NIGHT OWL SUPPORT SYSTEMS SKIN

There’s a normal distribution, so there are people on both extremes – and the majority of people are neither.” “It’s a bit like any other biological characteristic.

NIGHT OWL SUPPORT SYSTEMS SKIN

Colin Espie, professor of sleep medicine at the University of Oxford, says this mirrors differences in hair, eye and skin colour, or height. If not everyone needs to sleep at the same time, then some members of the tribe can stand guard and protect those who are resting.Ī recent study of a modern-day hunter-gatherer tribe found that during a three-week period, there were only 18 minutes during which all of the 33 tribe members were asleep simultaneously.Īnother theory is that variation is simply how genetics works.

So why do night owls exist? There is no single universally accepted theory, but evolutionary biologists think that communities with more variation in chronotypes may have been more likely to survive. Experiments show that teens with later school start times achieve better grades, while adults tend to be healthier and more productive when they are allowed to sleep when they want and to work flexibly.

These preferences have a huge influence on health and wellbeing. You don’t have to get up with the cows.’ Illustration: Eiko Ojala/The Observer They are larks in childhood, night owls as teens, and more lark-like again as they get older. People tend to change over their lifetime. Most people fall somewhere between the two, with an average sleep cycle running from around 11.30pm until 7.30am. This contrasts with morning larks, who naturally want to go to bed early and wake up early. The term night owl is shorthand for the chronotype that drives people to go to bed later and rise later. The field of chronobiology seeks to understand how individuals are driven by an internal clock – their “chronotype” – one that is set by genetics, not willpower. There’s a growing body of evidence that suggests it’s society, not night owls like Carter, that is wrong. Feeling completely out of sync with the rest of society is the hardest thing, like you must be the one that’s wrong.” “I am just as productive, enthusiastic and organised as others, but at a different time. “I think one of the worst things is people equating night owls and late risers with laziness,” she says. Instead, she deprives herself of sleep during the week and catches up at weekends, when she often sleeps until 3pm.īut this isn’t what frustrates her most about being a night owl.

She negotiated a slightly later start time at work – 10am – but wishes she could begin at noon and finish at 8pm. She has struggled to organise her life in a way that suits her natural sleeping pattern. Left to her own devices, she’d prefer to go to bed around 3am and wake up about noon. Carter, 27, an NHS co-ordinator, is an “extreme night owl”, one of an estimated 8.2% of the population whose natural inclination is to fall asleep well after midnight.

Night owl support systems