People are divided into two chronotypes — “larks” and “owls”. Some get up easily at dawn, energetic and cheerful. Such people work productively throughout the day, however, in the late afternoon, their efficiency decreases. The evening brings with it fatigue, mental processes slow down no matter how hard the day’s work was. Others, on the contrary, can do business all night long (the evening and night hours are the most productive for them), but getting up early in the morning is a huge problem for them.
The nutrition of both types of people is essentially the same. The only difference is the recommended meal times. Larks, for example, are advised to have a good breakfast before going to work. Whereas for owls, eating a large amount of food is better to postpone after waking up for a couple of hours.
The intellectual potential of “owls” is higher
Extensive testing conducted at the University of Sydney and the BBC Research Group showed that people with a nocturnal lifestyle (“owls”), although slightly, are better than “larks” in terms of their ability to quickly assimilate new material, engage in several tasks at the same time, instantly switch from one work to another without loss of quality of work. Based on the data obtained, psychologists Richard Roberts and Patrick Killonen concluded that, despite popular belief, “owls” can cope with the tasks more efficiently and better.
“Larks” are no better than “owls” in work
Many believe that the earlier a person gets up, the more and better he can do the work. A pair of scientists from the University of Southampton conducted an experiment on an audience of more than 300 people. It turned out that wealth, position in society is much higher for people belonging to the “owl” chronotype. Also, those who like to sleep more often have a personal car. At the same time, health, level of education, intellectual abilities do not depend on the time of activity of people. Although, when analyzing part of the audience closer to 50 years old, it turned out that “owls” are still healthier than “larks”, probably because their adaptive abilities are higher.
It has been proven that playing sports, maintaining a healthy lifestyle does not really depend on the chronotype of a person. Rather, it serves as a way of self-hypnosis and justification for unwillingness to work. The conducted experiments proved that people make non-standard effective decisions, being in an unusual environment and at a time that does not correspond to their chronotype.
Who is better?
No scientist can answer this question. Everyone chooses daily routine and rhythm of life. Although it is very convenient to write off all your problems on your chronorhythm. Such beliefs (caused by self-confidence in relation to a certain chronotype, self-deception) often prevent people from improving themselves and getting rid of the negative impact of this or that object or person in their working life.