Have you noticed how much advice about becoming more productive involves getting up ridiculously early?
According to the morning productivity gurus, the secret to success is to jump out of bed at 5 a.m., exercise, meditate, journal, eat a nutritious breakfast, and get in two hours of creative work before the rest of the world even realizes it's morning.
Apparently, if you're not greeting the sunrise with a green smoothie and a grateful heart, you're doing life wrong. There's just one rather large problem with this advice.
Not everyone is a morning person.
Some of us are night owls. Some of us are somewhere in between. Some of us would prefer that nobody speak to us until we've had two cups of coffee and sufficient time to remember our names.
I'm most definitely in that last group.
For years, I've heard people insist that anyone can become a morning person. Just get up ten minutes earlier every day! Develop the habit! Show some discipline! Before you know it, you'll be leaping out of bed at dawn, bursting with energy and ready to conquer the world.
Well, I've tried. And while I've managed to develop a morning routine that makes getting out of bed less painful, I have not transformed into one of those cheerful people who greet the day singing.
More importantly, I've discovered that getting up early and doing your best creative work are two entirely different things.
And it turns out there's some fascinating science behind that distinction.
Meet Your Internal Clock
We all have a biological clock that helps regulate when we feel sleepy, alert, energetic, and ready to tackle the world. Scientists call our roughly 24-hour biological cycles circadian rhythms, and they influence everything from sleep and hormone production to body temperature and cognitive performance.
But those rhythms don't run on exactly the same schedule for everyone. That's where something called a chronotype comes in.
Your chronotype is your body's natural tendency to sleep and wake at certain times. It also helps explain why you may feel mentally sharp at 7 a.m. while your best friend doesn't become fully functional until 11.
You already know the two most famous chronotypes: early birds and night owls. Scientists also recognize intermediate types, people who fall somewhere between the two extremes.
And here's the important part: Your chronotype isn't simply a habit or a personality flaw. It has a biological component.
Genetics influence our internal clocks. So do age, light exposure, environment, and other factors. Teenagers and young adults, for example, tend to gravitate toward later schedules, while many older adults naturally shift toward earlier mornings.
You can adjust your schedule and influence your circadian rhythms to some degree, but an extreme night owl may never become a natural early bird. Nor is there any compelling reason every night owl should try.
Think about that the next time somebody tells you the secret to writing a bestseller is getting up before sunrise.
Are You a Lion, Bear, Wolf, or Dolphin?
One of the most entertaining explanations of chronotypes comes from sleep specialist Dr. Michael Breus and his book The Power of When: Discover Your Chronotype and the Best Time to Eat Lunch, Ask for a Raise, Have Sex, Write a Novel, Take Your Meds, and More.
Breus takes the familiar morning-person/night-owl distinction and expands it into four animal-based categories. His framework makes it easier to imagine how different people's energy levels can rise and fall throughout the day.
The Lion: The Early Bird
Lions are those people who wake up at 5:00 a.m. without an alarm and genuinely enjoy it. They tend to have lots of energy early in the day and feel their batteries running down as evening approaches.
Lions often love starting their days early, tackling important projects in the morning, and getting things accomplished before lunch.
If you're a Lion who loves writing before breakfast, congratulations! You've found a routine that works beautifully for you. Just don't assume everybody else should follow it.
The Bear: The Daytime Worker
Bears tend to follow the natural daylight cycle. They're not necessarily eager to leap out of bed at dawn, but once they're awake and moving, they can enjoy a productive day.
Their energy often improves through the morning, with a productive stretch in the middle of the day. Many Bears experience an afternoon slump before picking up again later.
For a Bear writer, midmorning or early afternoon might be an ideal time to work on a manuscript. There's no need to force a predawn writing session when your brain is perfectly happy to start work at 10.
The Wolf: The Night Owl
Wolves are not fond of early mornings, but their energy and mental alertness tend to increase as the day progresses. Many Wolves are at their best in the late afternoon, evening, or even late at night.
A Wolf might spend the morning answering emails, handling administrative tasks, or slowly becoming human. Then, while the Lions are winding down, the Wolf's creative brain starts revving its engine.
For a Wolf writer, that late-evening writing session may be when ideas flow, scenes come together, and characters finally decide to cooperate.
Naturally, this can cause problems in a world that expects everybody to be bright-eyed and enthusiastic at 8 a.m. More about that in a minute.
The Dolphin: The Unpredictable Sleeper
Dolphins are the wild cards. Breus uses this category to describe people who tend to be light sleepers, have irregular sleep patterns, or struggle to get consistently restful sleep.
Their energy can arrive in fits and starts rather than following an easily predictable pattern. Some Dolphins feel productive in the morning, others in the evening, and some experience unexpected windows of alertness throughout the day.
If this sounds familiar, experimenting with flexible creative work periods may be useful.
Ask a doctor: Persistent trouble sleeping, however, is worth discussing with a healthcare professional rather than simply accepting it as a personality type.
A quick scientific clarification: Breus's four animals are a helpful and memorable way to think about different sleep and energy patterns, but they aren't four official medical classifications. Scientists generally describe chronotypes along a spectrum ranging from morning-oriented to evening-oriented, with plenty of people in the middle.
You also don't have to fit perfectly into one animal category. The point isn't to collect a new personality label. It's to begin paying attention to your own rhythms.
What Happens When the World Runs on Someone Else's Clock?
Another fascinating book on this subject is Internal Time: Chronotypes, Social Jet Lag, and Why You're So Tired, by chronobiologist Till Roenneberg.
Roenneberg explains how our biological clocks can clash with the schedules society expects us to follow. He calls this mismatch social jetlag.
Imagine you're naturally inclined to fall asleep around midnight or later and wake up at 8:30 or 9 a.m. But your job requires you to be at your desk by 7:30.
You may spend your workweek waking earlier than your biological clock prefers, perhaps cutting your sleep short in the process. When the weekend arrives, you sleep later and try to recover. Now your sleep schedule has shifted between workdays and free days, even though you haven't traveled anywhere.
That's social jetlag.
Of course, many people have no choice about when they start work. Parents have children to get to school, employees have bosses who expect them at specific hours, and the world doesn't always arrange itself around our natural sleep patterns.
Understanding social jetlag can help explain why some people struggle with traditional schedules even when they're hardworking, disciplined, and highly motivated. Being productive at 9 p.m. instead of 9 a.m. doesn't mean you're less disciplined. It means your clock may be running on a different schedule.
Next time we'll discuss a time twist. When you are the most awake, you may not be the most creative.
What is your chronotype, and how does it impact your creative life? Hit reply! I'd love to hear.
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