The world is built by morning people, for morning people and I’VE HAD ENOUGH

If you, like me, profess to be a “night owl” then you likely also dread a 9am meeting, feel rather sprightly after lunch when everyone around you seems to slump and even come up with some of your best ideas as the sun is going down. Well, unfortunately for us, the working world was built by those with a sunny disposition and a love of a 5am run. I jest, but the working day and week have historically catered for the “morning people” and the rest of us have to grin and bear it. Or do we?

Where did the 9-5 come from?

As a brief history lesson, the 9-5 workday has its roots in the Industrial Revolution when factory work became prevalent.[i] Workers were needed to operate machinery for a set number of hours each day and in the early 20th century, labour movements pushed for better working conditions.[ii] This led to the establishment of the eight-hour workday and in 1926, Henry Ford (of Ford Motors) standardised the 40-hour work week to “boost productivity.” We’re still working on that whizz-bang model nearly a century later.[iii],[iv]

What Mr Ford and the bright sparks of the early 20th century didn’t have a grasp on was what is now known as chronotypes, and how we aren’t all built for an early start.

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Chronotypes – it’s how you’re hardwired

In its simplest form, a chronotype is a person’s natural inclination toward the timing of sleep and wake period and we have three types[v]:

• ‘Morning larks’ – those who wake up early and are most alert in the morning (~20% of people)[vi]
• ‘Night owls’ – those who wake up later and are most alert in the afternoon and evening (~20% of people)[vi]
• ‘Intermediate sleepers’ – those who fall somewhere in between (the remaining 60% of people)[vi]

Exactly what influences your chronotype has been up for debate for the last two decades but the literature largely concludes that our internal clocks (also known as circadian rhythms) are the result of both genetic and hormonal factors.[vii],[viii] I won’t get too bogged down in the science of it all, but studies have shown that certain genes associated with circadian rhythm (such as those expressed in the retina, hindbrain, hypothalamus, and pituitary) are differently expressed between chronotypes.[vii],[ix],[x],[xi] Equally, we see hormonal differences between chronotypes, where cortisol levels (impacting alertness) and melatonin levels (which make you sleepy) follow different patterns.[xii],[xiii]

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Why does it matter?

WELL, research shows that ‘chronic misalignment’ between your work schedules and your natural rhythm (chronotypes) can have various negative impacts.[xiv] If we look at it through a corporate lens, it can negatively impact productivity and job satisfaction, but more importantly, it can also lead to mental health issues and increase the risk of cardiovascular issues and metabolic disorders.[xiv] Sleep is hugely important to our bodies and our minds, and when we don’t get enough sleep or enough quality sleep, we pay the price.[xv]

Sadly the misalignment is far more of an issue for my fellow night owls given the 9-5 workday structure BUT it’s not all doom and gloom. While we may be falling asleep in our 9am meetings and feigning enthusiasm in a first-thing brainstorm, a study conducted by Imperial College London shows that night owls performed better on cognitive tests than early birds (ha!).[xvi] Other studies have also shown a slight creative superiority for the owls too, just to brag.[xvii]

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A few flexible allowances to help owls and larks alike

While it may be a bit of a slog, we all seem to make it work. We sip our coffee and carry on, but we shouldn’t carry on carry-on-ing at the expense of our health and as I see it, there are two main ways we can help everyone out.

First up, it’s the lifestyle changes. It’s no secret that blue light impacts your ability to fall asleep and the quality of your sleep. By avoiding using your phone for an hour or so before you plan on sleeping everyone, regardless of chronotype, can improve their sleep quality.[xviii] Equally, light exposure in the morning can ease the wakeup process, and having a regimented sleep schedule that you don’t deviate wildly from can shift your rhythm slightly.[xix] Sadly, as Dr Raha West, from the Department of Surgery and Cancer at Imperial College London said: “completely changing from a morning to an evening person is complex,” so don’t go expecting any miracles.

For the bits we can’t fix, there are shifts we can make in a flexible approach to working. Offering flexible working hours, be that starting an hour later or earlier as you see fit, can help you align your day to your chronotype. Remote work (yes I hear the CEOs hissing too) can also give you the flexibility to work during your most productive hours, whether that’s at the crack of dawn or a little later while you sleep through your would-be commute. And finally, a rule I try to live by, DITCH THE 9AM MEETINGS! Give us all a chance to get into gear and have the meeting at 10am, I promise you, unless it is an emergency you’re not getting the best out of your team first thing.

To wrap it all up, let’s face it, the rigidity of a 9-5 fails to accommodate for the diverse chronotypes of a modern workforce. While I’m by no means suggesting we do away with the concept, a few small allowances can significantly impact the productivity, health, and overall well-being of morning larks and night owls alike.

References:

[i] Thompson, D. (2020). The origins of the 9-to-5 workday. The Atlantic. Available at: https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2020/09/nine-to-five/616889/ (Accessed: 10 October 2023).

[ii] Kessler, S. (2019). Gigged: The end of the job and the future of work. New York: St. Martin's Press.

[iii] Hunnicutt, B.K. (2021). The 8-hour workday and how it came about. History. Available at: https://www.history.com/topics/labor/the-8-hour-workday (Accessed: 10 October 2023).

[iv] Rafferty, A. (2018). How Henry Ford's 40-hour workweek revolutionized the American workplace. History.com. Available at: https://www.history.com/news/40-hour-work-week-history (Accessed: 10 October 2023).

[v] Walker, M. (2017). Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams. New York: Scribner.

[vi] Roenneberg, T., Wirz-Justice, A. and Merrow, M. (2019). Life between clocks: daily temporal patterns of human chronotypes. Journal of Biological Rhythms, 24(3), pp.330-341. Available at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0748730409339620 (Accessed: 10 October 2023).

[vii] Jones, S.E., Lane, J.M., Wood, A.R., van Hees, V.T., Tyrrell, J., Beaumont, R.N., ... and Weedon, M.N. (2019). Genome-wide association analyses of chronotype in 697,828 individuals provides insights into circadian rhythms. Nature Communications, 10(1), pp.1-10. Available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-08259-7 (Accessed: 10 October 2023).

[viii] Roenneberg, T. and Merrow, M. (2016). The circadian clock and human health. Current Biology, 26(10), pp.R432-R443. Available at: https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(16)30215-6 (Accessed: 10 October 2023).

[ix] Hu, Y., Shmygelska, A., Tran, D., Eriksson, N., Tung, J. Y., & Hinds, D. A. (2016). GWAS of 89,283 individuals identifies genetic variants associated with self-reporting of being a morning person. Nature Communications, 7, 10448.

[x] Allebrandt, K. V., Teder-Laving, M., Kantermann, T., Peters, A., Campbell, H., Rudan, I., ... & Roenneberg, T. (2010). Chronotype and sleep duration: The influence of season of assessment. Chronobiology International, 27(5), 1030-1043.

[xi] Kerkhof, G.A. (2015). Epidemiology of sleep and circadian rhythms. Sleep Medicine Clinics, 10(1), pp.1-17. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4457141/ (Accessed: 10 October 2023).

[xii] Fabbian, F., Zucchi, B., De Giorgi, A., Tiseo, R., Boari, B., Salmi, R., ... & Manfredini, R. (2016). Chronotype, gender and general health. Chronobiology International, 33(7), 863-882.

[xiii] Kudielka, B. M., & Wüst, S. (2010). Human models in acute and chronic stress: Assessing determinants of individual hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis activity and reactivity. Stress, 13(1), 1-14.

[xiv] Vetter, C., Devore, E.E., Ramin, C.A., Speizer, F.E., Willett, W.C., Schernhammer, E.S. (2015). Mismatch of Sleep and Work Timing and Risk of Type 2 Diabetes. Diabetes Care, 38(9), pp.1707-1713. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4457141/ (Accessed: 10 October 2023).

[xv] Walker, M.P. (2017). Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams. New York: Scribner.

[xvi] Li, X., Klein, D., De Marco, M., Hu, M., & Li, L. (2023). The association of sleep duration and quality with the risk of dementia and all-cause mortality: evidence from the UK Biobank cohort. BMJ Public Health, 2(1), e001000. Available at: https://bmjpublichealth.bmj.com/content/2/1/e001000 (Accessed: 10 October 2023).

[xvii] Preckel, F., Lipnevich, A.A., Schneider, S., Roberts, R.D. (2011). Chronotype, cognitive abilities, and academic achievement: A meta-analytic investigation. Learning and Individual Differences, 21(5), pp.483-492. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1041608011000559 (Accessed: 10 October 2023).

[xviii] Chang, A.-M., Aeschbach, D., Duffy, J.F., and Czeisler, C.A. (2015). Evening use of light-emitting eReaders negatively affects sleep, circadian timing, and next-morning alertness. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(4), pp.1232-1237. Available at: https://www.pnas.org/content/112/4/1232 (Accessed: 10 October 2023).

[xix] West, R. (2021). The complexity of altering chronotypes and the role of lifestyle changes. Journal of Sleep Research, 30(S1), e13100. Available at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jsr.13100 (Accessed: 10 October 2023).