"Owls" Are Smarter Than "larks" - Research

2023 Author: Oswald Adamson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-21 20:18

"Owls" are more intelligent and generally show higher intellectual abilities than "larks." Night owls make more money and do better in life, so it is logical to assume that they should be more smart

In an article for Psychology Today on May 9, 2010, Satoshi Kanazawa puts forward a hypothesis based on the study of communities whose members observe the solar rhythms of sleep and wakefulness, and their comparison with those who are awake after dark and use this time to work.

Here's a quote:

Daily activities in the Yanomami Village begin early in the morning, and despite daily evening visits, everything in the village usually freezes after dark. For the Maasai in Kenya, the day begins around 6:00 am before sunrise, and evenings are mostly spent in quiet family conversations under the roof. The full moon can be seen almost as well as during the day, and people take advantage of this to stay awake late and communicate with each other. In the Paraguayan Eche tribe, after cooking and eating, the evening is usually dedicated to songs and anecdotes. Eventually, tribal members go to bed, one or two nuclear families at each fire.

He further points out the absence of any ethnographic evidence of regular night-time activities in these traditional communities. Their daily activities are completed at dusk, so nighttime activities are likely an evolutionary innovation, and therefore more intelligent people tend to work late in the evening and at night.

When turning to modern society, a very large sample of American children was analyzed to confirm this hypothesis, taking into account numerous social and demographic factors. Conclusions? The numbers show that the smartest kids in adulthood are much more nocturnal than their less-savvy peers. More intelligent people go to bed later on weekends, regardless of when they woke up, and if possible try not to get up early on the rest of the week.

Children with an average IQ of 75, which is considered "very mediocre", went to bed at 11.41 in adolescence, and those who had an IQ of more than 125 in childhood, that is, "very smart" - at about 00.29.

By the way, 20,745 people took part in this study. Such a large sample virtually guarantees that there are no overlaps or other external factors that might influence the result.

Other scientific evidence to support the mental superiority of night owls

In a study published in Personality and Individual Differences, Satoshi Kanazawa and Kaia Perina attempted to identify the origin of differences in individual values, preferences, and even intelligence.

Here is a summary of their research:

The origin of values and preferences is an unsolved theoretical problem in sociology and behavior science. The IQ interaction hypothesis suggests that more intelligent people are more inclined to acquire and evolutionarily develop new values and preferences than less intelligent people, but the general level of intelligence does not affect the acquisition and assimilation of evolutionarily significant values and preferences. People often choose values and preferences even in the face of genetic predisposition. One example of this choice within genetic constraints is circadian rhythms. Ethnographic studies of traditional societies suggest that nighttime activities were rare in tribal societies, so people who were more intellectually developed were more inclined to nighttime activities.than their less savvy fellow tribesmen. An analysis of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health supports this prediction.

In other words, they say that genetic predisposition programs people to wake up at dawn and go to bed at dusk; however, some people have overcome this tendency and achieved productive wakefulness after dark - that is, more intelligent people tend to be more nocturnal (“night owls”).

This is the same research that Mr. Kanazawa's article in Psychology Today was based on. Explaining what has already been said, the authors argue that although there is a powerful genetic component in circadian rhythms, there is room for individual choices and decisions. This suggests that children’s high intelligence forces them to struggle to fall asleep later, and end up falling asleep later than their less intelligent peers.

So when you're trying to get kids to go to bed on time, just think that the most stubborn child is likely to be the smartest and most successful in life! There is a bright side to everything.

I will conclude with another quote: “A high children's IQ significantly increases the likelihood of a nightlife, starting in adolescence. Smarter children are more likely to become night owls, staying up late and waking up late both on weekends and on weekdays."

Night Owls do the best among MBA students

Another study, published in the medical journal Intelligence by David Piffer, David Ponzi, Paola Sapienzi, Luigi Zingales, and Dario Maestripieri, shows that MBA students who are night owls receive significantly higher GMAT (General Managerial Assessment) scores. abilities) than their peers who get up in the early morning.

Here's a summary of the study:

People with a tendency to get up early in the morning ("morning larks") and those who stay awake late ("night owls") often show characteristic psychological and physiological profiles. Previous research suggests that night owls score higher than morning owls on a variety of measures of cognitive ability and academic performance. Baseline cortisol is one of the physiological variables associated with variations in chronotype and cognitive function. In this study, we tried to find out if there is a link between chronotype and productivity in a wide range of intellectual ability and academic performance among graduate students in one of the best MBA programs in the United States. In addition, we measured baseline cortisol levels in saliva samples collected in the early afternoon.and analyzed them in relation to chronotype and GMAT score. As predicted, the GMAT scores were significantly higher in night owls compared to larks, regardless of gender. GMAT scores were also significantly higher in males compared to females, regardless of chronotype. Morning or nocturnal lifestyles were not significantly associated with variations in sleep duration among undergraduates or MBAs, or with overall undergraduate grades. In other words, the link between nightlife and GMAT scores was not due to learning diligence or acquired skills. Gender, chronotype, and baseline cortisol were collectively responsible for 14% of the total variation in GMAT scores, but baseline cortisol did not determine the effect of chronotype on GMAT scores. In line with the results of previous studies, our research shows thatthat the effect of chronotype on cognitive ability and academic performance is relatively small, but measurable even in ambitious individuals.

The mechanism of the link between nocturnal lifestyle and high cognitive function remains unclear, but the role of personality and neuroendocrine function warrants further study.

Discussing possible reasons for the intellectual superiority of night owls over larks, the authors write:

According to the training effect hypothesis, evening people often feel the need to overcome the inconveniences of daily life caused by conflicts with the demands of society (such as daily work routines or educational institutions, where classes usually begin in the early morning). These requirements, in turn, result in a high problem-solving ability (Preckel et al., 2011). Another explanation suggests that the association between nocturnal lifestyles and more advanced cognitive function is a by-product of the fact that night owls usually sleep less than early risers, and that more intelligent people, regardless of chronotype, need less sleep from -for more efficient neural recovery at night (Geiger, Achermann & Oskar, 2010). Finally, it has been suggestedthat nocturnal lifestyle may have developed as a result of sexual selection, since activity in the late evening provides more opportunities for copulation in the process of short-term partnerships (Piffer, 2010). From this point of view, the higher intelligence of night owls may be related to their mating ability.

Roughly speaking, "night owls" fuck more successfully than "larks". How do you like that?

Regardless of which reason or hypothesis seems more reasonable to you, there is no denying the fact that "night owls" are more smart and have higher intelligence than "larks." There is too much evidence to support this claim to suggest otherwise.

Do you want to succeed? Be an "owl"

Although we are often referred to as “sluggish” or “slow,” this is contradicted by a 2009 study by researchers at the University of Liege in Belgium. It included remote observation of 15 extreme “night owls” and 15 extreme “larks” in laboratory conditions. The volunteers' brain activity was measured one and a half hours after waking up and again - ten and a half hours after waking up.

During the morning test, the early birds and night owls showed approximately the same level of reaction. But after ten and a half hours a break appeared: the "night owls" had a faster reaction and they were much more alert than the "larks."

This coincides with what I told you about friends who followed the four or five o'clock wake up program to achieve "extreme productivity." As you remember, these people were all "early risers"; they just moved their awakening time back an hour or two. Without exception, they all fail at two or three o'clock in the afternoon. In phone calls, you can hear them yawn all the time, and in web conferences, you notice dark bags under their eyes and a tired look from poor sleep, which is so easy to identify these days when many suffer from it.

They told me more than once that they were done with work and now they need to rest. And this is at 14.00! During this time, I am just finishing my warming up and reaching the maximum of my cognitive abilities.

Mental alertness, or mental alertness, is very important in many situations, for example, for dynamic awareness of the traffic situation to help avoid car accidents. However, in our case, mental alertness corresponds to more developed cognitive function and better intelligence. In other words, even if we are born equal, night owls are still ahead of the early birds when it comes to thinking ability.

Night owls are more flexible in their work

The ability to “run long distances,” as I like to put it, gives night owls another big advantage over the early risers.

Although night owls are often forced to adjust to early morning schedules at work or school, they benefit even from these circumstances. They can finish unfinished work at a later time - that is, they not only overtake the "larks" during the working day, but also widen this gap in the evening and at night!

Did you know that 37% of car accidents, according to a study by the University of Pennsylvania, are due to drowsy drivers? This is consistent with the correlation between morning rush hour, increased sleepiness, and aggressiveness due to excessive coffee consumption. Even a small amount of sleep deprivation can have dire consequences. According to Juliet Franco of Stanford University, sleep deprivation generates a proportionate "kickback" in the form of aggressiveness.

Famous, smart and successful "night owls"

Looking for new evidence that night owls have the best thinking abilities? Here are some examples from both the past and the present.

• Alexis Ohanian, founder of Reddit: He told Fast Company that he goes to bed around 2 am and tries to get up around 10 am. Today, Reddit has a capitalization of approximately $ 1.8 billion, and Ohanian is on the Forbes list.

• Elon Musk, founder of Tesla: According to Musk, he goes to bed no earlier than one in the morning. He became a multimillionaire after 20 years, then a billionaire, and now Tesla brings in 7 billion in annual income.

• Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States: During his eight-year term in the White House, President Obama went to bed at about 1 am and came to work in the Oval Office by 9 am. Regardless of your views on his politics and presidency, few can argue that getting into the Oval Office is itself the greatest measure of success in American society - and he was a typical night owl.

• Darmesh Shah, founder of HubSpot: According to him, he goes to bed between 01:30 and 02:00 and sleeps about seven hours a night. Like me, he avoids early meetings and calls and doesn't schedule any important business until 11:00. HubSpot generates approximately $ 90 million in annual revenue.

• Winston Churchill, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom: Winston Churchill made a huge contribution to the victory of the Allied armies in World War II. However, most people are unaware of the fact that he was an extreme "night owl" and in modern society is highly likely to receive a diagnosis of delayed sleep onset syndrome. Churchill got up at 11:00 and started his working day at noon, even during the war. His staff were accustomed to meeting the prime minister while he was taking a bath, while the rest of the cabinet sat around to await his orders, as they had to work as long as he did.

• Mark Zuckeberg, founder of Facebook: he usually stays up until six in the morning. It's enough. (Unsurprisingly, when he wakes up, he checks his Facebook account every day.)

There are many others - like J. R. R. Tolkien, Buzzfeed President Iona Peretti, Box President Aaron Levy, Genius co-founder Tom Lehman, and so on. The list is endless.

Morning madness

Getting up early doesn't make you smarter - no, it literally makes you dumber! Night owls consistently show higher intellectual and cognitive abilities compared to early risers at any time of the day. In addition, a disproportionate number of people whom we consider extremely successful turn out to be "night owls."

Fragment of the book “Owls are smarter than larks. Why the magic of the morning doesn't exist. " Frank J. Rambauskas. - Moscow: Publishing house "Bombora", 2020.