There is such a group of people:
They are in the silent night, super concentration, good mental thief, work and study efficiency is high.
In the sun-drenched daytime, but groggy, the mind is down...
People often refer to them as "night owls". Many times, they are helplessly labeled as "procrastinating", "lazy" and "brains are not good".
(Image source: soogif)
Is the "night owl" a special physique? Or is it different from everyone else?
In 1976, psychologists devised a questionnaire assessment to determine different sleep preferences[1].
According to the findings, at least 3 types of preference exist:
Lark type: tends to go to bed early and get up early;
Night owl type: tends to sleep late and get up late;
Hummingbird type: normal work and rest, no special tendencies.
Overall, normal people (hummingbirds) make up about 1/2 of the population, while night owls make up about 1/4 [2].
For normal people, even if you stay up late until two or three o'clock in the morning, even if you sleep long enough, it is easy to get groggy during the day, and if you come down for a long time, it will be bad for your body;
But for night owls, falling asleep at two or three o'clock at night is a normal situation, not the so-called "staying up late", as long as they sleep enough for the sleep time they need (such as sleeping enough for 8 hours), they are still full of energy during the day.
How to tell if you are a night owl?
A very important principle: in the middle of the night, you are physically "unable to sleep" or psychologically "do not want to sleep".
If you're just overwhelmed by busy work and occasionally want to have a little time of your own in the dead of night, then pick up your phone and forget the time;
If you are squeezed by the boss late at night, rushing to catch up with the progress, you have to hold on;
Well, it's a pity.
You're not really a night owl.
Although we can postpone falling asleep and decide when to wake up by applying stimuli to ourselves (coffee, alarm clock, etc.), the inner sleep-wake rhythm of our body cannot be dominated by consciousness, it has its own set of operations, regulated by the body's biological clock.
For people who can't sleep in the middle of the night, here's the problem: the biological clock is inaccurate.
This sleep state of night owls also has a scientific name called "delayed sleep cycle sign".
Simply put, the sleep-wake cycle as a whole is delayed, and the biological clock is dialed backwards. Compared with normal people, it is necessary to sleep late and wake up late. There is not necessarily any pressure to stay up late, that is, you can't sleep until the point of late at night.
At this time, the night owl wanted to ask, which heartless eye dialed my bell?
I really can't blame anyone else, it may be genetically determined [3].
351 genes have been found to be associated with wake-up time, which affect a person's circadian rhythm and, in turn, determine their type of sleep [3]. Of course, the environment also plays a big role, and the formation of night owls also has acquired precipitating factors.
In Japan, half of the patients' symptoms begin in childhood or adolescence, and may be due to long holidays playing in the dark, or preparing for exams, adults watch TV, play games, brush mobile phones, and work at night, which is also on the list [4].
But to say a thousand ways and ten thousand, "night owl physique" is not friendly to people in a modern society.
As the old saying goes, "The solution of a day lies in the morning";
Mr. Lu Xun carved the word "early" on his desk;
Foreigners have a proverb that "early birds have worms to eat".
Can night owls have a reversed constitution?
Don't worry, if you're a night owl who wants to transform into an "early bird", try these 4 methods:
1. When falling asleep, turn off all the lights (don't look at the phone after turning off the lights, you can also use the blackout curtains if you have the conditions), put yourself in the dark, let the melatonin in the body naturally secrete, to make yourself feel sleepy, and fall asleep early.
2. Leave a gap in the curtains so that the eyes can wake up naturally in the morning when they are exposed to the sun's rays and start a good day.
3. If you feel tired during the day, you can simply compensate for it by taking a 10-30 minute nap, or develop a regularity.
4. Have a peaceful mind, do not stress about sleep and early rise, adjust the circadian clock cycle for a longer period, and do not worry about seeking speed.
Finally, I would like to remind everyone that if your routine has affected your daily life or work, and it is difficult for you to adjust it. Please seek help from a doctor in time to adjust or treat under the guidance of a doctor.
Review expert: Hu Qiang
Doctoral student and deputy chief physician of Shanghai Mental Health Center
bibliography
[1] Horne JA, Ostberg O. A self-assessment questionnaire to determine morningness-eveningness in human circadian rhythms. Int J Chronobiol. 1976;4(2):97-110.
[2] Roenneberg T, Kuehnle T, Juda M, Kantermann T, Allebrandt K, Gordijn M, Merrow M. Epidemiology of the human circadian clock. Sleep Med Rev. 2007 Dec;11(6):429-38.
[3] Jones SE, Lane JM, et al. Genome-wide association analyses of chronotype in 697,828 individuals provides insights into circadian rhythms. Nat Commun. 2019 Jan 29;10(1):343.
[4] Okawa M, Uchiyama M. Circadian rhythm sleep disorders: characteristics and entrainment pathology in delayed sleep phase and non-24-h sleep-wake syndrome. Sleep Med Rev. 2007 Dec;11(6):485-96.
Editors: Wei Luo, Emgrand, Zhang Liang
Proofreading: Wu Yihe | Typesetting: Li Yongmin
Operation: Han Ningning | Coordinator: Wu Wei