Night Owls vs. Morning People: Who's Smarter?

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
Joined
May 9, 2000
Messages
75,399
It seems like everyone I know is a late-nighter who likes nothing better than to stay up all night working on computers and sleeping all day. Are they the smart ones or would it be the others that arise at sunup and get things done early on in the day? This particular debate is about to be scientifically analyzed. Take the test and see which you are.

Researchers from the London School of Economics say that human beings used to all be day-oriented, and that eveningness is an "evolutionarily novel preference" made by people with "a higher level of cognitive complexity." Basically, smart people evolve to stay up later.
Click to expand...
 
Looks like the people that wrote the article are morning people. 3:45 am eeesh. No evidence presented at all for anything.
 
"They are also more likely to drink alcohol and smoke, says Dutch psychiatrist Walter van den Broek at his Dr. Shock blog. Another study found that undergrad "evening types" had lower GPAs than those who awake early in the morning."

Ha, nail on the head.
 
Since I was a child I had to stay up all night. I slept when I got home from school and stayed up/out whatever all night, and i'm the cleverest person evar. So based on my clever person reasearch, night people are the bestest.
 
Not_So_Hard said:
Hmm. I took the test and on the Morningness - Eveningness Scale I'm "neither type". I guess that means I'm an Idiot.
Click to expand...

The test is weird...seriously:

The bed times..
1.2000hrs - 2100hrs..... 5
2.2100hrs - 2215hrs..... 4
3.2215hrs - 0030hrs..... 3
4.0030hrs - 0145hrs..... 2
5.0145hrs - 0300hrs..... 1

Which night person goes to bed at 3am? The club places I go to open at 12...the events last until 7, then you go to denny's and eat ice cream and get back to bed at like 10... I bet they don't even know any night people...
 
I go through phases of being a night person and being a day person. I think smart people just adapt better to the given situation.

I will say on a personal level the world is a much more peaceful place at night.
 
eh, I go to bed when I'm tired, which often is before the wee hours of the morning, if someone did a study that says I'm not a complex thinker... well no shit, me tired, me sleep now.
 
I scored to be a moderate nighter. I would stay up later before I married. Now that I sleep a lot earlier, does that make me dumb because I got married:confused:
 
I'm moderately morning. But I stay up late every day. I don't know. Now I'm confused.
 
Looks like a test run by a bunch of lazy asses who had to come up with some BS to keep their funding from being cut off. :D
 
Night owl and have been for 10 years now. My wife just does not understand that I get more done at night then during the day.
 
I'm definitely more of a night owl, but naturally my sleep patterns just don't fit in to a 24hr day. During a period where I had no obligations and could sleep whenever I wanted I found out I basically had a 26hr day (17hr awake, 9 asleep) naturally.

Unfortunately this doesn't seem to match up with our solar system/planet, maybe the scientologists are right!! :p
 
travbrad said:
I'm definitely more of a night owl, but naturally my sleep patterns just don't fit in to a 24hr day. During a period where I had no obligations and could sleep whenever I wanted I found out I basically had a 26hr day (17hr awake, 9 asleep) naturally.

Unfortunately this doesn't seem to match up with our solar system/planet, maybe the scientologists are right!! :p
Click to expand...

Time to move to DS9.
 
I would agree to what is said for me, but I will not take it as fact of the majority. I have an IQ in the higher part of the curve and I am a night owl, but I have to take ambein because I stay up all night just thinking.
 
It depends on schedule constraints. Im far more of a night owl if I can, but I also wake up before 6am for work so I can be sitting at my desk by the time rush hour begins. I have flexibility... if im taking classes, I wake up at like 2pm... if im working, before 6am. I sleep as much as I can without oversleeping
 
I scored an 8 so I'm defiantly a night owl, not that i needed a test to tell me this. However, my body seems to run on a 28-30 hour cycle so my wake up and bed times are always changing, especially when I have no obligations at the time. I will be up for at least 20-22 hours and sleep in the range of 6-8.
 
I get payed for 15% more for working nights, which I think is a smart decision, but being up at night I have also caught such late night TV wonders as Flash Gordon (The Queen one) and Showtime (with Eddie Murphy). Those may have canceled the smartness of the first thing.
 
PS, I love Queen, but damn that movie was rough. I caught "House of No" once on late night TV and I nearly gave up on living.....play some weird stuff at night.
 
I scored an 8.
I am still up (9:55am here), about to hit the sack in a few.
 
Nightbird said:
Looks like the people that wrote the article are morning people. 3:45 am eeesh. No evidence presented at all for anything.
Click to expand...

There was a paper published on this same subject already about a year ago and they came to the same conclusion. But, if you read the article it says early risers tend to get better academic grades, which supports my belief that there is no relation between good grades and intelligence. Also, studies have shown that IQ scores can be raised through practicing IQ tests so even those are not a valid measurement of intelligence.
 
How do they measure intelligence? (just by IQ test?)
How early/late do you have to wake up or sleep to qualify to be classified in early/late group? (is there a gradient?)
What is the mean and standard deviation for the [intelligence measurement] for each (two or more) groups?
Does the study control for income, education level, demographics, geography, etc?
Finally, are the results statistically significant?

I'm being skeptical because social papers frequently are poorly designed because they cheap out on hiring a qualified statistician :)
 
Well, lets put it this way...Japanese students tend to score higher on IQ tests. But that is only because the schools there make them take practice tests before the actual test and not because they are inherently more intelligent. That's what a documentary I saw on the subject claimed anyway. 100 years ago they claimed people with bigger heads were more intelligent. There is a book on the subject called 'The Mismeasurement of Man' if you want to learn more.
 
I totally agree. Last bedtime is 0300? Even on my days off I don't go to bed until 0600. During the week (I work nights btw.) I tend to go to bed at 0900. I agree that whoever wrote that has never worked nights, or hung out with night people. Most of those questions I wanted to give me a zero.
 
mortonP said:
There was a paper published on this same subject already about a year ago and they came to the same conclusion. But, if you read the article it says early risers tend to get better academic grades, which supports my belief that there is no relation between good grades and intelligence. Also, studies have shown that IQ scores can be raised through practicing IQ tests so even those are not a valid measurement of intelligence.
Click to expand...

Academic grades are far more often a measure of work ethic than raw intelligence. There is some influence on the negative side -- a person that is genuinely below average intelligence will do more poorly even if they work very hard to memorize the concepts involved in the tests and work -- but on the positive side, it is almost exclusively a measure of how much effort one put in to doing the work or memorizing the material. Particularly with American educational institutions, an undergraduate degree represents that you are a reliable worker that will show up on time and do what's asked of you more than it does any true intelligence.

As for night owls being smarter than early risers? I don't think anyone has a satisfactory explanation as to why that is, save for some platitudes about breaking the standard day-oriented mold, or something along the lines of people able to think and function better at night because of the drastically decreased amount of noise and distractions.
 
Generally I do my best work between 7pm and 2am but then go to sleep and wake up 12. Apparently this still doesn't class me as a night person.

However maybe that's because I'd never exercise at night given the choice.
 
mortonP said:
Well, lets put it this way...Japanese students tend to score higher on IQ tests. But that is only because the schools there make them take practice tests before the actual test and not because they are inherently more intelligent. That's what a documentary I saw on the subject claimed anyway. 100 years ago they claimed people with bigger heads were more intelligent. There is a book on the subject called 'The Mismeasurement of Man' if you want to learn more.
Click to expand...

Thats a load of crap because in some parts of europe friends I know get all year round practice tests, so europeans (the people in the test?) should be the cleverest peoples in the world based on IQ...
 
Aren't most classes and exams scheduled for mornings-early afternoon thus morning people are more likely to excel simply because their brains are awake at that hour?

I've been working a first shift job for over a year now and my brain still doesn't kick on 'til after noon... miss working the night shift :[
 
DeathPrincess said:
Thats a load of crap because in some parts of europe friends I know get all year round practice tests, so europeans (the people in the test?) should be the cleverest peoples in the world based on IQ...
Click to expand...

Europe is not a country, schools are run by each country individually and not the EU so what you say is BS. Look at this list, Japan is 3rd and closest European countries are Austria, Germany and Italy at 6th. The documentary I saw was from quite some years ago and probably at that time Japan was No. 1 ranked.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IQ_and_the_Wealth_of_Nations

If you are disputing that IQ score can be raised through taking practice tests then you are wrong because I have proven to myself that they can be. Just having a clear understanding of how each type of question works will help your score.

Mensa people like to brag about their brain power which in my way of thinking shows a lack of intelligence right there. A truly intelligent person doesn't feel the need to brag about anything.
 
Glueman said:
Aren't most classes and exams scheduled for mornings-early afternoon thus morning people are more likely to excel simply because their brains are awake at that hour?

I've been working a first shift job for over a year now and my brain still doesn't kick on 'til after noon... miss working the night shift :[
Click to expand...

That probably does have an influence. I read a book a long time ago that said if you study while high you should take the test while high too because you want to be in the same state of mind for better memory recall.
 
mortonP said:
Mensa people like to brag about their brain power which in my way of thinking shows a lack of intelligence right there. A truly intelligent person doesn't feel the need to brag about anything.
Click to expand...

I really disagree with this... I've known a number of BRILLIANT people who are complete dicks and feel the need to make sure everybody know they're smart. An intelligent person doesn't necessarily have any tact or social grace.
 
Bah! Moderately morning type .......27 - 23


If they are anything like me, they are both lol. I am usually up about 4am and get home from work between 7-9PM and on my duty weeks 10-11PM. Does that mean I am the best of both worlds?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top