I am a natural early bird, and I love it. But, if I were a night owl instead, I’d revel in that too. You’re so right that respecting your own rhythm is the key! In today’s shrinking world, what with the internet and all, any time is a good time to get work done. By the same token, any time is a good time to get our rest. As long as we do enough of both, life is great!

I am a night owl for sure! I find it really easy to stay up until 2-3AM sometimes, but really hard to get up around 7-8AM. Everyone is asleep around 11PM and it is peaceful, so I can get some things done without distractions. I guess the “everyone is sleeping” coin is two sided. I can see the benefits of getting up early as well, but it is much harder to completely overhaul one’s sleeping patterns.

I wish I could be an early bird because I feel I could get so much more done early in the mornings, but I enjoy reading before bed and find myself up as late as 1AM. However, I’m expecting my first child in September, so I have a feeling I’m going to go through some challenges soon regarding my rhythms and sleep patterns.

Try being a night owl in an office full of early birds. After several years, I’ve convinced them that some people really are NOT most productive early in the day, but they still tend to discount my productivity because I’m most comfortable getting in later and staying later than everyone else… until they arrive at their desks at 7AM and find the pile of stuff I accomplished after they left for the day.

Thanks for the comments. It’s unfortunate that night owls tend to have this bad reputation for being lazy and sleeping all the time, when the opposite is usually true. Workplaces should do more to take advantage of people’s natural highs and lows when it comes to work hours.

Whilst it’s true that the early bird catches the worm, remember that the early worm gets eaten!

Just think of how many more posts like this you could have written if only you had got up earlier!

I agree with the gist of what you are saying, and I particularly like the “myth busting” nature of your post. However, since most people wake up at 7AM and get to work by 9AM, those who wake at 5AM get a head start on the day. Now one could argue that what gets done between 5AM and 7AM could be done equally well by staying up late the night before. This is true, but I think we are wired for a daily rat race, so the early riser head start is at minimum a psychological head start.

Brick Andrews, you make a good point about how we are wired towards the daily rat race. However I’m not so sure it’s a psychological advantage, rather that the (business) world is so tailored towards the early bird. I think it relates to the old idea that hard workers always got up really early. Early to bed, early to rise and all that.

I think the big thing is having time when you aren’t interrupted regardless of when that is. I like working late into the night because I know I will not be interrupted until I’m finished.

Yeah, someone finally fights for the right to have your own sleeping schedule! I tend to get up very early in summer and to bed late, but I have a nap at around 2AM (at our company everyone is there in the morning for meetings and many of us choose to work from home in the afternoon), but in winter I sleep longer (the heater doesn’t start till 6AM) but don’t nap. Works great for me. I guess I’m lucky that my workplace allows this very personal schedule.

Thanks for the insight Mira. You are very lucky to have that sort of flexibility in your work schedule but I’d imagine the business benefits from it.

I’m a natural night owl, so when I make the effort to get up early it’s a psychological boost, like mentioned by Brick Andrews above. I feel like I’ve just kicked the day in the ass and that everything will be downhill from there.

I don’t think it’s more than just a mind game for me, though. I don’t believe I’m actually more productive in the mornings, I’ve just set the right tone to get things accomplished. I figure that there’s no point in taking the trouble to wake up early just to read the comics, so I get to work to make it worth the hassle.

To be honest, I’m still looking for an ideal balance that lets me wake up refreshed, and I haven’t found it yet even though I’ve tried some crazy schedules. Thanks for standing up for the productivity of late sleeping night owls!

This is a good point Sara, I’d not thought of how rising early can set the right tone. It makes sense. When I was experimenting with getting up earlier I certainly felt more focused even though I was tired and grumpy. I suppose the same effect can be achieved by doing the biggest work first thing in the morning.

It’s true, however no companies really are comfortable with flexi-time working. So, for nightowls like myself the alarm at 6AM is a daily nightmare.

I agree with you. As long as you are getting your 7-8 hours of sleep (or more if you need it), it doesn’t really matter what time you get up (unless you have to be to work by a certain time). I also find I am more productive later in the day… but for those times when I have to get up early and get six or less hours of sleep, I find a twenty minute power nap mid-day helps a lot!

I am definitely a night owl. I feel like my most productive time is between 10PM and 2AM. One problem with that is my wife is NOT a night owl, and with our one year old son it makes it nearly impossible to keep the hours I would LIKE to. I too have been experimenting with different schedules, and I think I have found something that works for me. I get up at 5AM, and although that is a terrible time to get up it is just getting light and I head out and run a few miles. The exercise gets me awake and moving and I have time in the morning to get some things done I’ve always wanted to do daily but never made time for previously. Then when I get in to work just after 7AM I am focused to get things done. I’m done with work earlier so I can get home and help my wife out with the house and I get some time between 8PM and 10PM to get some other things done if I feel motivated to do so. Any other schedule I’ve tried ends up with me wasting the evening time not getting things done I want to and laying in bed because I can’t fall asleep. This way when the time to sleep comes, I’m pretty tired and I fall pretty much right to sleep.

This reminds me of something I read a couple years ago. Regret that I do not remember and thus cannot credit the author, “The early bird may catch the worm, but it’s the second mouse that gets the cheese.”