Being A Night Person in A Morning World

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Abstract

eping people awake at night but never about how the lack of blue light in the morning because the sun hasn’t come up yet, prevents people from waking up. Then these half-asleep people get in their cars and drive to work.</p><p id="67c5">In addition to driving when sleepy, something that has similar results as driving while drunk (see reference below), night people face other problems as well. These include:</p><ol><li>Perpetual sleep deprivation and the health risks it entails (obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, and diabetes — see reference below)</li><li>Problems with career advancement as we don’t have language skills before noon, (OK, I exaggerate. It’ll be different for everyone, but for me, it’s 10 AM.) and are working with less than full capacity due to the hour.</li><li>Problems making appointments as half of them are at times before we get out of bed. Conversely, everyone is closed when we are ready to work.</li></ol><p id="5332">Now I’m not asking for society to change so that we can function. I know that’s not going to happen. However, a little consideration would be appreciated.</p><ul><li>Don’t schedule important meetings at 8 AM. Even normal people aren’t up for those as they like to take a bit of time to clear their email so they have the latest information and get reacquainted with the details of the project.</li><li>Offer flexible hours, especially if you have business in more than one time zone. This will allow your night person to be more productive. Also, planning meetings in the afternoon not only appease your night person but allows people in other time zones to attend. An 8 AM meeting on the east coast is 5 AM on the west coast, 4 AM in Alaska, and 3 AM in Hawaii. I can’t tell you how many online seminars I’ve skipped because they started at 5 AM.</li><li>Change Highschool hours to start and end later in the day. Swapping the start times for the youngest kids and the oldest ones would allow parents to get their littlest kids to school before they go to work (getting child care for several hours in the afternoon is much easier than getting it for a couple of hours in the morning and then again in the afternoon.), the high school students will do better in school, and kids likely to get in trouble after school will have less time available. The only argument against this is that sports teams need time to practice and play. They can practice before school, and people going to away games could be excused an hour early on game days. T

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he whole school body doesn’t need to suffer for sports teams.</li></ul><p id="bac0">None of these changes is very big, but they can increase our learning, health, and productivity significantly.</p><div id="6baf" class="link-block"> <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0272775719304832"> <div> <div> <h2>High school start times and student achievement: Looking beyond test scores</h2> <div><h3>The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that U.S. secondary schools begin after 8:30 a.m. to better align with…</h3></div> <div><p>www.sciencedirect.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/0*4oxYfXUULY5su1sY)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><div id="587e" class="link-block"> <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/sleep/about_sleep/drowsy_driving.html#:~:text=Drowsy%20Driving%20Is%20Similar%20to,sleep%20on%20a%20daily%20basis.&text=Studies%20have%20shown%20that%20going,(BAC)%20of%200.05%25."> <div> <div> <h2>CDC - Drowsy Driving- Sleep and Sleep Disorders</h2> <div><h3>Learn the risks of drowsy driving and how to protect yourself. Drowsy driving is a major problem in the United States…</h3></div> <div><p>www.cdc.gov</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/0*xR_UPCCZugBuRgfi)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><div id="3f08" class="link-block"> <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/sleep-and-tiredness/why-lack-of-sleep-is-bad-for-your-health/#:~:text=If%20it%20continues%2C%20lack%20of,pressure%20(hypertension)%20and%20diabetes."> <div> <div> <h2>Why lack of sleep is bad for your health</h2> <div><h3>Many effects of a lack of sleep, such as feeling grumpy and not working at your best, are well known. But did you know…</h3></div> <div><p>www.nhs.uk</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/0*FJNHtDP0V0iwFpa8)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div></article></body>

If left to myself, I sleep between 2–3 AM till 10–11 AM.

No, this isn’t a tragedy and I don’t need fixing.

A lot of people have told me “Oh, you’ll get used to it.” Really? When? I’ve been trying for over 50 years and I’m still not used to it. It’s almost like they have no idea what they’re talking about. Unfortunately, they also make rules based on the mistaken assumption that people can just change their sleep schedule. Some people can, yes, but many of us can’t and just suffer sleep deprivation.

Being a night or morning person is an outdated evolutionary feature. The groups of people with a wide variety of sleep schedules, so someone was awake at all times, are the ones that survived. The person who was awake at 4 AM and hadn’t gone to bed yet and the person who woke up at 4 AM both protected the village as they could raise an alarm if some threat occurred. However, things have changed.

In today’s world, the morning person is seen as virtuous and the night person as lazy. I’m not lazy, I sleep the same number of hours as a morning person. I just sleep different hours.

Studies have shown that morning people are more productive and night people more creative. I have to wonder when they decided that morning people were more productive, did they take into account the work done at odd hours or just 8 AM-5 PM? When I was doing my Grad work and could choose my work hours, I worked 11 AM — 11 PM. How is working 12 hour days lazy?

Other studies have shown that high-schoolers have brains that are changing biologically and they have a couple of years where they can’t function early in the morning. They physically can’t learn at 7 AM. In addition, many are getting jobs which keep them up till late. If we want to raise school scores then we need to start high school at a later hour (This has been scientifically proven — see reference below)

Today’s society uses rules created by morning people. Why else would we be expected to get up at 6 AM? You hear all about the evils of blue light keeping people awake at night but never about how the lack of blue light in the morning because the sun hasn’t come up yet, prevents people from waking up. Then these half-asleep people get in their cars and drive to work.

In addition to driving when sleepy, something that has similar results as driving while drunk (see reference below), night people face other problems as well. These include:

Perpetual sleep deprivation and the health risks it entails (obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, and diabetes — see reference below)

Problems with career advancement as we don’t have language skills before noon, (OK, I exaggerate. It’ll be different for everyone, but for me, it’s 10 AM.) and are working with less than full capacity due to the hour.

Problems making appointments as half of them are at times before we get out of bed. Conversely, everyone is closed when we are ready to work.

Now I’m not asking for society to change so that we can function. I know that’s not going to happen. However, a little consideration would be appreciated.

Don’t schedule important meetings at 8 AM. Even normal people aren’t up for those as they like to take a bit of time to clear their email so they have the latest information and get reacquainted with the details of the project.

Offer flexible hours, especially if you have business in more than one time zone. This will allow your night person to be more productive. Also, planning meetings in the afternoon not only appease your night person but allows people in other time zones to attend. An 8 AM meeting on the east coast is 5 AM on the west coast, 4 AM in Alaska, and 3 AM in Hawaii. I can’t tell you how many online seminars I’ve skipped because they started at 5 AM.

Change Highschool hours to start and end later in the day. Swapping the start times for the youngest kids and the oldest ones would allow parents to get their littlest kids to school before they go to work (getting child care for several hours in the afternoon is much easier than getting it for a couple of hours in the morning and then again in the afternoon.), the high school students will do better in school, and kids likely to get in trouble after school will have less time available. The only argument against this is that sports teams need time to practice and play. They can practice before school, and people going to away games could be excused an hour early on game days. The whole school body doesn’t need to suffer for sports teams.

None of these changes is very big, but they can increase our learning, health, and productivity significantly.