Recent studies suggest if you prefer to stay up late, and stay in bed even later, you’re not exhibiting “laziness,” you’re showing signs of intelligence and creativity.
Despite being told from a young age that you should go to bed at a decent time, and get up early in the morning, there are some pretty interesting scientific facts that shine a positive light on the habits of night owls.
Satoshi Kanazawa, from the Department of Psychology at University College London, conducted a study that discovered a connection between intelligence and adaptive behaviors. Kanazawa said these behaviours are “evolutionarily novel,” meaning they differ from what our ancestors did.
He wrote that regular nocturnal activities were most likely a rare occurrence with our ancestors, and so staying up late and sleeping in are therefore “evolutionarily novel.”
The study‘s hypothesis was that “more intelligent individuals are more likely to be nocturnal than less intelligent individuals.” The analysis of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health confirms the prediction.
Using the data from the graph above, as well as evidence from the study, Kanazawa concluded that “More intelligent children are more likely to grow up to be nocturnal adults who go to bed late and wake up late on both weekdays and weekends.”
Research was also conducted at the University of Madrid last year that examined the sleeping patterns of approximately 1,000 teenagers.
The study required to participants to perform inductive reasons tests, which are related to general intelligence, and found that night owls scored higher than early birds.
However, the teens who stayed awake till the wee hours received grades 8% lower in class than their morning-riser counterparts. This might be because night-oriented teens have difficulty kicking their brain into gear early in the morning, which is when high school tends to be in session.
We’re not done yet, there’s more interesting research from the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan.
ABC Science reported on the study, which asked 120 men and women of different ages to fill out a survey asking if they were more of night or morning person.
Then, the participants were asked to complete a series of 3 tests to measure creative thinking and problem solving. The tests were scored on how original the answers were, as well as how elaborate, fluid and flexible. According to what they found, “evening types aced each test based on these criteria, while morning and intermediate type people struggled to get scores over 50.”
Head author of the study, Marina Giampietro, believes this creativity stems from “the development of a non-conventional spirit and of the ability to find alternative and original solutions.”
According to Elite Daily:
“It’s all about what you’re doing with the time you have. Yes, early birds might be more productive, but late risers are more creative.
Early risers take advantage of those morning hours to do mundane activities like go to the gym, make coffee and get to work early, but it’s the late sleepers who really take advantage of the night — the special time to create and invent something new.”
By Raven Fon
