I have observed that most morning people seem to be 'practical' types, and also somewhat conformists in the sense that they value established ways of doing things (or established uses for things. -An example of what I mean here is someone never dreaming of using a scarf for anything but a scarf simply because it was called a scarf at the store and therefore has been categorized in their mind as 'something to go around the neck for warmth' as opposed to simply 'a long piece of cloth'). What I wonder is whether there is something deeper within which links waking up with the sun (or feeling particularly energetic directly after waking up) and liking to follow instructions on the 'proper' way of doing things rather than making things up as you go along, or if this preference of morning is simply a product of the preference for established ways in light of the long accepted saying 'The early bird get's the worm' or the generally respected (even if resented) idea that getting up early in the morning means that you are not lazy (and conversely that sleeping later in the day implies laziness or some kind of lack of worth and tendancy toward wonton behaviour).
What I also find perplexing is how easily these practical people miss their own inconsistancy when refusing to cooperate with 'night people.' (Perhaps a penchant for believing oneself to (almost) always be in posession of absolute truth on matters is also somehow linked with the morning and conforming traits?) A morning person, when they have reached their limit energy-wise, will simply tell you they are going to stop whatever it is you may be doing together and go to bed - in fact they will usually say they 'have' to go to bed. And they would think it ludicrous and insensitive of someone to insist that they stay up a moment longer, and feel just in refusing to do so. Yet, when a night person tells them that they simply cannot get up at this time, that they have to sleep a little longer, they won't stand for it, and frequently launch into disparaging their character and habits, and continue to pester or even assualt them untill they are forced to get up in spite of their disinclination, or lack of the required abilities, to do so. (It would seem morning people have no qualms about dragging dead weights along with them, even though they will complain about it, blaming, of course, the dead weight and not their choice to bring it. It should be noted here that in contrast, while a night person may greately desire to keep a morning person up, and may plead, or devise ways of keeping them awake, once the statment of 'bed, now' has been made it seems they are usually willing to dismiss their 'party-pooping' presence - rather than dragging along a limp body).
On the other hand it is common for 'creative' types to be night people. I suppose perhaps that creativity is neccessarily more open ended, as it requires searching for the end of something (whether it be a piece of art, or the conclusion of a theory/experiment), seeing possibilities, and turning one thing into something else, as opposed to working methodically toward and already established ending point with already establlished tools or methods. And perhaps it is this open-ended nature that allows them to continue on indefinately in either one state or another (whether action or sleep) - thus they keep late hours (caught up in the exhilaration of inspiration) and then sleep long the next day after the work of the night before is done, or they drop with exhaustion. Morning people, then, in contrast, work all day toward the ending point of 'bed time' which is already relatively established in their minds, and then also, in a sense, sleep toward the goal of waking up, also at a relatively pre-established time in their mind. This also may tie in with 'time-oriented-ness' to some degree in respect to liking measured, established, scheduals, and predictable limits.
What I wonder, then, is whether the trend to be accepting of the fact that some people simply are lively in the morning (however incomprehensible and vexing it may be to them), which I have frequently observed in night people, is due to a general openness of mind and the understanding that something can be used as something else (in this case that the day can certainly be used for sleep and the night can certainly be used for action), both uses being perfectly acceptible because in their minds things are categorized by nature and not function (My thought here being, if you think of something fundementally as 'something that does this' you won't think of it as also being able to do something else -it goes against itself, but if you think of something as 'something with these qualities' then it could be used for anything that requires those qualities. ex: a sheet is something you cover your matress with; a large piece of cloth could be used as a sheet, or a tarp, or a cloak, or a curtain, or a knapsack, or a sail, or, or, or.......); Or if it is simply because 'liking morning's is right' has been so hammered into them by parents and teachers and culture that they can only add 'but nights are good too,' unable to escape the reality that, whether or not one way is or is not right, both types of people do exist.
Of course not everyone fits nicely onto two groups, these are just general trends I have noticed.
9 comments:
Good observations. I wonder if there are any psychological studies on these things, or the causes... I think for myself, I'm most naturally a night person, but I've had those morning-is-better ideas drilled into me so much that I'm *almost* a morning person. That, and with my work schedule and other things, it just works better right now for me to try hard to be a morning person. Plus, even though I get lost in projects and love staying up late, I actually do have more energy in the morning, once I've had enough sleep. As John can testify, it's pretty hard to get me out of bed, at least before I've had my eight hours plus. But once I'm up, I'm normally not particularly tired. 'Course, I have a lot of weird, in between traits. I love both details and creativity, I'm pretty decent at math and *love* language, like schedules but don't tend to keep them...
I'd say that although in society the big diffrence is between people who like to get up early and those who like to stay up late, the real question is whether you have more motivation and energy right after you wake up - whenever that might be - or whether you have those more after you've been up for a while. It's only because most people are forced to get up early that we can really call these differences 'morning' vs. 'night'.
Unfortuneatly part of my problem is that I seem to need more sleep than the prescribed 8hrs, that is, I don't really feel good if I can't sleep a good 10, but on the other side of that I don't get tired as soon as many people do -even with not enough sleep- and never feel like the day is finished after the normal 16 waking hours.
But aside from that, even when I have had my 10 hours of sleep and it's 2 or 3 in the afternoon, I'm not at my best right after waking up. Usually I need to just lay in bed for a while -maybe an hour- before I actually feel like even moving, even though I am conscious. I also tend to feel a bit in a fog for a couple of hours after I get up (with enough sleep). I don't focus very well or have much motivation, I just kind of go through motions, not thinking much. I also find it hard to interact with people directly after waking up, I usually feel like they are too loud and talking to fast and find their attention rather annoying. This mistake is made by many - just because it is afternoon doesn't mean that I'm going to be any more energetic and sociable when I've just woken up. I might be a little more so than if I had not had enough sleep and it was the crack of dawn, but I'm definately not in full gear.
Although I hate that for my job I have to get up early, I still prefer to go to work 'first thing' rather than have my free time before hand, because then work would be getting my 'best hours' and I'd never do anything for myself. As it is, I can go through the motions at work, and I have an outside source of motivation without which I would just be staring at walls.
I don't agree with your comments about practical people at all! In fact, what you are describing is the opposite of practical. Being practical is about doing what makes since at any given time in order to achieve a particular end. Practical is the opposite of idealistic, not the opposite of unstructured or non-conformist. With that said, I can see how some practical people would conform if they saw that as the best way to get things accomplished. But there is a difference between being practical and being a conformist, as the practical person will only conform as long as it helps them meets their ends. Once it stops being useful, they will abandon it. The conformist, on the other hand, will follow something even when it ceases to be practical just because everyone else says they should.
I would say the true practical person would care more about results than means and wouldn’t mind when people did things differently, as long as it produced the desired results in the desired amount of time.
That makes sense. That's the part I like about working the evening shift, myself. I get more done in the morning, so I accomplish more when I don't have to go to work until the afternoon. On the other hand, I hate how my shifts change, so I have to work in the evening one day and in the morning the next. Then I really feel like I have no time for myself! And I have to go to bed as soon as I get home, which I don't like either. I like to wind down first. But often when I work the morning shift and I get home in the evening, I feel tired and just want to veg in front of the TV or something, rather than doing things that I do like doing, but that take more effort, like writing a story. But then, the more I really enjoy my time at work, the less tired I'll be and the more I can do when I get home. I think. But it's not quite as easy as the morning.
On a different note, I realized after my first comment that my experiences have been different than yours. Maybe it's because I'm around so many later-energy people, but I've seen those people refuse to get up early waaay more often than I've seen the early-energy people refuse to stay up late. I think that may be because of inertia/momentum. For example, even though I have more energy in the morning, it's still very very easy for me to stay up doing whatever I'm doing -- TV, book, game -- it's easy to get lost in it. But then I won't sleep as well (these days), or I won't get enough sleep because I have to go to something, or whatever. So I try to be disciplined... make internal rules against it. Maybe some people hold to those rules so tightly that they won't be convinced to stay up late instead. But it makes sense to me that there would be fewer people like that than there would be of people refusing to get up earlier because they're just plain miserable.
Reply to Tracy
That’s why I used quotation marks around ‘practical’ I just forgot to continue using them throughout. I used that word because it seems that that is what conformists like to think of themselves as. I totally agree with practicality not being conformist. True practicality actually requires ‘creative thinking’ as some would call it, or ingenuity. Practicality is not the opposite of idealism though. Practicality is the way in which one goes about reaching a goal. Idealism has to do with what kind of goals one reaches for. Actually, most scientific/technological advancements happen as a result of the two working together: practical measures taken to reach an idealistic goal. New technology starts with the idealistic thought of ‘well, it works ok like this now, but wouldn’t it be nice if it could do this!?’ The idea can only come to life through the work of a practical thinker - It’s finding ways to make possible what seemed before to be impossible.
Reply to Marcy
I know what you mean about needing to wind down before bed. I can never come straight home from anything and hop right into bed, I just end up tossing and turning, it just feels wierd.
It’s true that the night people have the advantage of manipulating/egging on the morning people when it comes to staying up late since they are already awake -it’s not requiring a switch of states. The difference in my experience has been more in the attitudes toward staying up/getting up that seem different -and from my night person perspective often a bit unfair. The early people seem more likely to carry the tune of ‘getting up is a morally right habit that everyone should follow’ while staying up laters are more likely to sound like ‘this is my personal preference’. One of the main differences with the two’s experience is that the night people are more often required to get up by ‘laws and regulations’ of sorts, whereas morning people are unwillingly dragged along, propped up, held prisoner etc. What the two have at stake is usually slightly different. If an earlybird decides to ditch the late night party he is missing out on social connections, if the nightowl decides to throw the alarm across the room and roll over he is quite possibly loosing his job and place in society. The one is generally tollerated, and generally a half-willing consent to go against one’s nature, whereas the other is most of the time non-negotiable, and not forgiven as a personal quirk. Interesting that- the one who don’t view their preference as a ‘quirk’ are granted that, and those who do consider it a ‘quirk’ are not granted that. Of course I’m not saying that these things are across the board, just ‘trends’ which I think I have noticed from my limited experience. There are certainly plenty of instances outside of school and work in which night people refuse to get up and only miss out on social interaction, and I’m sure there are plenty of instances when morning people are required to stay up late for something past the point when they feel up to the task. There is one thing that seems to be even among both sides, and that is their inability to interact, be usefull, and have a good time in their ‘not prime time’. Night people are zombies when dragged out of bed, and even if they brighten up and adjust they usually feel the lack of sleep throughout the day, and Morning people when kept out late tend to fade back into that zombie state and become ‘party-poopers’ themselves even if they don’t really want to be a deserter.
Oh, I see, makes sense. Incidentally, the part about winding down first also fits with that book I was telling you about in a deviantart note, Highly Sensitive People.
In reply to Andrea's reply to me :P
I don't completely disagree with your comments about practical vs. idealistic :P But I do somewhat disagree.
Why you ask? Because practical thinking isn't just about the means to reach a goal. Practicality is about what is, and what is possible given “what is”. Idealism is about what could be or what should be. The two can complement each other when what could be is actually possible in reality, but clash when it is not (or impractical to attempt reaching for that particular goal for other reasons). In other words, a practical person will also judge the “worth” of a goal. As in “it’s a nice idea, but just not very practical”.
I do agree that you have to have a little of both in most situations to advance, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t opposites that can contradict (or even despise) each other.
I think there is a group that generally gets left out of these discussions :) ...and those would be the afternoon people.
Although I'm also not a morning person and can stay up late with no problems, I'm really at my most awake in the afternoon (and that is really my favorite time of day).
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