The temptation to just sleep in and maybe take a sick day is something we’ve all faced, but most of us fight it. Nothing good ever comes from being lazy, especially when the whole world, relatively speaking, is getting ready to start the day. That said, there is one good thing about not being a morning person...science suggests that it could be a sign of intelligence.
We at Bright Side face the temptation to hit that snooze button as much as anyone else so we are sharing what this study has to say with you.
The British study called, Why Night Owls Are More Intelligent, tells us to look at our ancestry. According to researchers Satoshi Kanazawa and Kaja Perina, early humans were early to bed and early to rise. Deviating from the norm, which has been part of the human experience since the start, means people who just don’t want to start the day are actually better suited for modern living. This is in itself a sign of intelligence. After all, alarms with snooze buttons are a relatively recent invention.
More to the point, not wanting to get up shows initiative in its own little way. If we have a clear desire to listen to our bodies and not be ordered around by some clock, then it shows that we are independent. It stands to reason that people who want to sleep in are willing to find their own passions and come up with their own solutions.
At least, solving the problem of wanting to sleep with more sleep shows we have basic logic, an understanding of cause-and-effect, and that we don’t always reject the obvious answer.
A University of Southampton study looked at the sleep patterns of 1,229 men and women, as well as their socioeconomic circumstances. Generally, people who went to bed near midnight and got up after 8 AM, who were dubbed “night owls,” had higher income levels, especially when compared to morning people, who were dubbed “larks.”
Unfortunately, this does not mean we have a free pass to just sleep our lives away, as tempting as it is. People who spend 12 hours or more in bed, which is at least half the day, were also at a higher risk of untimely death. For comparison’s sake, the people at the lowest risk were people who had 8 hours of sleep.
In the end, sleep is just too important to be something that should be treated lightly. Sleep should be enjoyed not too much, but also not too little. And the best part is, you don’t have to be a genius to get a good night’s sleep...we can all do it.
Do you think it’s ultimately worth it to sleep in or is it better to be a morning person? Share your thoughts with us in the comments!
