Are You An Owl Or A Lark?

Are you one of those people who sleep late at night and wake up late in the morning?

Or do you have to get to bed early, probably by 10pm latest and wake up early in the morning before the sun rises?

If you are the former, you are an owl.

Art from Animal Forum

If you are the latter, then you are a morning lark.

Art from seebs.net

Me? Most definitely an owl.

You see, I can sleep very easily and I think if I make myself go to bed at 9pm, I’ll most probably be fast asleep in 10 minutes! But somehow, I feel sleeping so early will waste my precious night time.

Well, you know, we work hard at our job during the day time and we like to have the night time to relax and enjoy doing whatever we want to do. Sometimes, I’ll be enjoying myself past midnight before I decide it’s bedtime.

Now I know this is bad for my health. I learnt from health experts that the time between 11pm and 3am is crucial for us to be fast asleep in bed. Reason is, this is the time our liver do its detoxification and regeneration work. Our liver is vital in cleansing our body and assist with proper digestion. If we are awake at these hours, our liver won’t be able to do a good job and that would affect our well being. A poor functioning liver would eventually lead to diabetes, poor digestion, loss of energy and a weak immune system.

Picture from The Life Tree

The Chinese even go so far as to say that an hour of sleep before midnight is worth two hours of sleep after midnight. So for the sake of good health, it’s better to sleep earlier and wake up early than staying up late and sleeping in. Not very good news for us owls!

So really, I must try to sleep earlier and in fact, I’ve been trying to do so these past weeks. Of course there will be days when doing this is quite impossible especially during weekends, when you go out with friends.

You don’t want to be telling your friends “OK, it’s bedtime, I gotta go home now.” I have a female friend who is like that, and we all dubbed her Cinderella. Simply because she must be home before 12 midnight!

Of course, I try to get to bed before midnight on weekday nights. The trouble with me is that even if I sleep early, I still tend to wake up late! Looks like of all the beautiful birds out there, I’m fated to be an owl!

I don’t know about you, but I really dislike (okay, I won’t use the word "hate" here) waking up before the sunrise! I mean, it’s still dark, for God’s sake! How do you wake up when it’s still dark?

But oddly, there were a few times when I was forced to wake up early and I sort of enjoyed the early morning. Somehow, I felt the quietness of the early morning tend to be very calming and my mind was more alert and fresh. I like to spend that early morning hours by myself, thinking and day dreaming and just enjoy my own “peaceful” time. I found that it’s also a good time to plan the day or review my goals.

Photo from zenhabits

And have you tried driving in the early morning hours when the traffic is light? It’s such a pleasure to drive! I even found it therapeutic!

But the best benefit I derive from rising early is that I am able to increase my productivity and as a result, I have better time management. I found that I could do more things compared to the days when I wake up late.

Haven’t you heard this famous quote from Benjamin Franklin who said, “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise”?

Hmm, come to think of it, maybe I should transform myself into a lark.

Sounds tempting, but still, don’t expect me to be in bed by 10pm. That’s way too early for me! I will, however try to sleep before midnight because I love my liver and health is very important to me.

As for rising early say before the sun rises, I don’t mind doing it occasionally (like once or twice a week) just to feel the cool morning air and enjoy the calmness that comes with it.

Well, you can’t blame me. Blame it on my genes! That's right, animal studies found that whether you are a morning or night person, is already determined by your genes, like having red hair or blue eyes. Still, even though you can’t change your genes, no one says you can’t change your habits.

So my question now is, what about you? Are you an owl or a lark? Do you intend to change or just stick to being an owl or a lark?

Come to think of it, why not be somewhere in between?
A hummingbird would suit me just fine!