Night Owls

In a previous blog I praised early risers. Now it's time to acknowledge the night owls amongst us.

The term “night owl" comes from the fact that owls are nocturnal and are active at night. With today's modern economy and work schedule demands, many people are forced to become night owls whether they want to or not. Shift work demands twenty-four-hour coverage...think, nurses, emergency medicine professionals, firemen, wall street brokers dealing with foreign clients, long-haul truck drivers, international pilots, technical support staffs and much, much more. Big box stores, banks and computer centers are staffed with all-night personnel.

The customers service industry thrives on 24-7 availability of its employees. For example, one can order a gift selection from Omaha steaks at any hour of the day and night. Someone has to be available to answer the phone, take the order and process your credit card. The same goes for 1 800-flowers and other like sites, or when booking an airline ticket in the middle of the night and so too with many other commercial entities... Amazon Prime, Google etc.

Some people are naturally late-night people and stay up to all hours because they choose to, not because their job demands it. Some famous people who fall into this category are Jonah Peretti, the Buzzfeed CEO and founder of the Huffington Post. Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg is another. Bob Dylan, Franz Kefka and Marcel Proust all did their best work at night. Thomas Wolfe didn't begin to put his pen to paper until after midnight. Think about all the late-night hosts on television, Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, David Letterman, Jon Stewart, James Corden and Conan O'Brien. Do you think any of them would be as funny if they were asked to perform at 8:00 am?

Night owls tend to sleep late into the morning or even to early afternoon. Studies have shown that night owls are more prone to depression, anxiety and substance abuse than early-risers. Do you think that might be because they lack the exposure to many daylight hours? (Like the winter blues, but constantly) On the positive side, different studies point out that night owls are super intelligent and well-organized.

There are pros and cons, advantages and disadvantages for being either an early riser or a night owl. I have no opinion about which is better, only what works for me... "Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise." People do change over their lifetimes, so it's possible to be both, just not at the same time.

Until my next inspiration...ciao.

Photo by Andrey Bond on Unsplash