Do You Work In-Sync with Your Body Clock?

Why is it that early risers seem to waken automatically and easily get to work on time, while night owls need blaring radios to drag them from an unconscious state? Why are folks’ body clocks so different and where do you fit?

Start with a Psychology Today quiz to determine your body clock. You'll find a great assessment of your results here.

Hormones Activate Waking Interestingly, the hormones, ACTH from the pituitary gland and cortisol from the adrenal gland, send messages to the brain that activate you to awaken. Professor Jan Born in Lubeck, Germany, found that these two hormones increase in the later stages of sleep to precipitate your wakening. Your amazing mind, according to Born, may have some sort of conscious voluntary control that enables a person to wake up on time even if it is an hour earlier. “You will soon adapt to the new system and the ACTH secretes an hour earlier,” Born explains.

Personality Types Added to Born’s findings, "The part of the brain that regulates your ability to think clearly and solve problems is heavily influenced by the body clock," says David Dinges, chief of sleep and chronobiology at the University of Pennsylvania. Your body clock is linked to mood fluctuations, fitness and even personality. “Morning people tend to be introverts, conscientious and driven, whereas night owls are more often impulsive extroverts. The owls also tend to score more highly on intelligence tests and are more likely to be depressed,” Katie Gilbert reveals.

Genetic Effect While much research is written about the advantages of working early in the morning, interestingly, Emmanuel Mignot, sleep researcher at Stanford University School of Medicine discovered that there is a genetic mutation that causes some folks to be owls rather than larks. Mignot discovered a genotype related to the preference for working at night. So your preference to be an early riser or a night owl is found in your genes!

“Do we all have to be early birds?” O Youn-hee, of The Korea Herald, asks. O Youn-hee tells the story of Park Myoung, an office worker, who “gets nervous” when others discuss Saisho’s bestselling book, Let’s Become a Morning Person. Park lamented, “It seems society demands all employees to transform themselves into morning people,” since her colleagues were showing up for work one or two hours earlier to succeed in their very competitive company. Park describes herself as a night person who usually goes to bed at 2 a.m. Park asserts that she just “can’t be an early bird.” If you also see yourself as a night owl, what then?

Body Clock How do you feel when your body clock is out of sync? Recent research at the University of Surrey in England shows that if night people disrupt their circadian clocks and try to be morning people, disadvantages outweigh the benefits. Here’s why. Sleeping patterns are influenced by the "Per3 gene," according to the study. A night person's Per3 gene is much shorter than a morning person’s, and if a night owl is forced to rise early, he or she is apt to experience “foggy” consciousness throughout the day. Additionally, these researchers conclude that a changed sleeping pattern has bad effects on a night owl's life and could take years off his life span. Ouch!

Artists - Hear a Different Drummer "Artists may have to be morning people and night people, with afternoons pretty fully booked as well," according to David McFarlane of the Toronto Globe and Mail. "The reason for this has to do with the average income of a working artist. If you're getting paid at a lower hourly rate than most babysitters, the only way to survive, other than turning to a life of crime, is to find as many working hours in a day as you can. Some people think of this as the work ethic. Some, as chronic exhaustion. Others refer to it as eating," McFarlane says. Artists often pay a huge price to share their creativity with the world.

Future Good news is on the horizon for night owls! Industry might drive a change. As more corporations become global businesses, more workers who can be productive at night will be necessary to match the schedules of workers in other time zones.

In the meantime, both early risers and night owls can benefit from Dr. Ellen Weber's 5 tips to Calm Your Brain for Its Evening Shift.

What will take place in your grandchildren's world? Will they work naturally with their body clocks? Thoughts?