Morning or evening person?

[jtr1962]

I found this article and accompanying questionnaire about morning versus evening people. There are apparently differing degrees of "morningness" or "eveningness" as I've suspected. On the scale of 4 to 25 points, with a lower score meaning you're more of an evening person, I scored a 4. No surprise there. We probably could invent a brand new SE (severely evening) category as I prefer to rise early or mid afternoons, and go to sleep around sunrise.

So how do you stack up?

 

[Echo63]

I'm on the evening end of neither (12)
but I know damn well I'm an evening person.

Im happy to get up around lunchtime, and go to bed around 0300

 

[markr6]

12 here as well. I love staying up late to relax, have a drink, watch movies, or hang out with friends. I wouldn't do any of those at 7AM. I will say, 10AM used to be the ideal wakeup time. Now at 32 years old, I feel like waking up anytime past 9AM to be a "waste of the day".

 

[Flying Turtle]

I used to definitely be an evening person. Stay up late, sleep heavily, and have some trouble getting up. But, with age, this seems to have changed a bit. I still stay up too late, but I'm awaking early (maybe that's the old prostate) and don't have much trouble getting going. Took the quiz and got a 14.

Geoff

 

[Sub_Umbra]

Hard to say. The simple answer is that I am a morning person but that isn't very descriptive. I'm a night person who feels best in MY morning, which starts at about 11:00 am. I've been a chronic insomniac for over 60 years and since everyone I love is in show biz I tend to be a night person. Over the decades I've adjusted and mal-adjusted my sked to every conceivable pattern and the only thing that they have in common is that they don't work for me.

I never learned how to fall asleep...

 

[moldyoldy]

I am definitely a morning person. As a kid, I delivered the newspapers for my brother's paper route, then eventually had my own large (100+) paper route, so I normally saw sunrise even in the summer since the goal was to ensure that the customers had their newspaper for breakfast. Then in college, a few years of work in the USFS in the Bitterroot Mountains certainly reinforced the early morning pattern. College also taught me that my best study time was morning or late morning. Add to that many years of 3 shift work in the military - which in turn taught me how to go to sleep under just about any conditions. And finally as an engineer, trying to keep up with some union people who like to start work at 0500 or earlier just to go fishing in the mid/late afternoon - while I caught up with paperwork. Plenty of reasons why I remain an early morning person, although retirement and the "advancing" age is taking it's toll and getting up is slower and creakier...

 

[subwoofer]

9 for me which was higher than I expected as I would have said Definitely NOT Morning

 

[jtr1962]

Interesting results so far. Had the group here been representative of the general population I would have expected a bell curve peaking in the middle but it looks like night people are overly represented. Then again, on a site with people who love flashlights maybe that should have been expected.

Some people here mentioned their sleep patterns shifting more towards morning as they get older. I wonder if that's universally true? And I wonder if the reason is that many people simply have more trouble sleeping as they age. Hence, they go to bed same time as always but wake earlier.

 

[skyfire]

i voted "definitely evening", and scored a 7.
ive always been kind of a "night owl". i like staying up until im so sleepy, i have to sleep.
i work the swing shift by choice. usually my schedule is from 3-5 pm to 11pm or 1am. i see so many advantages of having a schedule thats different than most. I can wake up early and run errands while places are open, or sleep in. enjoy my coffee and have a good lunch. i dont have to deal with traffic. which is pretty bad in LA.
I never really understood the 9-5 schedule. everybody get up before they want to, go to work, then go straight home.

i lived in houston for a couple years, and i remember by about 6 or 7 pm, most places are closed, and the street are pretty empty. i couldnt even run an errand after work because everything was closed. nothing to do except go home i guess LoL.

Ive traveled to many countries in Asia, and many have a "night owl" society. nothing opens until about 10-11 am. some dont open til past noon. And the streets stay busy past midnight, with tons of evening activities. the mornings in those countries are usually reserved for the elderly.

 

[jtr1962]

i lived in houston for a couple years, and i remember by about 6 or 7 pm, most places are closed, and the street are pretty empty. i couldnt even run an errand after work because everything was closed. nothing to do except go home i guess LoL.

That reminds me why I love living in NYC. Few stores close before 9 PM. Many are open well past that, or even all night.

Ive traveled to many countries in Asia, and many have a "night owl" society. nothing opens until about 10-11 am. some dont open til past noon. And the streets stay busy past midnight, with tons of evening activities. the mornings in those countries are usually reserved for the elderly.

Hmm. I wonder if there's a difference among races here? It's actually been my observation that many more Asians tend to be night people than people of other races.

 

[buds224]

I WAS an evening person.....then the children were born. I now only have energy for the mornings. ***sigh*** :duh2:

 

[JasonC8301]

I work nights so I am a night person. Usually sleep around 8am, up at 2 or 3pm..

 

[Sub_Umbra]

...Hmm. I wonder if there's a difference among races here? It's actually been my observation that many more Asians tend to be night people than people of other races.

In my travels I've noticed that the closer one gets to the equator the less one is tempted to do in the heat of the day and the more one is tempted by the relative cool of the evening. In the Americas that may mean a siesta. In Southeast Asia it may mean outdoor markets open uuntil midnight. In the eighties in Malaysia I saw a very wide range of street activity far into the night but I think it just had to do with the oppressive heat during the daylight hours.

 

[tjswarbrick]

My wife (one of those morning people) calls me a night owl. I think of myself as more of an evening person. I scored a 10.
I don't like how the article is geared toward "fixing" the "evening people" as though we're somehow broken.
We may be different, but that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with us.

 

[jtr1962]

I don't like how the article is geared toward "fixing" the "evening people" as though we're somehow broken.
We may be different, but that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with us.

I agree entirely. I tell day people how would you feel if you were forced to get up at 1 or 2 AM and go to work or school? Well, that's exactly how night people feel on a normal day schedule. I think society's last great prejudice or ignorance is against night people. Once we realize the amount of productivity we're losing from forcing night people (who generally tend to be more creative as well) to a day schedule perhaps we'll better start accommodating them. The fact is many night people can't change. One woman commenting mentioned that she tried everything, and all it made her was tired. She also mentioned how when she had to get up early, she felt tired, stressed, and got little done. I personally feel like a zombie all the time when I'm forced to an early schedule. I also attribute my lack of success in life largely to living in a world where I'm not at my peak when many others are.

In my travels I've noticed that the closer one gets to the equator the less one is tempted to do in the heat of the day and the more one is tempted by the relative cool of the evening. In the Americas that may mean a siesta. In Southeast Asia it may mean outdoor markets open uuntil midnight. In the eighties in Malaysia I saw a very wide range of street activity far into the night but I think it just had to do with the oppressive heat during the daylight hours.

You may be right about the heat being a factor. I notice I tend to slip into an even later schedule during the summer, including doing things like cycling between midnight and 3 AM. I normally cycle after dark because there's less traffic then, but in the colder months that might mean going out between 9 and 11, not after midnight.

 

[skyfire]

In my travels I've noticed that the closer one gets to the equator the less one is tempted to do in the heat of the day and the more one is tempted by the relative cool of the evening. In the Americas that may mean a siesta. In Southeast Asia it may mean outdoor markets open uuntil midnight. In the eighties in Malaysia I saw a very wide range of street activity far into the night but I think it just had to do with the oppressive heat during the daylight hours.

i also think climate has something to do with it. in most southeast asian countries, temperature and humility is high so you would think people are more active during the coller evening. i find that to be the case for most those countries except vietnam. vietnam wakes up at 6 in the morning, and they close down at around 6 pm. i know cause every morning at 6 i get woken up by constant beeping from motorbikes. there are a few places with night activities, but most of the city of saigon is closed. it could also be because the ground floor of many peoples homes are storefronts, and they like to lockup.

but in northeast asia such as japan, korea, and china. its colder but the night activities thrive. maybe because those cities are so dense? and living quarters are usually cramped with many tenants, so some just need to get out and get some space. LoL.
of all places ive been to, nowhere compares to hong kong. on a wednesday night, there are just as many people on the streets at 2am, as there was at 8pm. and during peak rush hours its 10x more crowded than being at the mall on christmas eve.

 

[NonSenCe]

im night owl or severly/extremely evening person..

as the options didnt go far enough for me.. (like question 1.. if im free to plan my day.. i get up when i want. and that will not be before noon! lol) so i gave myself a zero points on those questions.. so i think i scored 5 points. (q2 and q4 solely giving me points hahah)

i work evenings by default. been doing evenings or nights for several years now. only rarely im forced to do few morning shifts.

so my normal pattern is getting up at 2pm as clock wakes me up (without clock i would still wake up within hour of that 2pm anyways if i had a normal sleep.. not one of the "fullmoon/insomnia/tossing and turning in my bed till 9 am-nights)

off to work around 4-6pm. out of work 3 to 8 hours later. then lunch time .. most often around 11pm or so.. then evening tasks or tv watching till 3 or 4 am and then trying to fall asleep before 5 am.

and on my days off.. well the time table is about the same unless i have plans made up with "normal" people and their schedules. up at 2-3pm asleep at 5-6am.

i really like doing evenings as i have the option of waking up few hours earlier if i need to go to town to do something important.. because i am well rested because getting enough sleep everynight.. one shorter sleep time per week shows no ill effets or tiredness. and besides i also have enough time to go to the shops for few hours even if i wake up at my normal time, as i have flexible schedule there too. no set timetables makes life rather stress free.

and i dont have any sleep deprivation at all if everything goes as i planned/hoped. i am in my own rythm.. too bad most of the world is not in same. or actually.. i do like that they arent. hah.


--edit.. i have been thinking about changing my "own rythm" by few hours.. like moving my natural waking up time to noon or so.. as i see no real need to stay up till 5 am before i fall asleep. but havent started the time-shift as i also see no reason for me to have over 4-5hours of "nothing" to do in the daytime before work. time moves too slowly if you have some time to spend but not "enough" to really do something. cant really start any bigger project of the to-do list as you dont know if you have the time to finish it properly. and if you do, you will be tired by you get to work. better preserve the energy to do a good job there.

 

[Johnbeck180]

I'm usually up early, about 6:30AM And I'm usually up till about midnight. About twice a month I wrestle with bouts of insomnia that keep me up for 2-3 days.

 

[markr6]

I don't want to get off topic but this thread got me thinking...

My whole life I "needed" it to be 100% pitch black in my room when going to sleep. Right now I'm temporarily in an apartment while waiting to close on a new home. Since I'm only staying here for a couple months, I didn't want to put any money into light-blocking blinds or curtains so I just deal with it. It's pretty bad - you can almost read a book from the parking lot lighting. Since living here, I noticed I wake up pretty refreshed and don't get startled by the alarm clock anymore; in fact, I sometimes wake up just minutes before my alarm would go off.

I wonder if it's generally better to sleep this way? Of course, I always find it easier to wake up in the summer since it's always light out when waking up.

 

[GLOCK18]

Morning person but only after my 4 cups of coffee, abdicated to caffeine yes indeed.