, I became an EXTREME night owl. I would often be falling asleep as the sun was rising, and would sleep until 3 PM almost every day. And I felt GREAT living that way. And I loved the lifestyle too. As an introvert, I could go to a 24 hour gym after work, and not be surrounded by too many people. I could go grocery shopping at 11 PM, and have the whole store almost to myself. I enjoyed watching movies at night, listening to music, and reading.
- And in my last phase as a night person, before I was forced to live as a morning person, I bartended from 10:30 AM to 5:30 PM. This did reign in my extreme night tendencies a tad, since I had to get up at 9:30 AM, which was actually kinda hard for me. I went to bed around midnight or 1 AM during this phase. This was the least preferable of my 3 different night phases.
Now I’m forced to get up at 6:30 AM most days, and I HATE it.
I can very much relate to many of you, who have observed that the world is run by morning people, and that us night people are often misjudged as having some kind of character defect.
I’m a few months away from theoretically having complete control of my sleep/wake cycle, and I’m excited about it. It will be interesting to see what I naturally revert to, at age 57, once I no longer have to be up early.
I have several different businesses I’m thinking about starting, but, after seeing this, I think I’m going to have to choose a business-model which allows me to be my best, happiest, and most productive self, by giving myself permission to go to bed and arise when my body wants to. Even if that means a slightly lower income from my business.
Because no amount of money is worth feeling tired all the time, due to being forced to live on a schedule which simply isn’t congruent with one’s natural circadian rhythm.
I’ve had about 18 years to supposedly “adjust” to being a morning person, and I never did. My inner night person is desperate to reassert itself.
I'm definitely an evening person. My first job, was 2nd shift. As a paralegal, I day best work during the evening, when everyone has left the office.
No matter how late I get home, or " finish" my day, I always need time to " decompress" before going to sleep. The amount of time, and activities during that may vary somewhat, but I still do seem to " need" that time. As you stated in your video, I was, out of necessity, a ," Lark" for many years. As I have aged, I have changed my habits, and since it's no longer required that I get up really early, I relish sleeping until 8:30- 9am. No matter my schedule, I still " require" (for myself) some quiet time in the mornings, and before bed.
Ironically, when I was a young Mother of 4, College Student, and working full-time, all in the same time period of several years, I would make sure to set my alarm. So that I had one hour of quiet time before " Life full blown" began each day. For me, this saved my sanity, lol. It also allowed me to be ready mentally to get everyone up & off to work, School, etc., with a positive, and much more patient frame of mind. A win- win for everyone in our home.
This was a really good topic. I am definitely a morning person. I simply can’t do evenings. I remember working my way through college. I often worked double shifts from 3:00 to 11 and then 11:00pm to 7:00 am. The night shift people loved there shift and couldn’t imagine any other shift. They were wonderful people but very different. They were introvert and had some friends but very few. They definitely were a different group..... I would love to see more topics like this. Very interesting.
I too for many years worked evening shift and my day even when off seemed more awake and together after 2pm. However I have retired and trained myself to get up at 5am. Yet I still find that I cannot really "get together"until afternoon. Evening person at heart I guess .Humans are amazing.!
I've once read an article that discussed the hypothesis of diferent cyrcadian rythms within a population being an evolutionary adaptation... Back when we lived in the wild, it was very important to have alert people at all times of day and night, and by having different rythms, there was always someone awake, looking around and being vigilant, and doing some kind of work (tending to fires, sick people, etc)! So interesting!
I have been a night person my entire life. The rest of my family were early risers. I like being night person. I love sundown and all the quiet that comes with it. My only concern, and one that I have had for many years, is the judgement implied by morning people that we are some how lazy. This criticism has always been delivered with self-righteous proclamations that some how they are better because they wake up early. I mean would any of them like to call 911 at midnight and be told to call back in the morning. Natural night people have been essential to the survival of our species. From guarding the cave to studying the night sky to determine seasons and the best planting times to the actual invention of the calendar and the 24 hour day; all night people. There is no real difference in the contributions to mankind. Morning folks are asleep early in the evening and I find that silly, childish and boring. Who says we sleep 'late'? I sleep 8 hours and now that I'm retired I do that in the way nature intended. It is the actual best part of retirement. I can go to sleep and wake up in the way that is best for me.
I am definitely evening as well .. it was nice to hear about you more!
I’m certainly an owl although I do love a nice crisp summer morning. Something about it that is so fresh and uplifting.
But I am an owl, I like the night, it doesn’t make me
tired.
I'm an evening person 🙂I love watching all your videos.Thank you Dr.Grande 🙂
My body prefers to sleep in two short sleep cycles (5-10a/p) per day with the active times being at night; day time hours tend to be more quiet activity time. It would be interesting to know if this has any kind of prevalence today or precedence in human history. That said, sleep cycles have always fascinated me; so, this was a good way to get the brain working this morning!
I have learned a new and valuable word. Chronotype. I am most definitely not a day dweller. 19 years of early morning work didn't do a thing to alter that.
I am an owl. I had played piano gigs until early morning for 30 years. At 50 I earned an MA in Ed. I substitute-taught and worked as an adjunct math professor. It was super difficult, playing a Saturday gig until 1 am Sunday, packing up and driving home, and waking at 4 am Monday to look at homework and be in class at 8 am in another city. Sunday nights were the worst. Retirement is better. Grande is best.