REAL LIFE NEWS: MORNING PEOPLE ARE HAPPY PEOPLE
by Hazed
I’m not a morning person. It takes me a while to become fully functional after I get up in the morning, whereas at night, no matter how tired I am, I find it hard to go to bed because there’s always something interesting to do.
I have never understood those people who get up at the crack of dawn and immediately leap into action. It’s unnatural behavior.
But a new study shows that they might have the right idea after all, because they are happier and more satisfied with their lives in general.
Well, maybe I’d be happier if I didn’t have to get up when the alarm clock goes off!
The University of Toronto study looked at two groups of people: 435 adults who were aged between 17 and 38, and 297 between 59 and 79. Both groups were asked to fill out questionnaires about their emotional state, how healthy they feel and their preferred time of day.
The results show that people’s sleeping patterns change with age. Only about 7% of young adults are morning larks, but by the age of 60 this has completely switched, with only 7% being night owls like me.
The morning larks tended to say they were healthier than night owls, and happier too. Renee Bliss, a graduate student who was part of the study, reported, “We found that older adults reported greater positive emotion than younger adults, and older adults were more likely to be morning-type people than younger adults. The ‘morningness’ was associated with greater happiness emotion in both age groups.”
I wonder what time of day it was when they were asked to fill out the questionnaire...
But Bliss also suggests that the lack of happy/healthy night owls is because their biological clock is out of sync with the social clock: “Society’s expectations are far more organized around a morning-type person’s schedule.” Just what I said! “An evening person may go through their week feeling unhappy because they have to get up earlier than they would like to.” Exactly!
Bliss suggests that a solution is to “hack” your sleep schedule to turn yourself into a morning person. “One way to do it is to increase your natural light exposure early in the morning, and to wake up earlier and go to bed earlier,” Bliss said. “It’s easiest if you have a consistent schedule, to make sure you are waking up at the same time every day.”
Nice idea, but I’ve never had much luck trying.
Source: http://todayhealth.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/11/12169581-
morning-
people-are-happier-than-night-owls-study-suggests?lite
Bonus link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/meghancasserly/2012/06/13/success-
how-to-make-
yourself-a-morning-person/
