Alarm clockLise Gagne
Wake up you night owls. Early birds have a natural career advantage over their "I'm-not-a-morning-person" colleagues, a new study concludes.
"When it comes to business success, morning people hold the important cards," said Christoph Randler, a professor at the University of Education in Heidelberg, Germany. His study of 367 university students that asked what time of day they were most energetic found that those who prefer mornings were far more likely to say they look for ways to help themselves get ahead.
Those who identified themselves as morning people said they felt most alert in the morning and were as much as likely to agree with statements such as "I spend time identifying long-range goals for myself" and "I feel in charge of making things happen" as were the people who described themselves as nighthawks, he found.
That's not to say that night people are by nature less likely to succeed. he said. "Other studies reveal they tend to be smarter and more creative than morning types, have a better sense of humour and are more outgoing," Prof. Randler said. But that doesn't help in the office; "they're out of sync with the typical corporate schedule."
So why do companies continue to insist that everyone come in to work early even if they're not at their best? "Throughout the world, people who sleep late are too often assumed to be lazy. The result is that the vast majority of school and work schedules are tailored to morning types," Prof. Randler said. The study is reported in this month's Harvard Business Review.
One way for evening folks that are seeking to kick-start their careers could be to try to shift their body clocks, he suggests.
"Our studies found that the total number of hours of sleep doesn't matter, but the timing of sleep does," he said. You can actually shift your daily alertness cycle by going to bed earlier, he suggests. Another way to gear up in the morning is to go outside into the daylight as early as possible after you wake up.
"Daylight resets your body clock and can help shift your alertness cycle toward morningness," Prof. Randler said. "But if you are outside only in the evening, you tend to shift toward eveningness."
And for employers, he suggests it's time to give nighthawks their due. "I hope that organizations will look for ways to bring out the best from their night owls.
Some employers, such as his university, already benefit by offering a great deal of flexibility, he said. "I'm a morning person myself - I sometimes get up at 5 to work for a few hours before going to the office - but I have a colleague who comes to work at 11:30 every day and stays until 7 or 8 at night, and we are both equally as productive."