My whole life I’ve had a tendency to stay up late and sleep in. If left to my own devices without work or anything to do in the morning, I will literally stay up until 3 or 4 in the morning and sleep in until around 11am. My friends and family have always made fun of me for this, and I’ve often been made to feel lazy.
Fast forward to more recently, I keep hearing stuff about people are genetically hardwired to have different sleep schedules, and that there might be a natural reason for why I’m like this. I’m really curious to learn how true/accepted in the scientific community this is, and also curious why this is.
Yes, it’s called your ‘chronotype’ and your not alone, some people are just wired this way. I would try to build your life around it, or just learn to put up with it.
Hi FarmerInTheDell, as Robert pointed out, what your experiencing is absolutely a real thing. It’s become generally accepted in the scientific community that sleep schedules are genetically determined. I’ve linked some studies below if you’re interested! You can also take a chronotype quiz to reaffirm your suspicions.
The most popular model for this involves four different categories:
- Lions (wake up at 6am, most productive in the morning)
- Bears (the majority of people, wake up around 7am, most productive from 10am-2pm)
- Wolves (probably what you are, wake up later and most product from 3pm-7pm)
- Dolphins (erratic sleep schedule, generally poor sleepers)
Scientists generally agree that it’s quite difficult to develop a sleep schedule that’s counter to your chronotype, but there are definitely things to do to wake up earlier. Check out our article on the topic here: How to Wake Up Early: 7 Expert-Tested Tips
Chronotype study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28364486/
Chronotype quiz: Take the Original Chronotype Quiz