I’m convinced that no one is a morning person by choice. Have you ever seen someone being excited over waking up at 5 or 6 a.m., jumping out of bed, ready to seize the day? Didn’t think so. The fact that you’re not the “early bird catches the worm” type of person becomes even more clear when you have a significant other living with you.
Recently, Reddit user ForsakenFigure6334 shared how his girlfriend is approximately five levels below not being a morning person. She relies on him to wake her up every day, and when he does, she insults him in all sorts of ways, blaming it on being sleepy and out of it. But one morning, when she pushed things too far, the boyfriend decided that he wasn’t going to do that for her anymore, which had quite unfortunate consequences.
Scroll down to find the full story and a conversation with sleep and performance coach Cavan Chan, who kindly agreed to tell us how a night owl can become more of a morning person.
Not everyone is a morning person, gladly waking up at 6 a.m., ready to seize the day
Image credits: allatsyganova/Envato (not the actual photo)
This woman might be the farthest from a morning person, as she essentially sacrificed her job for an extra hour of sleep
Image credits: drazenphoto/Envato (not the actual photo)
Image credits: ForsakenFigure6334
25% of the population are night owls
Image credits: Anna Shvets/Pexels (not the actual photo)
Chances are that you’ve already figured out if you’re a morning person or not. Something you might not be aware of yet is that scientists have names for these two types. “Larks” are those waking up at the crack of dawn and going to sleep at reasonable evening hours. “Owls” struggle with an early start of the day, are most alert at night, and typically hit the haystack late at night.
And some people fall in the middle. It’s estimated that around half of the population doesn’t have a preference for early mornings or later evenings. Meanwhile, the rest 50% are equally divided into larks and owls.
An individual doesn’t really have a choice when it comes to being assigned to one of these categories, as it mainly depends on biological factors like the internal clock or circadian rhythm. The majority of it, 47%, is inherited from parents, so if you’d like to find out the root of your sleeping habits, you should take a look at them.
Another genetic contributing factor seems to be the length of our circadian rhythm. The average human has a 24.2-hour clock, while owls’ is longer. This means that they naturally tend to fall asleep and wake up later over time. The sleeping preference might also fluctuate with age. Children may favor the morning and choose the night around the age of 20 and shift back to the first light when they reach 50.
Even though we distinguish the two types, it doesn’t mean that one is better than the other. For a while, there’s been a stagnant view that early risers tend to achieve more, as many successful people assigned their accomplishments to waking up at 3 or 4 a.m. However, owls and larks exhibit a classic left-brain versus right-brain division, with the former being more imaginative and individualistic and the latter being more analytic and cooperative. No one type is better than the other. They are just different, is all.
Getting enough sleep and staying consistent can transform a night owl into a morning person
Image credits: Ivan Oboleninov/Pexels (not the actual photo)
Since our world is tailored to fit early risers more, those who enjoy sleeping in often struggle to get up for work, school, or other responsibilities at the crack of dawn, ready to seize the day. Because of this, most owls might try to become as much of a morning person as possible.
For these individuals, sleep and performance coach Cavan Chan recommends regulating their sleep schedule and minimizing light exposure after 8 p.m. “That will make it easier for you to go to sleep around 10:00 p.m. and wake up at about 5-6 a.m.,” he says to Bored Panda.
Maintaining the same wake-up time trains the body to activate the brain, increase temperature, and release cortisol around a similar hour every day. Consistency here is key, as what you’re attempting to do here is fight your biological making. It’s also important to be mindful of caffeine, as it highly affects our ability to sleep. Around two hours before bedtime, try to relax and not do any vigorous exercise or last-minute tasks. They tend to give a boost of energy, which hinders the ability to fall asleep.
If a partner wants to help their significant other regulate their sleep schedule, Chan advises starting by eliminating all distractions that might prevent them from going to bed. “Ensure your partner does not have a Wi-Fi connection after 10 pm and no TV to watch. Turn down the light and move up eating dinner hours. These are ways to make sure that the person can go to sleep earlier and allow them to regulate their sleep cycle. And if you have to wake the person up early in the morning, you can consider turning on the light.”
He additionally suggests couples go together for a workout after waking up. “That’s a great way to get your body in the mode of an early riser. And since you already worked out in the morning, in the evening you might get a little tired earlier, which will allow you to go to sleep easier.”
However, it’s worth noting that making the shift to become a morning person doesn’t entirely change the fact that you’re biologically built to be a late-night owl. Studies have shown that becoming a lark doesn’t put an owl in a better mood or help them have greater overall life satisfaction. So if your work or other important responsibilities don’t depend on you getting up at 6 a.m., push that snooze button and enjoy another sweet dream!
The majority of readers were questioning whether the guy is happy in such a relationship
While some thought his actions were too cruel
