Morning/Evening People

I just finished a paper in my Physiological Psychology class that focused on the moods of morning and evening type people after sleep deprivation. In case any of you were wondering, being a morning person (actually- morningness type) is a scientifically proven phenomenom. How we rank on the morningness-eveningness questionnaire dictates our sleeping habits as well as several personality traits. A simple version of the quiz can be found here: http://web.ukonline.co.uk/bjlogie/test.htm

I personally ranked 30 out of 32- being a strong morning person. There's a great study out that describes the personality traits of morning and evening type people, but you have to pay to read it... and I'm currently not bringing in a whole lot of dough, so I just read the abstract. Here's the gist of what I've found so far. Morning people scored higher in the activity category (apparently we do more stuff), morning type men were more neurotic and anxious, neither type women (those who don't fit into either category) showed the highest rate of neuroticism and anxiety- morning type women score low on the neuroticism/anxiety category. Morning people tend to be more introverted and evening people more extroverted. Interestingly enough, another study found that evening type people experienced psychological and psychosomatic disturbances more frequently and with more intensity than morning people, morning people tend to live a healthier lifestyle, and morning people tend to report having more satisfaction with life.

Looking this over, I've got a theory- based solely on personal experience. I feel like the world is covered with extroverts and evening type people. Morning people are forced to be introverts because they're awake long before the rest of the world, and go to sleep before everyone else does so we spend a significant amount of time with ourselves. We're the laugh of every party because the party doesn't start until after our usual bedtime and if we stay up late, we're going to wake up at 6am regardless. I'm assuming we have less friends. Despite my current situation, I am fairly satisfied with my life.

Now onto the neurotic psychos that the evening people are. There's also a simple explanation for this. Apparently there's enough of us morning people out there to warrant early start times for work. If evening people ran the world stores and offices wouldn't open until noon and they'd close at 9pm. Imagine if you could go to the dentist at 8pm. So evening type people are being forced to wake up before their sleep cycle has finished and are unable to fall asleep early enough to compensate for it. Being sleep deprived for the majority of your life can probably lead to some pretty significant psychological issues.

Unfortunately, our circadian rhythms (or sleep cycles) can't be changed, so we're stuck with what we've got. However, evening type people could do well in jobs that start later and end later like maybe bartending. So you could technically shape your life around your circadian rhythm and be perfectly happy-- so evening type people could be as happy as morning people.