Not a morning person? Maybe it doesn't matter
A couple of years ago, Mark Wahlberg shared his daily routine, which included getting up at 2:30am, a post workout breakfast at 8:30am and a 7:30pm bedtime. While using a cryo chamber like Mark isn’t widely promoted and most people recoiled at his before dawn timetable, early mornings have long been held up as the best way to make sure you get the most out of your day, but is this really right for everyone, or should we pay more attention to chronotypes?
Chronotypes, or your body’s biological clock, determine your genetic propensity to when you need to sleep. You might commonly have referred to this as ‘early birds’ or ‘night owls’, but there are actually four categories of chronotypes:
1) Dolphins: light sleepers who will wake up at the slightest noise and therefore often feel like they’ve not had enough sleep. Tend to be most alert between 10am and 2pm. 2) Lions: naturally wake up early and are usually most productive before midday. Will usually start to feel ready for bed around 9 or 10pm.
3) Bears: most people fall into this category as the sleep pattern is broadly in line with the hours of darkness. They tend to fall asleep easily and are most prone to the post lunchtime slump. 4) Wolves: this category most commonly wakes up later and are most energetic when they wake up around lunchtime. They are most effective in the afternoon and often have a second spike of energy in the evening.
You may know which of these categories you fall into, or you could take a quiz like this one to find out, but some DNA tests such as the Bupa SmartDNA test can tell you which chronotype you are based on your PER3 gene. It’s possible that you’ve become so used to fitting into the common working hours that you’ve trained yourself to be productive at different times than perhaps you’re genetically more suited to. This is certainly not a negative if you’re happy with your schedule, particularly as almost all office based roles have hours that suit the bear chronotype best.
As you can see from the chronotypes though, not everyone is going to have the most energy so early on in the day. For those who are naturally attuned to the wolf schedule, going against your natural propensity to sleep in later is seen as almost a badge of honour to prove that you’re being productive, as if work or exercise before 9am is more valuable than at any other time of day. However, there are likely a lot of people who have dragged themselves to the gym before work who’ve not given their greatest efforts because they’re still half asleep, or who should keep their study time to the evening when they have better information retention.
Tailoring your day
Though some businesses offer flexible hours that mean you can tweak your start and finish time, particularly as more people work from home and productivity is measured on output rather than number of hours, most roles still require fixed working hours. You can still tailor how you work within these hours to suit your chronotype, for example, if you’re more of a dolphin chronotype, aim to get the most complex tasks completed first thing, leaving more basic tasks to the afternoon when you have less ability to think dynamically as you become more drowsy. Also consider putting less pressure on yourself to fall asleep at a certain time if it’s not suited to your chronotype - fewer hours of quality sleep are far more beneficial than a broken night’s sleep because you’ve been stressing about not falling asleep before 11pm. Though getting up while it’s dark, completing an exercise routine, juice cleanse and starting a business before the rest of the world has finished their commute is the kind of self punishment that is often promoted as the greatest way to achieve your goals, the most productive day is one that optimises when you’re most alert and energetic, working with your sleep cycle to keep you mentally and physically healthy.