Im not going to disagree with you, but i have this nagging suspicion that most people who think they are “night owls” are really just shining a phone light in their face every night and confusing their sleep cycle.
I am typing this in Wuhan, listening to birds singing in the middle of the night. Are they owls? No, their sleep patterns have simply adapted to the constant neon lighting all over the place.
Depression and alcohol can also negatively affect sleep patterns.
Combine depression with all night TV binge watching or phone soon browsing for a greaaaat combo.
That may be true, but at least the genes for night owls are present in more people than the genes for early birds.
So it should be expected that, regardless of phone usage, over half of the population will go to bed and wake up ~2-3h later than expected.
If your timezone is closely aligned with the sun, that’d be 22:00-06:00 for early birds and 01:00-09:00 for night owls. But if your timezone isn’t, both of these times would shift around.
For me personally, no matter when I go to bed, whether it’s 22:00 or 03:00, I always wake up precisely 09:30 without any alarm clock. But this also means if I have to wake up earlier, e.g. at 8am, I’ll be very tired and not well rested.
Im not going to disagree with you, but i have this nagging suspicion that most people who think they are “night owls” are really just shining a phone light in their face every night and confusing their sleep cycle.
For some that’s definitely true. It’s well known that light (especially Edit: blue-to-yellow as per below) can disrupt someone’s circadian rhythm.
I am typing this in Wuhan, listening to birds singing in the middle of the night. Are they owls? No, their sleep patterns have simply adapted to the constant neon lighting all over the place.
Depression and alcohol can also negatively affect sleep patterns.
Combine depression with all night TV binge watching or phone soon browsing for a greaaaat combo.
One can break cycles, though.
What’s life like in Wuhan? Haven’t seen any commenters from China on here yet
That may be true, but at least the genes for night owls are present in more people than the genes for early birds.
So it should be expected that, regardless of phone usage, over half of the population will go to bed and wake up ~2-3h later than expected.
If your timezone is closely aligned with the sun, that’d be 22:00-06:00 for early birds and 01:00-09:00 for night owls. But if your timezone isn’t, both of these times would shift around.
For me personally, no matter when I go to bed, whether it’s 22:00 or 03:00, I always wake up precisely 09:30 without any alarm clock. But this also means if I have to wake up earlier, e.g. at 8am, I’ll be very tired and not well rested.
Night owls have been a thing since long before cell phones existed