Are you an Early Bird or a Night Owl?

Are you the kind of person who rises at the crack of dawn, full of energy and vim and raring to go, eager to get down to the day’s business?  Do you begin to noticeably slow down in the late afternoon, run out of steam at the onset of evening, and shut down completely by around nine at night, with just enough strength left to drag yourself off to bed, completely and utterly drained?

Or are you the type of person who grudgingly hauls himself out of bed somewhat later in the morning, sluggish and dull-eyed, good for very little, and then as the day wears on you build up a head of steam that keeps you going through the day, into the evening and well into the night, long after the early riser has retired for the day?

Early Bird kit

In other words, are you a so-called ‘early bird’ or a ‘night owl’? A day-time person or a night-time person? An early riser/retirer or a late riser/retirer? Do you greet the dawn or welcome the dusk?

For my part, I definitely come within the second category and have always been thus, as far as I can recall. I have difficulty in getting up early and when I am up it takes me some while to become fully ‘functional’, but once I get going, my energy levels gradually begin to rise and then stay high throughout the rest of the day, into the evening, and on into the night, long after the early riser, who started the day off with a bang, has retired to bed for the night, dead to the world.

But there is a very real problem with my particular ‘modus vivendi’ or energy pattern, and the problem is that it is not generally facilitated by society. The way society is structured patently favours the early riser, and nowhere is this more evident than in the world of work. Working hours are geared to suit the person who rises early and is fully functional from the word go. Most employees have to be at work between the hours of 8 and 9 in the morning and must be ready, often after an exhausting commute to their place of work, to go into action as soon as they arrive at work. By the time they start to visibly slow down, it’s pretty-well time to clock off for the day anyway. There are of course exceptions to this (for example, top executives and night/shift workers), but by and large this is the working pattern that is universal in today’s society.

Inevitably, those who, like me, have difficulty in keeping to the predominant work pattern, find life as an employee well-nigh impossible, where punctuality in the morning is of the essence, something which was always a problem for me when, as an employee, I worked a 9-5 day. Of course, though the hours of work were 9am to 5.15pm, to be precise, the actual time taken up in work-related activity was much greater, as I had to get myself ready and get to work in the first place, so there might be up to two hours spent in preparing myself and then commuting to work, and of course there would be another hour of travel at the other end of the day to get back home. So the work-related day was more like 7.30 am to 6.30 pm – 11 hours! Personally, I found it an exhausting and  soul-destroying routine, though I recognise that many people do not see it that way, especially.. yes, you've guessed it... the early birds.

Let's see what the late late late film is about

Another social disadvantage to being a night owl or late riser is the stigma attached to it. We're usually branded lazy or work-shy or given a number of other unflattering labels. Yet I feel this attitude is due to widespread ignorance of the fundamental differences that exist between human beings in terms of energy levels, what we today call ‘biorhythm’. I firmly believe that whether one person is an early bird and another a night owl is determined by their biorhythm. In other words, that it is an innate genetic characteristic that allows one person to effortlessly rise early in the morning and prevents another from doing the same. I believe we’re all hard-wired from birth with a certain biorhythm that stays with us throughout our life and determines the way we function physically. This does not mean of course that an early riser cannot push himself to go on working into the evening or night or that a late riser cannot force himself to get up early for work. But it does mean that doing so is going against the grain and is costly to both in terms of mental and physical well-being. The stress and strain of trying to fit into a behavioural pattern that is not natural to the person has repercussions on his health, simply because he or she is going against their natural biorhythm.

Today, having already been self-employed for many years, it is a long time ago since I had to force myself to follow a daily pattern of functioning or working timetable which is alien to my physical and mental make-up. And as an autonomous worker, I am able to structure my own working day, subject to certain constraints of course, to match my personal biorhythm. This means that I may sometimes have to work into the evening, but, being a night owl, this is no great hardship for me and is certainly a zillion times better than having to step into immediate full-blown action first thing in the morning. To each his own, as they say, but it is still the case that society discriminates against the night owl in favour of the early bird. Perhaps this is how the saying “The early bird catches the worm” came about. Well, I have a new saying: “The night owl catches the mouse.” And that is a much more substantial meal !