(Note from Erin: For those of you that know me personally, you know my penchant for staying up late. Too late, in fact. So, you can imagine how happy I was when I saw THIS story. More than happy to pass along!)

NIGHT OWLS ARE MORE CREATIVE AND ORIGINAL: According to a study from the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, those with a “penchant for staying up late”, exhibited the most creativity. The participants ranged in age and were given an activity “in which they were required to complete pictures composed with only straight and curved lines. Night owls passed the test with no problem, while those that considered themselves to be morning people struggled to achieve an average score.”

EARLY BIRDS MENTALLY TIRE SOONER: In a study from The University of Leige in Belgium, researchers found a huge difference in mental alertness between the two groups. Night owls and early birds were each given a test to measure their reaction times in the morning and evening with the test being given 10.5 hours after each group woke up from a normal sleep schedule. For the morning test, the groups scored similarly, however, by the evening test there was a huge difference between the two groups; night owls had faster response times during the evening test than those that went to be earlier on a regular basis. Seems that regardless of wake times, night owls are able to sustain mental alertness for longer than early birds.
NIGHT OWLS ARE SMARTER: Satoshi Kanazawa of the London School of Economics and Political Science looked at the sleep and wake times of students in 80 middle and high schools. “The students were questioned about their sleep habits on days they had to attend school or work, contrasted with days they were able to sleep in. The study found that the brightest students had both later bedtimes and wake times, while those students with low to average intellectual ability went to bed earlier and woke earlier as well.”
NIGHT OWL COMMUNITIES ARE ACTIVE: Most people think of the night time as a time of solitude. However, for night owls it’s a time to communicate with others in their tribe.
THEY ARE SUPERIOR WHEN IT COMES TO PHYSICAL STRENTH: A study out of the University of Alberta tested the leg strength of both groups at different times throughout the day. Researchers found that while morning people remained stable throughout the day, night owls “showed a burst of strength in the evening, the result of increased motor cortex and spinal cord excitability working together in the evening hours.”
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BETTER ABLE TO HANDLE NEWBORNS: If you’ve ever been the parent of a newborn you know how exhausting the night time can be that first couple of months. However, when night owls become parents, they are better equipped and ready. Since most newborns don’t sleep longer than two to four hours at a time, night owls are already up! But it’s not just at the beginning of a child’s life, it also helps to need less sleep/go to bed later when you have a sick little one.

NIGHT OWLS ARE BETTER AT REASONING: A study from the University of Madrid tested the various skills of 1,000 teenagers and found that those who considered themselves night owls scored the highest on the inductive reasoning parts of the test.
NIGHT OWLS ARE IN THE MAJORITY: This one is simple- if you are a night owl, you’re in the majority. Scientists from Aachen University in Germany believe that only 10 percent of people can be considered morning people with 20 percent considered night owls (the other 70 percent of the population have more moderate sleep patterns).
THEY HAVE EXTRA TIME TO DEVOTE TO EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES: While the rest of the world is fast asleep, night owls are busy working on the things that give them life but might not necessarily pay the bills.
NIGHT OWLS HAVE MORE TIME TO DE-STRESS: While it goes against everything we think we know about sleep and stress, night owls report less stress than the rest of us- perhaps because they find more time to participate in activities that relieve stress.
Are you a night owl or an early riser? Or, are you BOTH?
XO- Erin the night owl

 

Source: MSN