First physical evidence of why you're an owl or a lark

81 点作者 tjaerv超过 11 年前

11 条评论

galaktor超过 11 年前

I used to think of myself as an owl. I'd hate getting up in the mornings and my most productive hours were somewhere between 11pm and 3am.I actively started changing my habits a few years ago, meaning I changed my diet to high-fibre+high-protein+high-(good)fat+low-carbs, stopped drinking alcohol cold turkey, get up earlier (~5am) before work to work out and go to sleep earlier (~10pm). This has worked wonders for me, I'm always energised and never drowsy during the day, sleep like a rock and needless to say am much healthier overall.People think of me as a morning person now, which is probably right although it's weird after having lived like an owl for years. I believe for most people this boils down to habit and changing those is hard. An owl-ish life might not be bad for everybody but from my experience it's very taxing on health and social life and the mental state.In my case having a regular job and kids certainly gave incentive (aka left not many options) to transform into a lark, but most people can probably do it - if they really want to.

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Udo超过 11 年前

All the data I have is anecdotal but here it is: I'm an owl. I do not experience worse sleep compared to normal people, and in my experience my sleep pattern seems to work better than most larks. The things the article attributes to owls are not problems I'm suffering from, but on the contrary some of my lark or normal friends do have them, including unusual tiredness during the day. I usually don't consume tobacco or alcohol (only on certain social occasions).I'm also fortunate in that I have some brain MRIs of mine and in my opinion there is no marked reduction in white matter anywhere. I do not have the feeling that I'm suffering from permanent jet lag, though I must admit that I seldomly experience jet lag at all (which I guess could mean I have it all the time without noticing it somehow).And here comes the most poignant bit of the article:<pre><code> "It's interesting that there are individual differences, but we need to understand what is causing them and find ways of creating environments in which those differences can be attenuated," says Dirk-Jan Djik </code></pre> which sounds horrible and ignorant. I don't want my differences to be attenuated. People are different, and for the most part that's a good thing. Being an owl is only a problem if it inhibits human function. Otherwise, I refuse to be labelled sick simply because I have a different innate sleep pattern. Being an owl works for me.

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jameswburke超过 11 年前

I'm still not sure what the benefits of waking up and being functional early are, besides a societal one.Ignoring my possible work relations, what difference does it make if I respond to emails at 3pm, have breakfast at 5, work until 10, eat again, work until 2am, relax until the sun comes up, and sleep to do it again.Again, society doesn't work this way and many times there are adjustments to account for this (early meetings, spending time with friends and family, etc.), but is early intrinsically better?

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tokenadult超过 11 年前

The reported study doesn't deliver what the headline promises, because the study design doesn't show the direction of causation. A cross-sectional study with one date of observation of adult behavior, like this one, cannot show whether brain differences cause the sleep pattern differences, or whether the sleep pattern differences cause the brain differences. The human brain is reshaped and rewired by experience--that's what the brain is for, adapting to the environment--so it's not clear what causes what here. See the online article "Warning Signs in Experimental Design and Interpretation" by LISP hacker and Google director of research Peter Norvig[1] for more information on missing details to look for in preliminary reports on research studies.[1] <a href="http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html" rel="nofollow">http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html</a>

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guard-of-terra超过 11 年前

"For example, research published last month suggests that night owls who cut their exposure to artificial light and boosted their exposure to sunlight found their body clocks shifted towards earlier waking and sleeping"Where I live there is not much sunlight except for a few months in a year. So I get up at 10:40, hopefully get to work at noon, go to sleep at 2AM. And don't feel so well.

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danielparks超过 11 年前

This is a horrible title; neither the study referenced nor the body of the article itself makes the claim of a physical cause for being a morning or night person.The study just says that there were white matter “differences in the frontal and temporal lobes, cingulate gyrus and corpus callosum” of the night owl participants compared to the rest of the study participants.The first author suggests this might be a result of night owls suffering from “permanent jet lag” — i.e. that the cause goes exactly the opposite way the title suggests. Of course, the study doesn't say that, it's just an educated guess.

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ChristianMarks超过 11 年前

I used to be an owl for years. A regular 9-5 schedule seemed out of reach. This May I changed my environment by filtering out blue light after 8PM. I use the following:1. Inexpensive Uvex amber googles from Amazon: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Uvex-S0360X-Ultra-spec-SCT-Orange-Anti-Fog/dp/B003OBZ64M/ref=sr_1_2?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1379337848&sr=1-2&keywords=uvex+amber+glasses" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Uvex-S0360X-Ultra-spec-SCT-Orange-Anti...</a> Wear them at least an hour or two before bedtime.2. I replaced most of the white compact fluorescent lights with amber compact fluorescent lights <a href="https://www.lowbluelights.com/index.asp" rel="nofollow">https://www.lowbluelights.com/index.asp</a>3. And I use a sunrise simulator alarm clock. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Philips-HF3520-Wake-Up-Colored-Simulation/dp/B0093162RM/ref=sr_1_cc_2?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1380118779&sr=1-2-catcorr&keywords=philips+dawn+simulator" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Philips-HF3520-Wake-Up-Colored-Simulat...</a>No will power needed beyond the habit to wear the googles and change the lighting. Usually in bed by 10PM.Result: no insomnia. Have been able to consistently maintain an early schedule. This would have been inconceivable earlier. I have become the person you've never met.

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kalms超过 11 年前

I only read through the article once, and fast, but it does seem to imply that night owl equals not enough sleep. That, and the amount of participants in the test seemed a bit too low for a true statistical overview.I'm a night owl, always have been, even after I had kids. Go to bed at 1am-2am and wake up 7:30-8:30 depending on schedule. Weekends all bets are off. Works well for me, but that's the thing: I don't think we're all that similar. Different patterns for different people.

rdl超过 11 年前

I've never really been owl or lark, but I do tend to have a long adjustment process, and get off schedule fairly easily, I guess because I mainly spend my time indoors and in artificial light, with no real consistent externally-imposed schedule.

flatfilefan超过 11 年前

Leanpub.com/nightowls somebody has taken time to summarize the experiences of nightowls from IT

JonSkeptic超过 11 年前

I'm definitely a lark, but I've yet to determine my unladen flight speed vs. my flight speed when carrying a coconut. It seems most of those tests have been performed on swallows.