Does Your Body Clock Affect Your Productivity? Thoughts from a Night Owl

Recently, I have found myself fascinated with sleep.

It began when I was discussing circadian cycles with my brother (as one does). We were assessing the different dynamics in our family.

My brother is a morning person. He wakes up insanely early, meditates for an hour, and engages with a whole lot of other routine-based habits that make him the stereotype of the modern successful person. (I have looked up to him for a long time, in awe of these habits).

And then there’s me. For as long as I could remember, I have enjoyed a good sleep in. More than that, though, we still laugh about how my brother and I may visit my parents for dinner, and right when everyone is starting to wind down for the night, my energy levels are rapidly increasing.

I will often find myself trying to sleep at a ‘reasonable hour’, only to end up working in deep focus in the middle of the night. Of course, with work, I am accustomed to waking up early when needed, to make an early flight or start a 7.30am training session. But when I am left to my own devices for too long, I inevitably fall back into late nights and have to retrain myself for early mornings. Certifiably, were we to use the common categories for body clocks, my brother is a “morning lark” and I am a “night owl”.

This morning lark first introduced me to an evolutionary theory about why people with similar genetics may have such different circadian cycles. The concept is that for the earliest humans, it would be in the best interest of a tribe to not have everyone sleeping at the same time. For some reason I found myself a little chuffed at the thought of being the trusted ‘night watchman’ for my tribe back in the day. Anyway.

After falling down a rabbit hole of research around body clocks (yes, in the middle of the night), I found out more. Scientists categorise people using what we now refer to as chronotypes. The chronotype idea is based on when you are at peak physical capacity, cognitive abilities, and tiredness or energy during the day. Of course, also when we tend to sleep (or want to sleep).

Chronotypes

First we have the morning lark, who has a preference for waking up early. Then we have the night owl, who prefers staying up late and rising later. Many have tried to figure out which one is “better”, with studies finding the morning lark to be more future-oriented, ambitious and self-directing. Night owls have acquired the stereotype of being more creative (but the jury is out research-wise on that one), and we know that they are more likely to develop depression, diabetes and obesity (if you are reading this in the middle of the night, just as I am writing it in the middle of the night… damn). The studies continue to show varying levels of nuance around the persona connected to these chronotypes. I think it’s pretty safe to say we won’t get a cookie cutter personality type confirmed by science any time soon.

Then, we have two further types that don’t fit in with the stereotypical morning or night person. One has been dubbed the “napper”, who is most alert in the mornings and evenings, but fairly tired from around 11am through to 3pm-ish. Then, we have the “afternoon” person, who is neither a morning nor an evening person but is most “on” (in terms of cognitive capacity and alertness) from the middle of the day to early evening.

It’s also worth noting that as people get older, they tend to move more into the morning lark category, whereas in the 20s and 30s we’re more inclined to sleep and wake later.

A very recent study of over 1300 people found 70% of participants could be placed into one of these four chronotypes. As it is very recent and new research, it does have many limitations but it remains a fascinating topic – how much more do we have to learn about our body clocks and the way different individuals operate? 

Adapting to the World

In all of this, I found myself wondering about productivity. For the most part, our world is designed around a 9am to 5pm life. A large chunk of personal development literature advocates getting up early. In Australia, we also have a culture that is quite locked in to daylight hours. Most things close at 5pm, restaurants may close at 10pm or midnight, and we all know about the Sydney lockout laws when we start talking nightlife.

The question remains, to what extent does our natural body clock have an impact on our productivity? How can people who naturally fall away from the 9am to 5pm mould adapt to accommodate the world in an efficient way?

Some points to consider:

1.    Understand your natural body clock.

After understanding your own baseline, you can start to put in place habits for productivity from there. For me, that means I need to find a balance between adjusting to suit the rest of the business world (so I don’t become a hermit living too far out of sync with others), and using times of natural alertness and creativity to boost productivity.

2.    Consider light…

We know that absorbing light has an impact on your body clock. This is one of the reasons why people advise not to look at your phone right before going to bed – the light emitted sends a message to your brain that it’s daytime, and this can affect your ability to get to sleep soundly.

Everyone has different levels of sensitivity, but one study found that even relatively dim light can suppress melatonin levels (the sleep hormone).

The clear takeaway here is to set yourself up when you intend on sleeping soon. I am a big reader (physical books, not on the phone), so I will set aside time to read and relax before sleeping. I have what you could call a “set down” routine. As tempting as it is, when you avoid looking at your phone or computer screen right before going to sleep, it has an astounding impact on your ability to fall asleep quickly.

3.    Get enough sleep.

One of the key takeaways from all my recent sleep research is that sleep is important. We need to stop glorifying the idea of being sleep deprived in favour of the “hustle” or the “grind” (or whatever the trendy word is of the day). I have definitely fallen into this fad before, where you live off very little sleep and hope you’re more productive because of it.

It doesn’t work.

The exact number of hours you need will vary by individual (usually around 7 or 8 for adults), but the most important thing is to respect sleep as an important part of living. If you’re well rested, you’ll perform better.

As a side note, I have also read some great arguments in favour of starting high school at later times, because teenagers naturally need more sleep and are often more alert in the evening. As a result, starting school at 8.30am or 9am is really not in their best interest – many of these arguments ponder how much positive impact would come simply from changing the school start time to 10am.

4.    Work with your natural self.

What does that mean for night owls, or nappers, or afternoon people who still have to work throughout the day? I think the rise of flexible working is so important here. The concept of the ROWE (Results Only Working Environment), where people are assessed not by arbitrary presenteeism but by what they produce, can be really beneficial and allow people to work a little more with their natural patterns.

There is no secret here, and it’s still a journey for me too, but in general I think trying to find your ‘peak point’ during the day and using it for productive work is the best bet. Beyond the peak point, try to create a routine that works well with the environment. (After all, telling your boss, “sorry I missed the morning meeting, I’m just not a morning person” probably won’t fly in most workplaces.) The more you get to know yourself, the more you can adjust and experiment until you find the routine that works well for you.

Full disclaimer, as a self-employed person I do have more flexibility than most when it comes to routines.

For a long time I tried to transform myself into a morning person. I was convinced I needed to wake up at 5am in order to be successful, productive or fulfilled. I found when I had that routine in place, I would still find myself occasionally waking up in the middle of the night and feeling the urge to get up and work. I think we should find great people with great habits to emulate (always), but also test that over different periods of time using our own performance and responses as a barometer.

I am currently at a point where I don’t think trying to turn myself into a morning person is the best approach. My research and experimentation is ongoing, so that may change over time. Right now, though, I am focused on using my natural energy peaks and troughs to the best of my ability.

These days, I will normally have 2 stages of work during the day. The first one is the “normal” one, working from the morning through to afternoon to be aligned with business hours. Then, I finish that block early (sometimes as early as 3pm), take a break and then start again for stage 2, the evening shift. I try to save all my creative, strategic and thinking work for this shift.

If you know that you tend to suffer from 3.30-itis, try not to schedule meetings around that time. If you are a morning lark, use that – get up earlier than you have to and use the morning to your advantage. When we consciously start to assess our performance and energy at different times, and try different routines (for a long enough period of time to test them properly), we’re able to form logical conclusions around what works best for us.

5.    Routine is your friend.

Although there are genetic elements to your natural circadian cycle, the environment has a large impact. Like anything, routine and habits can facilitate higher levels of productivity.

Try to be consistent with sleep time, work time and leisure time. Try not to let weekends throw you out too much. I am still working on this. Routines are everything.

It seems that, on the face of it, your body clock does indeed have an impact on your productivity. While some people work naturally well with the structure of their business or schooling, others need to assess how to maximise their natural patterns to work for them, rather than against them. Because the environment has such major effects (around 50% according to most research I found), it also means we are capable of adapting our patterns to an extent.

I love to think that one day we will change business to have most corporate industries working from 11am to 8pm, to accommodate my preference for evening work. Until the entire world changes to suit me though, I’ve found it imperative to assess my habits and routines, and experiment with different techniques to try and maintain a reasonable sleeping cycle to be as productive as possible.

Which chronotype do you identify with? How have you found it affects your productivity?

Sonia

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