Very interesting!! Sleep late in our DNA
Dear friends,
I found this article very interesting. Since I was very young I naturally found it hard to sleep early and wake up early. I find it easy to sleep late and get up late. It has always been like that. I think better, function better, think faster, work faster and most of my ideas come clearer and faster when I work late into the night. It’s always been like that for me.
So many people have told me through the years it’s healthier to sleep earlier and I agreed but I just cannot. And for years I have tried many methods to sleep earlier but very unsuccessfully. Finally I said I will just follow my own body clock and just sleep when my body wants and not what others tell me when I am suppose to sleep. I find it much easier to sleep late and get up later.
This study shows that we sleep when we want as it’s in our DNA already. But I realize for some people who have to work 9-5 in the office or day jobs it may not be easy.
Read this very interesting article.
Tsem Rinpoche
How night owls are cleverer and richer than people who rise early
By Fiona Macrae
It has long been held that the early bird catches the worm. But it is the night owl that lasts the distance, research shows.
It found that late risers tire less quickly than those who make a point of getting up at the crack of dawn.
The study is likely to be embraced by anyone tired of being branded lazy for their love of a lie-in.
Not so guilty pleasure: A study has found that people who sleep-in tend to be cleverer and richer than morning larks
And it adds to growing evidence that it is night owls that rule the roost.
Previous studies have found that those who rise later tend to be both cleverer and richer than early birds.
For the latest study, scientists pitted morning larks against night owls in a task designed to measure their reaction and attention times.
During the experiment, the volunteers got up and went to bed at their usual times, with the larks tending to turn in four hours earlier than the owls.
Both did similarly well at the task shortly after getting up. But ten hours into their day, it was the night owls that shone, being both quicker and more alert at the task, the journal Science reports.
Despite being awake for the same length of time, the larks felt sleepier, with scans showing that the parts of their brains linked to attention were less active.
Dr Philippe Peigneux, of the University of Liege in Belgium, said: ‘During the evening session, evening types were less sleepy and tended to perform faster than morning types.’
Previous studies have shown that getting up late appears to be in our DNA, with our body clock regulated by a series of genes which determine whether we are larks or owls.
Other studies have debunked the popular saying ‘early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise’.
Night owls have been shown to be cleverer than larks, with quicker minds and better memories. They also earn more.
Famous night owls include Charles Darwin, Adolf Hitler and Winston Churchill, who regularly went to bed at 4am and rose late. Due to his sleeping patterns, he often hosted War Cabinet meetings in his bath.
It is thought that the division into larks and owls has its roots in evolution, with early risers in the Stone Age taking the initiative in food gathering, while owls stood guard late into the night.
Those who fell into neither category could sleep safely in the knowledge that their needs were being taken care of.
When humans moved towards tending animals and harvesting crops, larks came in demand for the early starts, while owls started to be thought of as less industrious.
Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1173028/How-night-owls-cleverer-richer-people-rise-early.html
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I like the idea of sleeping late to become more clever and rich! I love to hand out until late because that’s when I can read or study quietly without being disturbed. basically I sleep about 5-6 hours a day. Mostly around 2am to 7am depending on the work I needed to be done on that day. Nothing fixed but when my body needs to rest I would just have to sleep especially when comes to my usual sleeping hour. Sometimes it could be a hot afternoon. My mind just can’t function due to too tire. It’s kind of like a sleeping habit. In the other hand, having sleeping too long or more than my usual hours I would feel tire after woke up. I guess all these due to how much sleep our body needs. Not too little nor too much. Most important is the sleeping quality I have on that night. Hence I’ll normaly very careful and not having too much water before sleep.
There are no solid researches to confirm such gene that categorise us to either early riser /late riser, but there are people sharing their personal experiences which have make the statement to be true.
Personally, I’ve not try to twist my schedule around because I’m nurtured to be an early riser. But I believe that if we spend time to adapt whatever living condition, we could eventually get used to the condition.
I have been sleeping between
10-11pm & wake up at 5-6pm
5-6am & wake up at 10-11am
7-8am & wake up at 1-2pm
And so on…
The above all is due to my previous work and I adjusted my sleeping timing to suit my working hours, human is very adaptive, whenever in need, we can adjust our timing to anything, like sleeping, eating, resting, etc. Its all depends on our will.
I do believe the DNA research thing, because there are people whom I seen where they will sleep according to their timing and they perfom really well and even superceed their colleague who work on a very timely manner. There is no doubt where sleeping can affect our daily activities performance.
Our sleeping habits are often not up to us but we need to go to school or to work at a certain time. Some people like to start the day early whereas others do start the day later. I don’t know if someone is more intelligent in one case or the other as this study shows.
In any case it is sure not easy to change the time when to start school for example as it needs a lot of organisation from the parents for example. In any case, I am sure many kids would appreciate it. “Kids not getting enough sleep? Start school later” https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/politics-columns-blogs/dan-walters/article112368087.html
Many sleep experts have previously suggested that we should sleep early. Some of us even forcing ourselves to go to bed early, however some end up not being able to sleep because forcing just make you more anxious about not being able to fall sleep And this article is very interesting suggestion- sleep late and clever. I believe the best time for a person to go to sleep is the hour when they feel the sleepiest inregardless is earlier of late night.
I always have this thinking that great mind doesn’t sleep much. It’s true, it doesn’t matter whether that person sleep late wake up late or sleep early wake up early, I saw many example of great people don’t really sleep much, but they still can always perform and think at tip top condition. However, I tried it myself before, when I sleep late and wake up late, I can actually work longer and concentrate longer. Whereas, when I sleep early and wake up early, the next day I will get tired faster, and sometimes even before mid night I had already felt sleepy and tired.
I would think it is our mind that controls our sleeping time frame. I have experienced on sleeping at different time but wakes up on the time that had fixed in my mind. Therefore, it turns out is the habits that I have cultivated. But in such manner, it will not last long cause losing too much of sleep will make me tired easily and I will take replacement. Overall, sufficient sleeps up to 6-7 hours are perfect for me and if above more, I will need painkillers. If sleeping late, will be wiser, I think it will depend on individual body. But in logical way, enough sleep to gain more oxygen will be beneficial for brain function.
The sleeping timing of every individual very much dependant to their own preferences for whatever reason they have. They are people dictated by the working schedule and some may have the flexibility according to their own timing. Be it any timing it could be also dictate by their habituation. What important is which way is effective and best not to be fixed. Whether which sleeping timing define which one cleverer I have no comment but personally I feel that the more volatile we are the easier for us to achieve effectively with no constrain.
I think most of us have different types of sleeping patterns. Some will sleep less and some will need to sleep more. Personally, I need to sleep at least 5 to 6 hours to perform well for the next day. If I sleep less, I will be lightheaded and don’t perform well and also my heart will palpitate fast. For example my dad, he sleeps early at 9pm and wakes up around 3am sometimes to make his tea and to continue his reading. When he is tired he will goes back to sleep. He naps a lot throughout the day.
The time for sleeping depends on individual, be it in the DNA, habit, work schedule and whatever other reasons that people find comfortable with. People have the ability to adjust their sleep according to their work schedule especially when the job means all the world to them. The sleeping and waking time also means that the meals differ for different people. Lunch for an early riser would be breakfast for a late riser. However, I do not concur that a person’s intelligence is measured by the sleeping and waking time of a person.
Years back I loved to sleep late and wake up late because I feel that sleeping late is more peaceful and comfortable. I can do stuff and nobody will bother me. As years passed, because of commitments, I have to wake earlier and I feel tired easily if I don’t get enough sleep. But I guess it’s still differ for many others. Some look for night jobs because they feel more alert and hyper during that time of the day. But whether they are more intelligent or not, that I am not sure. Since it didn’t mention how many people was involved in the research, I don’t think it’s fair to conclude that. I am sure many early risers are very smart people too.
Naturally I am one who sleeps in the early hours between 1am to 2am and there were times my awakening hours could stretch to 3am and I would panic during those nights as I needed to wake up early for a 8am appointment meaning I need to be awake by latest 6am to be on time for such appointments. Would I have rested enough to be alert during such appointments which is the crucial time.
Basically I am delighted to read this DNA confirmation on the advantages of being an owl. However, the world structure is such that if you sleep late, you need to be in the privileged position to operate within your suitable hours. This is when the advantage of being cleverer and bigger wage earner conflicts.
I suppose in any circumstances, there is no perfect situation and night owls will have to compromise to align within the norm and hope that we can develop the ability to be in the privilege position to operate within our hours and time frame.
Interesting news….all the while i know sleep early and waking early keeps us healthy.I know thats not.The good news in all of this is that our body clock.
Now with all the work load ,people working from 9 to 5 tends to sleep late …could be the DNA in them.But it also probably depends on our age. Scientists has identify. genetic difference between those who sleep early and those who slepep late. This difference is due to genetic variations in their DNA.
I was a night owls when i was much younger,so its linked to a gene mutation. But it also probably depends on our age and individual.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this interesting post.At least it helps those night owl to know it alright to sleep late afterall.
Sleeping very late is my habit and my family always thinks its not normal and that i should sleep early for health reasons…lol 🙂 I sleep around 3-4am almost everyday and wake up late morning.I feel its more peaceful and cooling to read and do my internet stuffs at night. Thank you Rinpoche for this interesting article! 🙂
Dear Rinpoche,
Thank you for sharing this exciting news. I had always been a night owl and I like to wake up late in the morning. It makes my day better and I felt way more energetic. Turns out that this is already in me and I’m just going with the flow. No more feeling guilty of not being able to wake up early in the morning !!! 🙂
Wow! This is just great. There is now a great explanation that why I would tend to sleep late, and waking up late helps me to function better in the day. It is just so fascinating!
I just love how the researchers have cleared up so many myths there are around about sleeping early and waking up early.
This is a very interesting article. I used to think that sleep late will slow down the function of the brain.
I’m not that kind of person who goes to bed early, but during school days I have to be in the room before 10pm.
It kind of irritates me because when I can’t sleep, basically what I do is just stare at the ceiling. So normally I will have a little chitchatting session with my brother, then my parents will just come into the room and yell at us. And we will pretend to be asleep, as soon as they are gone we then start talking again. Yes, very naughty of us..
Thank You for sharing Rinpoche.
Love, beatrix.
This is so interesting.
Now i know why no matter how early i try to sleep, i just cannot. After reading this article, i should allow my body to decide when i should sleep and when to get up. It has now been proven it’s in my DNA, so i will not allow any busybodies to tell me otherwise !
We are all night owls in the family, which is quite fun . We get to spend more time doing our own thing (like doing my prayers and mantras) late into the night without any disruption of phonecalls , visits from neighbours, friends and family, without any distractions !
I like the term night owls. It’s better than what Jamie used to refer to us a “family of cockroaches” – scuttling around the house at the oddest hours of the night and into the wee hours of the morning.
This is a good and interesting read. So glad that now I do not feel guilty and abnormal for being a night owl! I cannot like Rinpoche stand sleeping early and I simply dislike the mornings. Yes it sounds like a vampire. I guess it is not important what time you sleep n get up, bottom line is you get the job done or you have results. If that is so, who cares what time u sleep and rise, as long as u get the job done on a timely manner! Thank you for this insightful article Rinpoche. It’s in the genes 🙂
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this interesting article.Reading this article make me feel that i am not the abnormal,I like to do my works and sadhana at late night after my husband and kids sleeping.I feel that more forcused and calm.I will sharing this information with my husband to let him not worry me anymore ^_^
As much as I agree with this article whole-heartedly because it explains everything I am since a baby (my mom told me I used to refuse sleeping at the late hours such as 11pm at a mere age of 3!), I think it’s not so much about being night owls which makes one smarter, earns more, have sharper memory, etc, it is more that people who tend to stick to a fixed daily routine refuses to push themselves to do more and out of their comfort zone because this is their working time, this is their sleeping time and this is their personal time. Some larks are so attached to their “time” and that is how much they are willing to be successful according to their time. Their focus is to get the job done by a fixed hour and after hours they completely cut off from their work.
The secret of successful people is they think about work and ideas even after hours.
So maybe these night owls who is smarter and makes more money are people who does not care about their routine and would work till late and till the job is done because they want to make the most out of their time to do as much as possible. It’s the drive to succeed is what makes them sharp and focus.
We shouldn’t let our sleeping time be the hindrance of our success.
Thank you Rinpoche sharing . Start from today i try to become “OWL” …. Hehehe…
My dad has always been giving me lectures on sleeping early during my college days, as I always find it hard to do so.. Somehow I just find it more relaxing to do my work at night when everyone’s alseep. Well I don’t have the luxury to do it now but this is good information!
Thank you for sharing Rinpoche!
Ah.. Now I don’t have to feel guilty, for turning in so late and getting up late as well… Eh.. but I do hear that sleeping so late doesn’t help the heart.
Dear Rinpoche, i’ve never been sleeping early even i try to at times. I feel when most of the world’s population are sleeping it gives me a very calming feeling. I love to do some work at night, with not disturbance from client’s and phone calls. Everything seems clearer and peaceful.
How interesting. But I think when a person’s clock is tuned to a certain timing, it’s hard to make that switch.
I know my eyes start to shut at a certain time at night but if I pass that time or take 20 winks,I’ll be wide awake therefater.
This is all very interesting to read this article because it is radically different from what we hear usually from scientists and the health-conscious. I think that the 8-hour sleep adage is over-rated and is relative to the individual.
Some need less than others and we can actually train ourselves to sleep at certain amounts if we want to. But I think anything less that 4 hours of sleep a day is not too healthy for the individual in the long run. After all, sleep is a biological need to remove toxins from the body and repair damaged tissue.
However, I think the less sleep the person has reflects their drive and goal to have achievement in their waking hour. However, there’s also this exception that people do have a hormonal imbalance that may cause insomnia. I am no expert but I think that expert help is needed if we were to have trouble sleeping.
A human body needs a certain amount of sleep according to medical research. If one doesn’t get enough sleep it can have a major impact on your life, whether it’s from insomnia, sleepness-less due to late-nights through overtime work, watching of TV or caring for a newborn or sick person. Sleep deprivation can cause tiredness and overall drowsiness to start with, until it depretiates into a serious medical problem. The dangers of sleep deprivation as revealed, leads to a slow breakdown of one’s immunity and physical emotional system, ranging from slurred speech and sudden outburst of anger, easily depressed and impatience, not counting to causing of accidents when driving due to sleepiness, thus causing injuries to others as well as oneself. So what’s the use of being richer when you’re no more around to enjoy your life.
I have read a research saying why owls are more intelligent. This is interesting–because in ancient time, wild animals come out during night time, and those who are could survive animal’s attack are those who are very alert and quick person.
Furthermore, a research done in London shown owls are those with higher IQ because they could adapt to new environment, new changing of the surrounding better.
How? Because to stay up at night is almost impossible during our ancestor’s time–there’s no electricity or bulb. Hence staying up till late is a new “skill”, those who could learn skill and adapt to a changing world are those who are cleverer…
How much you believe in this theories? Ha, but is interesting.
Since my secondary school time, I like to stay up late at night and do my assignments. The situation got “worse” when I was in university where I usually do my programming until early morning. During the nights, my mind is much clearer and at that time I thought it is because there is no disturbance from my housemate etc, but it seems like it is in the DNA.. hehe…
My mum has the same DNA, I supposed because she also read newspaper until 3am almost everyday…
Thanks Rinpoche for sharing the article, it’s something to ease my guilt hehehehehehe……
Out of love and care, the people around me always advice me to sleep early, they always say the liver only functions at the hour of 11pm-1am. If you are not sleeping in these hour, your body unable to detox.
I used to follow once in a while, where I sleep around 12am, then wake up around 2am to continue my works. It works for few times, but most of the time I would overslept and end up didn’t got to wake up and do my works.
So I follow my body clocks, sleep when I am very tired. But I am now slowly adjusting my sleeping time earlier as I need to be in office at 10am. So I need to sleep before 3am to make sure I would not oversleep.
I still find my body and health ok as long as I have enough rest. So I think the sleeping hours matters than the time you sleep.
I wonder if we follow the liver function rules of 11pm-1am, how it works if we go to a place with different time zone? Like if I go to America and the time is different, will my liver still function at 11pm-1am of Malaysian time?
Oh, this is really something new to me, i never know that sleep late is good for us ’cause i usually sleep around 12 – 1am & wake up around 5.30 to 6am.
Thank you sharing
Sleeping early has never been in my system since when I was still schooling. Just could not bring myself to sleep early as 10pm! I would be tossing here and there. This carried on even till now. There’s always disagreement and debate on why we should sleep early. Anyway, even how late I sleep, I would still wake up around the same time in the morning. Hmmm..I wish I could wake up late…hahaha.
Yea, finally i can sleep late n wake late in knowledge that i m not lazy. Its my DNA……hmmm, wonder from which parent! But I feel sometimes of missing out so much that had been happening while I hav my zzzzzzz, but agree that I work much better at nite.
Thank you Rinpoche for your sharing.
This article is interesting, will bear this in mind and observe in the future in my surrounding people…
I would like to add on that the quality of the sleep determine the performance through the day as well. Ie, when we are unwell, no matter how much we sleep, we may still feel tired…
In the stillness of the night, it is when our mind are clearer due to less distractions. Successful people sleep only a few hours a day and they are productive and function well.As long as we have enough sleep then our bodies can function well.
Thank you, Rinpoche, for sharing this information which is good news for night owls.
I totally agreed with what Li Kim said. Isn’t that sounds familiar? That’s how Kecharians work! Some people wake up early will do the morning job and some people wake up late will do the mid night job. I definitely believe that passion does play an important role of being able to push ourselves further. Not only can stay up late but can wake up very early too!
I was once trying to push myself to sleep late or less so that I could do a bit more but I end up wasting my time because when I am tired, my body naturally shut down. Hence if I pushed myself further to stay awake I will just end up being blur and getting nothing done. I found it very unproductive. Now I sleep when I’m tired. I wake up after 5-6 hours of sleep. I’ll take a nap like 30 min which helps a lot especially when I have a long day to go.
One thing for sure my DNA is with the night owl. I have always struggled to sleep early as it had never been alright for me to wake up late and not be around during 9am to 5pm. So I treated my DNA like an illness, take a sleeping pill, go to sleep and be awake to catch what the whole world is made to do. Work from 9 to 5 daily. Strange how the whole world structure is made to fit one type of being.
Reading this article for sure makes me realise that I am not suffering from insomnia but just governed by the lack of flexibility in my lifestyle in respect to making a living and having to work.
Have to do what needs to be done.
Finally!! This is the liberation for us night owls!! 🙂 I didn’t know Rinpoche that You were nocturnal too.
I am really healthy only on a nocturnal schedule, and my parents were like me. Sometimes we made jokes about being a family of vampires.
Thanks so much for sharing this, very interesting and totally liberating! 😀
Thank you Rinpoche for the sharing.Only now I could understand why I could stay up quite late into the morning but due to the fact I had to force myself to get up early in the morning ,I am always feeling lethargic towards the first half of the day and wide awake at night.From now on I would learn to respect those with sleeping problems .But in life punctuality is very important as it is a form of discipline that others respect. So, do not be late for date line or important meetings,using this article as an excuse.
Its something new and interesting to me hehehe. I used to sleep late and wake up late, but always got scolded by my parents. They said is bad for our health and liver >__<
Thanks for sharing Rinpoche.
Great to know that. I like to sleep late and get up late since I can remember. Most work get done when it’s dark & quiet. I tried to sleep early but I just cannot fall asleep. And morning was never efficient. I prefer do daily Sadhana at night before sleep. Somehow the mind is more focused and calm when it’s late and quiet. Well, since it’s in my DNA, I will happily accept it. Hee hee~
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this interesting article.
Christine
Thanks Rinpoche for sharing the articles, we may learn a lot from this. There are some more articles to show that we must sleep earlier to let our organs to have enough time to rest or detox.
So i think we should get the balance for both or if we still have to sleep late then we need to take care our BODY carefully… We should do yearly test and take care our foods or consume medicine or health foods to maintain our health.
Dear Rinpoche, thanks for the article, It is true when i slept late, i feel more comfortable. I do not really like to wake up around 6am and rush to work.
My mom, always tell me to sleep early to let the kidney, liver rest, Now i wonder it is true our internal organ “rest” on that hour.
Very interesting article.
Thank you Rinpoche
I know that some great people like Napoleon needed very little sleep this was because their minds were very optimal it seems. I wonder if people like Stephan Hawkings and Steve Jobs did they have the same kind of sleep patterns.
hehe…something new for me. It is interesting. Thank you for sharing. However, I still like sleep late, sorry!!!
wow, this is something new and I never heard off, last time I always like to argue with my friends, people say sleep early and wake up early is good for health, and I said sleep late and wake up late also good for health what… because we get to sleep the same number of hours, and we always can’t get to conclusion.
now with this article, seems like sleeping late has their benefit too, so both are good, it’s only the matters of your choice, follow your body clock, that’s what I choose… sleep late, hehe
Night owls will experience less disturbances in the night for sure, hence, they are more focus and produce better results. So long as night owls get to sleep enough, their bodies should be able to function well. However this is only possible if they need not clock in normal 9-5 and are given the flexibility to work at odd hours.
Dear Rinpoche ,
This is the best ever article ! Cant wait to share this with all my “accusors” he he he ! Thank you thank you .
Kwok Wai !!! I was thinking of you and how you will raise your eye brows when you read this article!!!
Yes yes you now found a supportive ‘evident’ to your special sleeping hours !!
On a more serious note, sleeping hours notwithstanding, I still think it is the results that count !! Sleeping hours is just a label, much like how we were brought up by our parents to sleep and eat and work at a certain pattern and time. It is more important to follow our biological clock, but how many of us have the luxury of ‘flexi-hours’ ??
I totally agree with siong woan, it doesn’t matter what time you sleep, how many hours you are in bed. What matters is the results… How much did you achieve in a day… I’m talking from an ordinary Joe like myself who’s not a genius… we need certain work hours to achieve certain production value.. or get certain tasks done ourselves. This formula cannot be flawed… HARD WORK = ACHIEVEMENT….
Than again, we can continue to believe otherwise… and sleeeeeepppp your life away…. We’ll all get enough sleep when we’re dead… ya…
Very interesting… So, if we have larks and owls working together, we will efficient productivity 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week. They complement each other…
I also think that many leaders/successful people sleep less and are still productive and effective is not merely because of sleep hours BUT the passion to succeed to the point that being tired is not an option. They are simply driven by the passion and sleep hours is irrelevant.
I like what you said here sister! That is why Kechara is open 24/7 and available to anyone who needs help because we have many owls and several larks to complement each other.
I suppose it’s not at what time one gets to sleep but how much one gets. Time is after all relative. My day is someone’s night. But to go without sleep or too little sleep is punishing to the body physiologically as that’s when it gets recharged and repaired. A young man was reported to have dropped down and died after playing computer games non stop for a few days so I read! In the quest to take care of others, we shouldn’t forget to take care of ourselves too. After all if we fall sick or are not at our optimum due to tiredness, how can we serve others in an effective way? Whatever the amount, we should listen to our bodies. Everyone is different.
Dear Rinpoche,
Thank you for the sharing. For years Bean and me thought that we are abnormal, but heat a relief seeing this article .