10 Advantages of Becoming a Morning Person

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“Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” “The early bird gets the worm.” “I never knew a man come to greatness or eminence who lay abed late in the morning.” The world is full of quotes that claim that early risers get ahead, but plenty of people still refuse to go to bed until after the clock has ticked past midnight.

Both the extreme night owls who go to bed at dawn and the average worker-bee tend to scoff at the age-old advice that suggests rising early gives a person a better chance at reaching their goals. It seems nonsensical to non-morning people that setting an alarm earlier could be a good thing. After all, non-morning people tend to be snarly and grouchy when they first get up. Even the friendly “non-morningers” are little more than less-dangerous zombies until they have drunk two massive cups of coffee. Given the intense loathing most people feel for their alarm clocks, how can anyone believe that starting the morning earlier than necessary is a good thing?

While the night owls stare in bafflement, or glare furiously at an early bird’s morning cheerfulness, morning people actually have the right idea. Science and old folklore both agree that morning people have an advantage over their later sleeping counterparts assuming the morning person is going to bed at a time that lets them get a healthy amount of sleep. Here are 10 advantages of becoming a morning person.

More Time in the Day

Morning people are out of bed, dressed and working on their to-do lists long before night owls even stir. By rising earlier, morning people give themselves a longer day. They get their daily tasks done sooner and so are able to spend more time on leisurely activities.

These “longer” days are only partially an illusion. A night owl might be awake for the same number of hours as a morning person, but the morning person has more hours where they can get their tasks done. A night owl may have less time to run errands or clean the house because they are awake for fewer hours when the stores are open, or they have to stop their household tasks when other people have gone to bed. Furthermore, morning people tend to have more consistent sleeping schedules and so are less likely than night owls to suffer from grogginess when then wake up.

In some cases, a morning person may actually have a longer day than a night owl. Morning people are often awake for more hours than those who go to bed late. This is an advantage for the early bird, so long as they are still getting a healthy amount of sleep.

Better Use of the Most Productive Hours

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There are some people who are truly productive late at night. For most people, however, nothing of any consequence gets done after 9:00 p.m. Many self-proclaimed night owls do not actually accomplish anything late in the evenings. Their night hours are spent surfing the web, watching TV or otherwise relaxing. While downtime is important, plenty of night owls fritter away more hours in front of a screen than they can really afford.

Night owls also have a tendency to either sleep or sleepwalk their way through the most productive hours of their days. Most people are at their most productive in the mornings, especially between 8:00 and 10:00 a.m. Many night owls find themselves sleeping through these hours of high productivity, and those who are awake are still waiting for the coffee to really kick in. Morning people, in contrast, are bright-eyed and bushy-tailed during these hours and are able to really make the most of those times of high productivity.

Quiet Time

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Most people lead busy lives and are on the move as soon as their feet hit the floor in the mornings. They start the day in a rush to get out the door and often do not have time for more than a quick “good morning” to their spouse. For those who have children, mornings are even more hectic as parents try to get their children to school and themselves to work on time. For many people, evenings are little better. All household chores and responsibilities have to be crammed into those few hours between work and bedtime. For those with children, evenings are filled with keeping hungry little mouths fed, ensuring homework gets done and getting all young members of the family in bed on time. If a parent is lucky, this happens with minimal complaining from their children. Most parents are not lucky.

Morning people get a unique reprieve from the daily insanity. Many early birds are awake before the rest of their family and so can enjoy a few moments to themselves. Morning people also get to enjoy a few minutes or few hours of quiet peace before joining the daily rush. Some early birds simply use that time to savor both a cup of coffee and some silence while others use the quiet morning hours to meditate, journal, paint or pursue other personal or creative endeavors.

Less Rushed

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Most people start the day out stressed. They have to lunge out of bed and sprint around the house in order to get out the door on time. They consistently hit the snooze button and then scramble out of bed after waking up too late. They might have time for a lightning fast shower and cup of coffee. Breakfast for many people consists of a granola bar and is often forgotten entirely. Sometimes, coffee has to wait until the person gets to the office.

The way a person spends their morning determines much of their mindset for the rest of their day. Mornings spent rushing around leave a person feeling stressed and anxious all day while a peaceful morning can leave a person with a calm and focused mindset.

Morning people tend to have more peaceful mornings simply because they have longer mornings. A night owl will sleep in until the last possible moment and then scurry around in a half-conscious panic before work. A morning person, however, will be awake earlier and have more time to get ready for work. This leaves them feeling more relaxed as they go about their daily routine, and thus, they are calmer and more focused at work.

Sticking to a Workout Routine

There is a reason that most gyms and health clubs open before dawn. A lot of morning people take advantage of their earlier waking time by getting their workout in before they have to go in to the office. Night owls everywhere wonder what possesses early birds to get up at some god-awful time in order to be in the gym at 5:30 a.m. Unpleasant as it may sound to be working out before the sun has risen, morning people are more likely to stick to a workout routine. Most people are tired and hungry when they come home from work and do not want to go straight from work to a workout. This means that people who claim they will go to the gym after work find themselves making endless excuses about why they are skipping their workouts. Early birds who go straight to the gym in the mornings do not usually make the same excuses and so are more likely to stick to a workout routine.

Weight Loss

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It sounds like an old wives’ tale, but morning people tend to be thinner and have an easier time losing weight than night owls. Morning people are more likely to stick to a workout routine than night owls, especially if an early bird goes to the gym before work. Morning people are also more likely to have healthier eating habits than their late-sleeping counterparts. Many night owls skip breakfast in the mornings because they have less time to get ready for work. This leaves them ravenous when it is lunchtime, and so they are more likely to either snack throughout the day or eat a larger lunch than they should. Morning people, however, tend to have more time before work and can eat a healthy breakfast.

Beyond having more healthy habits, morning people have biology on their side. A study by Northwestern Medicine reports that the time, intensity and duration of light exposure during the day has an effect on a person’s weight. People who had more exposure to light in the mornings were shown to have lower body mass indexes than those who got most of the light exposure late in the day. Phyllis C. Zee, M.D. and senior author of the study, said that this phenomenon is due to the effect of light on the circadian rhythm. “Light is the most potent agent to synchronize your..circadian rhythms, which in turn also regulate energy balance…if a person doesn’t get sufficient light at the appropriate time of day, it could de-synchronize [their] internal body clock, which is known to alter metabolism and can lead to weight gain.” According to the study, a person should aim to get plenty of bright light exposure between 8 a.m. and noon. Only 20 to 30 minutes of morning light is enough to have a positive affect a person’s body mass index.

Increased Self-Discipline

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Morning people do not all pop out of bed singing the praises of the dawn. Plenty of them moan at the sound of the alarm clock buzzing and grumble their way over to the coffee pot. Most morning people are willing to admit that it is not always easy getting up at the crack of dawn, especially when they first decide to become an early bird. For those newly minted morning people, forcing themselves out of bed requires a great deal of willpower.

Morning people tend to have or develop better self-discipline. It takes effort to drag themselves out of bed when it is still dark outside, and it takes willpower to ignore the siren song of the snooze button. Morning people also work their self-discipline muscles in the evenings. Early birds are more likely to stick to a self-imposed bedtime rather than staying up late to binge-watch “Chicago Med.”

More Proactive

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A study published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology stated that morning people tend to be more proactive people. That said, the study could not say definitively whether this was due to some biological or physical reason or due to prevailing social constructs. As touched on in the study, there is increasing evidence that the modern nine to five workday has adverse effects on health and that early school start times work against the natural sleep-wake times of children, especially teenagers. Morning people might well be more proactive simply because they do not suffer from “the misalignment of social and biological time.” This misalignment often leads night owls to have considerably different sleep-wake times on weekends and weekdays. This leads to, at best, a confused internal clock or, more commonly, a massive sleep debt built up during the week. Morning people, on the other hand, are more likely to go to bed and get up at similar times on both weekends and weekdays, leaving them with a more consistent circadian rhythm.

Happier

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A study done by the University of Toronto found that morning people tend to feel happier and more satisfied with life than night owls. According to the study, both young and elderly early birds reported more positive emotions than night owls of all ages. The early birds also tended to feel physically healthier than night owls. This may in part be due to the fact that morning people often get more or better sleep than night owls because morning people tend to have more consistent sleep-wake times. These extra hours of sleep, or simply extra-restful sleep, leave morning people feeling more alert and give their immune systems an extra boost.

Beyond the biology of better sleep, morning people’s schedules fit more neatly into societal expectations. Early birds can make the nine to five workday productive with ease while a night owl needs five cups of coffee simply to make it to the office each morning. This can lead to “social jet lag” and leave the night owl with irritable or out of sorts feelings that the early bird lacks.

Better Performance at Work and School

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Early birds tend to perform better at school and at work than their night owl counterparts. Part of this is due to the fact that morning people do not suffer from the same “social jet lag” that night owls struggle to conquer. The biological clock of a morning person aligns neatly with the social clock that governs office environments, schools and shopping centers while a night owl is forever playing catch up. An early bird’s easy alignment with work or school schedules means that they are more productive earlier in the day and, thus, they are able to get more done during their working hours. Supervisors also have an unconscious bias towards their early birds. According to a 2014 study from the Journal of Applied Psychology, supervisors tend to perceive workers who clock in earlier as more conscientious than those who start later in the day. This gives morning people a better chance at being promoted than their night owl coworkers.

Similarly, early bird students were found to have better grades than night owls. This holds true even at the college level when students can largely control their own class schedules. One study found that morning people were found to have a GPA that was a full point higher than their night owl counterparts. Daniel J. Taylor, PhD and author of the study, pointed out that it was easier for early birds to get to class on time and study. He also noted that students going to bed earlier were less likely to participate in excessive alcohol consumption or other activities that hindered academic performances. This is likely because most college and high school partying takes place late at night when early birds are already in bed.

Whether a person is an early bird or a night owl is influence by genetics, but people do also have some measure of control over whether they are a morning or evening person. Those who want to become, or remain, an early riser should keep consistent sleep-wake times, go to bed early and avoid bright light in the evenings, especially the blue light projected by electronics. This will help a would-be early bird reset their internal clock and shift their circadian rhythm toward that of a naturally early riser. It will take time, and those first few early mornings will feel like cruel and unusual punishment, but becoming a morning person can make an extraordinary difference in a person’s life and leave even a night owl happy to see the dawn.