I was born and raised in Japan, where working problems have occurred so many times that the word "karou-shi"(, which means death due to too much work) exists.
However, I've never heard of any research conducted in Japan like the one discribed in this article.
I hope this kind of research will be conducted also in Japan to prevent karou-shi.
1
Besides workers another real loser here are kids going to school. School districts are held hostage by bus schedules and sporting events - and set the beginning time for classes far earlier than anyone wants to get up - both teachers and students are constantly sleep deprived. In the 25 years I worked in the public schools all my coworkers did the same thing in June when school was out - you go to bed for about two weeks to try to catch up on sleep. You're absolutely exhausted and sleep deprivation is why.
9
For capitalism, this is a brilliant move. Recognizing the chronotype is the key. I'm an early riser at 6-6:30 with peak productivity at 8:30 -10:30, and a terrible trough at 2 pm. At last, naps are vindicated! Afternoon naps are virtually essential for me in the afternoon, to get back productivity later in the afternoon till evening. My chronobiology has always been an important element for my choice as self-employed consultant.
5
I've had two bonafide hangovers in my entire life. And I can tell you they are not much different from what it feels like, as a night owl, to wake up at a "normal" time EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.
20
Looking at these comments makes me tired...and I just woke up! Maybe I'll click around and see if I can find a story that people aren't fighting over.
Many industries explored circadian rhythms as far back as the 1980's in my personal experience. This isn't honestly anything new. At one company (steel mill) we looked into aspects of productivity, safety (accidents are much more common during the witching hours of 2 - 4 am - think Chernobyl, TMI, others), life/work balance, etc. In the final analysis, it is difficult to come up with alternative schedules for every individual, but we found that workloads and certain operations were better performed at different times, and that procedures could be modified to increase awareness, and help maintain critical thinking skills. Tailoring work schedules to individual's rhythms may work in some settings, but the reality is that many jobs and operations by their nature simply can't offer such flexibility. Even more so when round the clock operations require certain levels of human staffing.
I'd add that most humans, when allowed to let their internal clock freewheel without external inputs, tend to function naturally on 25 to 26 hour long "days". It only the external inputs of sunlight, alarm clocks, schedules, society, etc that keep us on a 24 hour cycle, regardless of how we shift waking hours.
3
"with 27 percent reporting having unintentionally fallen asleep on the job in the previous month and 16 percent that they had experienced at least one safety incident because of fatigue"
Those are HUGE percentages. We really need to reconsider why we do this to ourselves and if there's a better way on the horizon. I think there is, but we'll see. No doubt that today's society is unsustainable.
11
We need a full-blown political movement to reclaim this aspect of our health. I propose #SLEEPWISE.
It must emphasize flextime work schedules for "all" (i.e., absolutely wherever possible), later start times for schools, and drastically reducing (possiblly altogether eliminating) Daylight Savings Time to its pre-Bush (circa 1992) levels. (Bush expanded DST) by about a month or 6 weeks, resulting in auto accident deaths (massive spike in accidents), lower worker productivity, increased heart attacks, and myriad destructive effects.
The new Democratic majority MUST take immediate action (esp. on Daylight Savings Time) upon being sworn in in January, very FIRST item on the agenda. The policy since 1992 has been an unmitigated disaster that only goes uncorrected through inertia and indifference. But later start times for schools must follow closely on that correction's heels.
DST and early school start times result not just massive suffering and reduced productivity and learning, but probably dozens (or more) student deaths per year. Are these utterly stupid policies really worth it?
#SLEEPWISE!!!
4
@Andrew Maltz I do think that school times need to be looked at, but being a bit more of a night owl, I love DST and the extension of it, I feel that there is something with being more productive with the day light out. Why cant the just leave DST at the spring time change, to keep the later light in the summer? I really have not seen the "disaster" of it and I work in an environment where I would see first hand these "accidents" you speak of.
2
@ANB:
W/out DST, you get earlier sunrises and more daylight in the morning, and earlier sunsets and "expanded" (ie., more natural) darkness hours in the evening, rather than protracting "afternoon" till 7PM or beyond (yuck). As a night owl, who feels charged up in nighttime, I feel I get more evening hours of what I like (and when I flourish). I like having my dark hours around dinnertime rather than at 5-6AM. Without DST, its brighter in the morning, and safer for kids going to their buses, commuting to school etc. I would think night owls would agree it's nicer to have night kick in earlier.
As to your not seeing the disadvantages of DST (esp its expansion - around 2005, not 1995 as I said above; sorry for the error), I know the assertion "lots of research shows" is usually suspect, but in this case I believe the evidence of my claims is rather overwhelming, if you take the trouble to look it up. The medical and other hazards (including accidents) related to DST, and economic ramifications, seem pretty well documented. I ardently hope the new congress will look into the matter accordingly. After all, lives would certainly be saved, and quality of life would go up for many of us, almost certainly the majority by far.
2
My daughter manages a pharma research lab and can set her own work schedule....it works beautifully for her and the company.
2
And yet industries like coal mining continue to make employees work shifts with a reverse rotation - work 8 shifts day turn, 2.5 days off, 8 shifts of midnights, 2.5 days off, then 8 shifts of afternoons. Everyone is a wreck. I'm surprised there aren't more accidents.
8
This article exactly describes the problem of sleep "deprivation." It clearly provides the implicit evidence for why people forced to work outside of their naturally wakeful hours are a danger to others. But, let's not forget the helpfulness of a "midday" nap to regenerate the energy reserves for the second half of the work day. It can be for as little as 15 minutes (and shouldn't be much longer), but it does wonders.
4
Decades ago I was languishing miserably as a freshman student in my "safety" school, a large SUNY campus, after disappointing college application results the previous spring. Though I tried to benefit from my courses, making the most of them, I was miserable and uninspired, and determined to transfer to my first choice school, one universally regarded as among the most intellectually enriching, inspiring and challenging programs in the country (not that this is particularly important of course, but US News/WR's controversial rankings has it in a tie at #3).
That first year, I forced myself to enroll in several 8AM courses, and was a zombie among zombies, learning virtually nothing. Literally barely surviving academically: I came close to flunking out (of a completely middle-tier university). All my effort was expended in getting myself physically to classes, where attendance was taken (students with bags under their eyes would doze after raising their hands). As to grades, I got Cs, Ds, one F, and a few Bs. My GPA was slightly over a "2."
The next year, I only enrolled in courses beginning around 10 AM, and despite nearly flunking out as a freshmen, wound up with grades that were nearly all A's or A-. My transfer application (my first choice college) was successful. I consider that scheduling adjustment by far one of the two or three most important, wisest decisions of my life.
12
Oct. 30, I wrote in this forum:
"...reduce daylight savings to its pre-Bush schedule. George W. Bush expanded daylight savings time by about one month, a week in autumn and about 2.5 weeks in winter-spring.
A NYT article just today shows how pervasive and damaging the problem of sleep deprivation is today in the U.S. The scientific consensus is daylight savings in its contemporary expanded form bears much blame, damaging physical and mental wel-being, quality of life, and (for those who emphasize economic efficiency) economic productivity. Auto accidents and machine accidents, many of them quite severe, even deadly, have been implicated based on statistical analysis, and even heart attack and stress numbers tend to spike in response to the shortened day (clocks "spring" forward) in spring.
Failure to address the matter comes from laziness, inertia and negligence, not sound reasoning. On any measure, the pre-2003 approach is superior.
When dems prevail this cycle, these two priorities should come first on the agenda, because they're so unquestionably called for, with no downside.
4
On Oct. 11, I wrote in this forum:
"First on the agenda, reverse George W. Bush's 2005 4-week expansion of daylight savings time, bringing back Lyndon Johnson's schedule of starting it the last Sunday of October, lasting till late April. Global warming is doing enough to destroy autumn and late winter/early spring, so we're moving toward a 2 season climate. The late sunrise jeopardizes children forced to start school 8am and earlier, waiting for buses in the dark. Few if any of the benefits of expanding DST occurred, and the drawbacks have hit hard, disturbing circadian rhythms, and by extesion sleep quality and overall wellbeing and functionality. We're a chronically sleep-deprived nation, and this is a big part of the problem. Plus, teens need a few hours of evening environment before sleeping, and delayed nightfall pushes their sleep times back.
From a 2010 New Republic article:
'By contrast, the time change schedules adopted by presidents Johnson and Reagan were quite moderate—they gave people a little extra daylight during the summer months while still respecting the dictates of nature, synchronizing wake-up times with the actual passage of the seasons. Because they were so reasonable, these changes stuck … at least until a desperate President Bush tried to fake his way out of yet another national emergency. If President Obama wants to do the public a solid, and roll back a bad policy in the process, he should send the time change of 2005 off into the sunset.'"
2
A bastion of SANITY, I just discovered on the internet:
"Most of the US state of Arizona does not use Daylight Saving Time (DST). The exception is the Navajo Nation. Most of Arizona has no Daylight Saving Time. ... With the exception of the Navajo Nation, Arizona does not set the clocks forward 1 hour in spring for DST with the rest of the United States.Oct 19, 2018"
Finally!
I have waited all of my adult life for 60 Minutes to do a piece on discrimination against night owls in work and school.
14
I once complained to ETS (Educational Testing Service) that adminstering the GRE at 8:30 AM was andutterly depraved form of such discrimination, blatantly skewing tests against night owls to favor early risers, distorting the whole admissions process to favor those conforming with Franklin's arbitrary, unfair "Early to bed, early to rise" aphorism accorded 'holy scripture' status in our society.
To a night owl, the early morning scheduling of standardized tests was not only brutal & cruel, but the most heinous discrimination against this "chronotype." Not to mention workers on a night shift forced to sleep during the day, who would take the exam in a context of the exam wreaking havoc on the circadian rhythm, with the schedule guaranteeing the lowest possible alertness level for this group.
This inherent disadvantage is of course compounded by the psychological stress (anger, frustration) kicking in to distract during the exam itself, as thoughts or awareness of the predicament's cruelty impinge on concentration.
No matter, though: As long as our national profit-prophet's ("healthy, *wealthy,* & wise") religion was upheld to anoint his cherished early birds, proper morality was followed. In our religion of money, Franklin is holy gospel. Evil night owls like myself must be punished & prevented from contaminating academia.
ETS, naturally, stuck to its guns, defending/keeping its practice, thus ensuring the academic community would skew to favor the early rise chronotype.
9
Many great points in the article and by readers. One point to add is that it is so important to maintain a regular circadian rhythm, whether you work early or late. Specifically that same schedule plus minus an hour or so should be followed on non work days. Otherwise you stress your circadian rhythm and various organs/systems do not function optimally. If your friends and family force you into a totally different schedule on weekends - probably bad for your health and well being. The second point to also consider is how much of a night owl schedule is intrinsic (genetic, age etc) versus amplified by using smart phones, tablets computers and other light emitting devices in a few hours before bed. Unnatural light exposure before bed short changes sleep hours and prevents a healthy melatonin rhythm. Ideally we should get 8-9 hours of darkness, and 7-9 hours of sleep in a pretty regular pattern that does not feel forced but seems like the best time for sleep and dark exposure. We cannot all get there but that is the target. As this article and readers suggest, working most effectively and efficiently at optimal circadian hours may allow one more time for sleep, darkness time and life’s pleasures.
3
I concur with this article. I work 11-7 and love it! We should also do away with daylight savings---a burden and nuisance!
6
I would like to read an article about fast- and slow-movers in the morning. I encountered plenty of people in my work life who didn't even have their first cup of coffee until they got to the office. They stayed in bed until the last minute, did their ablutions and rushed off to work. If I tried that I would wreck my car pulling out of the driveway. In order to get to work (15 minutes away) by 8:00 a.m. I had to get up at five. I have always had to ease into the day. It would be interesting to read about both types and those in-between and how they function on the job.
14
@Carole A. Dunn I'll bet you find the slow movers are night owl chronotypes and the fast movers largely larks.
2
I disagree - as a night owl I grabbed every second of sleep I could, then rushed to get to work...because I stayed up late. I cannot imagine getting up at 5 am for an 8 am start time...just one POV...
3
It's a never-ending source of astonishment for me that we are only now figuring this out as a society. The Industrial Revolution was more than a century ago, yet still much of the work environment hews to the grinding schedules established during that era. It's madness. And it's abusive. The working class has it bad enough in this country - let's move the ball forward on this type of workplace flexibility at warp speed and give people a break!
15
Psychologist William H. Sheldon noted this pattern. Somatonic mesomorphs (look it up), big boned and muscular are ambitious early risers. Skinny cerebrotonic ectomorphs are night owls. They perpetually clash. Mesomorphs climb the corporate and military ladder and dictate their early rising inclination upon everyone below them. It was not an ectomorph who invented Reveille at 6:00AM.
10
@Craig Willison Kind of scary generalizations here.
5
I've fought this issue for my whole life. I am an extreme lark. My body awakens me at 2:30 AM. Luckily, my company allows me to start work early and be done by early afternoon. By 7:00 PM I'm fast asleep.
Your bio clock is in your DNA. You must learn how to adapt.
6
This is something that has long been a pet peeve of mine. So many people not only subtly discriminate against late sleeper inners, but take pride - as if getting up early is some sort of accomplishment.
Congratulations, you either went to bed earlier, or got less sleep than late waker-uppers.
That’s it, finito, there is no virtuous circadian cycle. We can reject any supposed claim to moral high ground for getting up at 7am. Some get up at 7, others at 8, 9, or 10!
30
@PNicholson "There is no virtuous circadian cycle" is a motto for the ages.
8
As one of our earliest and most impactful priests of efficiency and money-mindedness (and philandering and gluttony) put it, "Early to bed, early to rise, makes the good man healthy, wealthy and wise."
Our national money-worship religion and early-is-pure, sleep-is-vice "morality" go hand-in-hand.
5
The danger of this is the increased expectation to work ALL the time, because you do need your colleagues to work with. To a large extent sleep patterns can be learned, as any long distance traveler will tell you. It requires discipline. The one thing it does not require is a smart phone.
2
@TT Let me guess - you don't have any sleep problems. It's easy to tell other people "just be like me." The science is staring you in the face here. Many of us suffer problems through chronic sleep deprivation. We also work in world-wide, 24/7 businesses who could easily adapt our schedules if they weren't so hidebound, old-fashioned, and punitive.
4
@TT
Obviously you're an "early riser." Your comment sounds sanctimonious to someone like me, who has struggled all my life with the superior attitude of people like you who actually feel good in the morning, and think those of us who don't are "undisciplined." Once I hit high school and had to be there at 8:00 AM instead of the previous 9:00 AM, I was in torment. Waking up for me in the morning is like rising from the dead. I feel great at 10:00 PM. I can get myself anywhere at 8:00 AM with a tremendous effort, but am I fully functioning? No, not until about 10:00 AM. Now I can go to bed at midnight or 1:00 AM and get up at 8:00 or 9:00 AM, and I am happy! Imagine what your life would be like if you had to adjust all your life to my preferred schedule, and maybe you'll be less judgmental.
7
@TT you're just plain wrong-that's what the article quoting the multitude of peer-reviewed published science tells us. Though you are correct in saying that sleep patterns can be learned-we are the only species that sleep deprives itself-and the research on the negative effects of sleep deprivation are even more plentiful and established that the circadian work.
2
When society can't quantify the cost; or worse, if the cost (but not the riches) of overwork is socialized then there is no incentive to change.
Still, I'm complicit as I make purchases from companies like Amazon who are notorious for overworking their entire workforce.
If I don't, then global and/or foreign companies who utilize slave-labor will be more than happy to fill the gap.
I don't have any answers here other than draconian ones
3
Our local school board has tabled this matter (later start times) because public input prior to voting was too emotional - on both sides. 'Let sleeping dogs lie' (even if not sleeping as well as possible).
4
@Unconvinced
We have over 30 years of sound, published in peer-reviewed journals, scientific studies of adolescent sleep needs, and more recent published evidence of the immensely positive effects on health, well-being and academic performance from delaying high school school start times-what more does your school board need to be convinced?
5
@Believe the Science People dismiss science that contradicts their own sense of moral rightness. Morning people have held the (imaginary) moral high ground for hundreds of years. They won't let it go without a fight.
6
One time schedule has never fit all. The more we sync with who we are, the better we are.
3
So many points in this article have become the practice in my work life. The high school in which I work pushed back the first class starting time to 8:45 this year, but teachers need to be in the building by 7:30. So we don’t get the benefits of more sleep—and we preferred this to coming in later because our traffic is obscene and we’d spend most of our extra time in traffic jams. Our 7:30 meetings are sparsely attended and lack the oompf they had in the past (sometimes).
Students love the late start times. We have run into a problem with sports—the games and meets mean many students miss their entire last blocks often. Until the leagues move their game times later students miss more school. And then the games go later. There are only so many hours in a day.
2
I am very much a night owl and have been since I was very young. Due to the demands of grade school and, later, of the 9-5 work world, I was chronically underslept for most of my life. Try as I might, it is nearly impossible for me to go to sleep earlier than midnight, and 2am is my most common bedtime. I decided to pick a career where I could set my own hours. Now I go to bed at 2am and wake at 10am, and it is glorious. After 35 years of feeling cranky and groggy, I’m finally able to offer my best, well-rested self to the world. Now, I only have to deal with the judgement of morning people who bizarrely claim some kind of moral superiority over people with later-set body clocks. And, really, who cares what they think? I’m so happy to be getting 8 hours of sleep finally.
54
I volunteer at a major museum in Chicago--a museum with large groups of conservation and research scientists, none of whom set our "official" hours of 8:30am-4:30pm. The very people who can tell you about the physiology of our species are the ones who should rise up and demand a 9am start time. I am amazed how many employees drive; the only reason I can think of is the lengthy commute and paltry bus service many have to take in the early morning hours since our museum is a healthy hike from the rest of Chicago's downtown.
2
Flexible work schedules make the most sense when there is no expectation from customers that your employees will be there at time certain hours to transact business. Imagine going to the supermarket to buy some produce, finding no employees present, talking to the manager, and learning that that time of day was determined to be less than optimum for the mental health of their valued employees.
3
@Carl - Did you actually read the story? They addressed this issue.
8
@Carl "... Imagine going to the supermarket to buy some produce, finding no employees present, talking to the manager, and learning that that time of day was determined to be less than optimum for the mental health of their valued employees."
Imagine using a reduction to absurdity to make some useless point.
Imagine your scenario differently..... imagine the market opening earlier because there are some early-risers who work in the store. Then further imagine the store being open later because there are some late-sleepers who also work there. Then imagine the store catering to an even bigger group of people because of the expanded hours.
That, to me at least, sounds like one of those win-win situations.
5
It's amazing how much research is required to figure out what should be common sense. I have worked as a freelance writer for 5 years and have been more productive and less stressed than at any time in my life. I am homeschooling my daughter this year for 8th grade and we typically start our day bet 9 and 10 am. Her progress, especially in math over the past few months has been astounding. We work best when we are both alert. She is ready to learn and I am ready to teach.
One of the problems she has had in traditional school, specifically in challenging subjects like math, is the pace of lessons. Teachers are under pressure to get through the curriculum. Students are under pressure to all learn at the same pace. And for the most part neither are performing at their peak.
In education and business, the focus should always be quality over quantity. But so much time and energy is wasted on punch clocks and filling quotas, real productivity is always sacrificed to conformity.
5
Just as I posted over a year ago on LinkedIn... I hope this awareness continues to grow - it makes a world of difference.
4
It's officially recognized: "Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder". Wikipedia has a good description.
12
@Mark Grebner - The fact that it's called a disorder tells us how far we are from a solution. Being on the slope of a bell curve isn't a disorder when a bell curve is completely normal.
11
"By simply aligning work schedules with people’s internal clocks, the researchers had helped people get more and better rest.'
And what happened to the productivity? Poor reporting, No mention of the results of the experiment other than saying people slept longer.
2
This is great. I am glad to see this article was written. Myself and several colleagues appreciate this research and point of view. Daniel Pink's book, 'When', helps explain the science behind understanding your chronotype and how to structure your life around it.
Cool energy hack, take a nap no longer than 30 minutes, but before doing so, drink coffee. The caffeine takes about 20 minutes to kick in so, by the time you wake you will feel energized. If you nap beyond 30 mins, a chemical kicks in that makes you feel groggy, so naps 30+ minutes become counterproductive.
11
Oh, to have had this -- without guilt -- during my working career!
I worked two shifts at the office ... the 'regular' one, filled to the brim and I went with it full-tilt, like a whirling dervish once the cobwebs shaken out, but oh, those painful & stressful mornings.
And then the joy and relief of staying on after everyone left, and I really got things done!
Problem was, it was, very typically, a 14+ hour day, plus commute. Very little sleep, lousy nutrition (erratic eating times not in tune with body; hence a decade plus of Diet Coke and microwave popcorn) and ultimately, a fairly early 'burn-out.' Oh, and fibromyalgia as a bonus.
Good to know some are finally seeing the folly of this, and synching up workers and their circadian rhythms to the benefit of all.
15
It’s probably worth keeping in mind some healthy skepticism because this is clearly the “next big thing” for HR organizations. This has the same hallmarks as IBMs big experiment to let its entire workforce work from home. Those HR leaders who do not quickly adopt chronobiology for their organizations will be branded callous; those that do adopt it won’t understand the ramifications — including if no one is coming to work at the same time, how will critical teams function together. On the other hand, we can and probably should approach this from an individual responsibility perspective. I am reading every sleep book I can get my hands on. Notwithstanding what is said in the article, the sciences writing these books suggest the human body seems able to adopt to any routine - we just need to go to bed at the same time and wake up at the same time every day (weekends included), pull the shades, limit heavy meals at night, limit caffeine and alcohol, limit blue screen time after 7PM - and watch the productivity and health benefits go way up. I tried it and its working for me.
3
@James B - I'm a lifelong owl and it does not work for me. If it were as simple as you -- probably a lark or middle-grounder -- say, there would be no discussion. Some people become energized when others are ready to sleep. It's an observable fact. Out of cultural habit, our agricultural background is still determining how a corporate and technological society is supposed to live and work. Some early risers see it as a moral issue. And it was a morally humane issue when your cows had to be milked early or suffer from your neglect. That's not the world most of us live in today.
14
The Challenger disaster was caused by equipment failure, after NASA management misinterpreted or ignored data on O-ring failures at low temperatures. Worker fatigue has never been implicated — or even mentioned, in my recollection. Whats your source?
19
My problem is that I have always found organized corporate work to be mind numbing boredom personified. I can't wait until the robots take over!
7
Great article however our quack doctors still don't think sleep in an issue I've had arguments with them for two decades and they just nod their thick heads and laugh because they all know better than we do. So why then are they part of the number 3 killer in America which is our current health care system which get worse and worse every single minute it's unbelievable.
3
@joe Hall
Easy, Joe. Overgeneralize a little?
1
Or... this is just another way for your employer to control your life away from the office. I would be very wary of disclosing my “chronotype” and allowing my employer to measure and punish me for missing my “bedtime”. Come on.
1
I am 70 years old and I wish I had this article to show people 50 years ago when I them I am a 4PM to 4AM person.
10
@Montreal Moe
I’m a 74 yr old retired RN. I worked straight nights for the last 8 years before my retirement. I slept great during the day so I was very wakeful at night. Now I still don’t get sleepy until 3 or 4 in the morning and sleep until 1 or 2pm. Everyone in my limited sphere chastises me for my sleep habits. I need to show them this article!
16
Whatever became of the idea of Flextime?
This was spawned way back in the 80's.
It seems as if US companies do their best to make sure their workers are as miserable as possible.
20
@JM
actually, flextime was discussed - seriously - long before the 80s.
1
night owl to the extent that my middle name became 'late'.
11
I can’t really function before noon. All my working life I’ve been pretending to. It’s mentally exhausting. It’s unfair. In my last position we’ve had the Monday morning 9am call with the whole 30 people team listening in where I had to perform like all the “morning” people. I wish the professional world understood not all people are made equal.
26
Please inform retail companies and other hourly employers, about this! Company profits are more important then employees!!!
4
For many tech companies, the use of flex time is standard to attract employees and keep them. I've been fortunate enough to work for tech companies with fairly flexible work schedules.
A second component of this is the ability to work from home. There are some days and some jobs quite frankly where the only thing that matters is having your work done by a designated deadline. It really doesn't matter where you do the work. It seems that more companies are comfortable with this type of arrangement.
It seems in the current job market the ability to offer employees the ability to offer the employees the ability to determine not only when but where they can work are keys to differentiate the most desirable companies to work for.
6
Maximizing work schedule so that work can use every drop of productivity presumes that the employees have no life outside of work which may require their peak wakefulness. Sometimes I like to work early so that I start to enjoy an evening before it is so late. If it requires an extra cup of coffee to get there early, so be it.
16
Excellent point. For me, my most productive time is between 6:00 and 10:00 a.m. I won't even consider taking a job anymore that requires me to be at work before 11:00 a.m. The most productive time of my day is MINE. There's not enough money in the world to buy my most creative, energetic hours off of me.
13
@Ben P
Daniel Pink's book "When" helps explain what is a individual gains from organizing their work based on their chronotypes. You won't be sacrificing any energy in your social life by making this adjustment.
Check out the book, I highly recommend it.
4
My natural wake up time varies a bit depending on the season, but usually falls between 4:30 and 5:30 a.m. I haven't needed an alarm to wake me up in a decade, since I cut sugar out of my diet. Really does make all the difference; I would love to see a study account for that in looking at supposed "chronotypes." The only people I know that are late risers are sugar addicts.
2
@Kristin Come to Alaska in December. Even with zero added sugar in their diet, no one gets up at 4:30 AM, six or seven whole hours before sunrise in many parts of the state. I'm glad cutting sugar worked for you, but it is beyond ridiculously simplistic to think it also applies to every other human on the planet.
14
@Kristin: It's entirely possible that, for the late risers you know to fit into a world made for early birds, they use sugar to help them stay awake! Note the correlation between people working hours that are inappropriate for their type and obesity.
9
@Kristin, I'm a night owl and I don't eat sugar.
7
Is it a New York thing? I know a lot of people who work at home or on flex time at the company office. But I have rarely come across someone who works 9-5. In the parts of the country where I've lived, it's 8-5, with an hour for lunch.
9
@Anonymous 2: In New York City and the immediate areas, many people have set work hours on paper but work far more time than their scheduled hours.
11
You may be surprised to learn that one employer on to this is the federal government. When I worked at a federal agency in the 1990s, we could come to work between 7 am and 9:30 am and leave 8 hours later - or we could have longer shifts and work fewer days per week.
13
I'm a lark - have always been even during those teen years when it is said that 'everyone' shifts later. I never did. There were times when this worked great as I was partnering in chairing a committee with someone who was a night owl. He'd do a bunch of work we had and email things to me late in the evening; I'd work it over early in the AM and send it back to him. It worked great.
That said, there are, of course, many jobs which require certain hours to fit times of business, e.g., a receptionist who is needed 9-5.
4
@Anne-Marie Hislop: But presumably those "times of business" would change somewhat if business paid more attention to their employees' chronotypes.
4
yes! I am so tired of the tyranny early riser crowd who rile me because I wake up late! (Why should my behavior, which has no impact on their life, bother them ?)
In college I realized there was no point taking classes before 10 am because I would invariably fall asleep in class
My first work environment was thankfully very accomodating, because managers understood that most software engineers worked best late into the night (and could also avoid marketing trying to get them to agree to some impossible feature and deadline :)
In addition, the ability to telecommute also helps me work at my best.
Both allow me to avoid rush hour commutes, which not only waste time, but leave me drained, whether arriving to work or returning home
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@lm
So true, you nail it, especially the rush hour drive.
I consider anything earlier than 10 am a personally dangerous time for me. And anyone around me. Physically slow, mentally fogged.
Grateful for older age/retirement, now and can 'just be.'
17
@lm: Unfortunately, the "early riser crowd" seems to rule the world!
7
You don’t mention traffic or parking. Where I work, which is very flexible, night owls have to arrive at work at 7 or 7:30 to beat the traffic or find a parking spot.
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I used to work in radio news & as a confirmed owl begged off most "morning drive" shifts where you had to be in before 5a and on the air starting at 6. Those few times I was asked to fill in for a vacationing or ill morning person I came in on a few hours sleep & pushed my brain through it.
One fellow newscaster showed me little sympathy - a lark he - saying he LOVED morning drive because you leave work by noon and "have your whole day ahead of you."
What I had ahead of me was passing out for a very long nap back home and waking up for dinner.
18
Of all the fundamentals of office life, one I learned early. The person who calls for a meeting at 7:00 am is a complete tool.
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@Alice S
Same goes for the moron that calls a meeting at 3 pm.
4
@Michael Fisher Can't agree. I worked for the newspaper business, where the salesgirls and managers were in the office 8-4 or whatever, and the people who actually put out the paper came in at 3 and left in the wee hours. But the suits were always setting meetings at 8 or 9 and expecting those of us on the night shift to attend. Complete lack of consideration for the fact that we had been handed, basically, a 14-hour day. Had they set the meetings for 3, everyone would be in the office. But no - that morning person moral superiority thing came into play. "Just get up earlier!"
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@Alice S Not on the west coast.
Three thoughts: For those of us whose daily rhythms are controlled by natural daylight rather than artificial light, it is a no brainer. Work starts after sunrise and continues to sunset because that is when you can see to work. All sorts of outdoor workers follow this schedule, longer in the summer, shorter in the winter. After all, what did humans do before artificial light? Second, it works for some occupations but not all. Factory shift work for example although it would be helpful to pick your shift. I recall being part of a sleep study in the military where we worked rotating shifts, a week of days, a week of 4-midnight and a week of midnight to 8. Doing that for 6 months or a year, your circadium rhythm and chronotype disappears. If you turn out all the lights, turn off the screen and go to bed at 10 pm for a month, you can retrain your system and do a day shift without feeling sleepy when you get to work. That is how our kids learned for school. No sleepy kids from our house.
4
Perhaps companies should start to hire more employees so that there is less overtime and more coverage when needed. The whole on-demand ideal that businesses follow with respect to inventory has gotten out of hand when it's applied to people. By that I mean that employers seem to expect people to be able to do more than humanly possible. It would save on burnout if employers hired the way they ought to: enough people so that, unless a real emergency occurs, overtime isn't necessary.
25
On days where I don’t have early morning meetings, I just come into work at 11am and leave at 7-8pm. Much easier on me, and I’m grateful that my job lets me do this at all.
33
I think more flexible work schedules would also be so helpful to those caring for children or the elderly, i.e. women, even though it men would be first to benefit. I also think there should be a limit on the number of hours workers, employees or management, are expected to be "present" in person or online. Anymore and it's overtime at time and a half. The same flexibility should also occur in school schedules, especially of middle and high schoolers. In many districts, buses schedules run the lives of children and adults, leading to lower productivity and learning than could be achieved. In some urban school districts, like Boston, some high schoolers rarely sleep and start racking up the tardies and absences because they have to be on the bus at 4:30 a.m.(!) for a 7:00 a.m. start time. Their body clocks typically fall into REM sleep at about 3:00 a.m. so they clock a help hour and a half of sleep or typically drool on their desk until lunch. Their teachers barely notice because they're half asleep too!
20
Wondering why we seem to love scientific studies more when they support our ingrained beliefs, and reject them when they don't align or seem problematic. I totally support the idea of incorporating flexible working times for adults; however, a much more critical issue is being overlooked here, one that is not economic, that cannot be measured in GDP - our children's health and safety.
Here in California Governor Brown vetoed a bill that would have pushed back school starting times in California, in keeping with AMA and CDC recommendations. Why is science not enough here ? Political pressure wins out over science and the health and safety of children.
The writers acknowledge, "Chronotypes shift in a predictable way over the course of a lifetime. Between the ages of 12 and 21, everyone’s natural sleep schedule gets about 2 1/2 hours later — which is why adolescents have so much trouble waking up for school."
The CDC indicates, "Not getting enough sleep is common among high school students and is associated with several health risks including being overweight, drinking alcohol, smoking tobacco, and using drugs, as well as poor academic performance. One of the reasons adolescents do not get enough sleep is early school start times."
Please keep the debate and supporting science for later school starting times at the forefront.
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@C. Williams While I don't disagree about the importance of acknowledging the importance of aligning school start times with teenager's chronotypes, I think a lot of the push back against it is due to the fact that most parents are locked into the 9-5 schedule. Parents have to get up and out early, so the rest of the family does, too. One issue isn't more important than the other. People of every age function better and are healthier if they get enough sleep.
1
That is all well and good, and as someone who is not naturally an early riser, I would love to be able to have a more flexible work schedule, but good luck implementing this in a work culture that equates "sleeping late" with "lazy". Sadly, it is going to take more studies than this to overcome generations of disdain for night owls/later risers.
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@MBB
Right! I cant take a nap because I deem it the habit of the slothful, the apathetic and downright lazy. I have to be sick, or beat-down and dragged-out to even consider a nap.
9
Where was this article when I was young? It had to wait till the end of my career. Ah, the fairness of the world!
23
So what about this twice yearly shift in the U.S: sun time to daylight savings time in the spring and daylight savings time to sun time in the fall.
I'm sure most of us have trouble adjusting to at least one or the other of these.
Surely we could figure out a consistent schedule. Especially now that even dairy barns have electric light.
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@memosyne
Geez Louise, it’s only an hour and while some are disadvantaged, others are benefited.
1
@MainLaw, who on earth benefits from daylight savings? And it may be only an hour, but it's arbitrary and confusing to the body. Circadian rhythms have a larger impact than you seem to realize.
3
@MainLaw It's only an hour to you. To those of us who - thanks to corporate mindsets that insist only early birds count - get maybe 4 hours of sleep a night, it's taking away a quarter of our sleep time.
1
This article is quite motivating. There is flexibily already in place at my work, where we are suggested to be present onsite during peak meeting hours from 10 am to 2 pm and form our own schedules outside that slot. I can now take advantage of this flexibility to suit my circadian rhythm.
28
The places where I could « take a break » around noon / 1pm were the best places to work.
It’s not even fully sleep. It is just a chance to stop pumping large quantities of blood to the head.
Even ten or fifteen minutes « half asleep » can be useful.
13
I too am one of the rare early birds- my waking time is 5-6 AM and I'm at my peak before about 2 PM. After that, forget it. I once quite a very lucrative job that demanded I work until 9 PM, when I was essentially a zombie, working on automatic pilot. Not the best way to function at work. I wish more companies could accommodate extreme time schedules.
37
I'm one of those intermediate people. I despise early mornings and I cannot stay awake late at night. When I was a bedside nurse, I was never so happy as when I was working 3 PM to 11 PM. I got up when my body told me to (around 8 AM), accomplished stuff at home, went to work, came home around midnight and immediately went to bed and slept. I tried working overnights for a while and I literally thought I would lose my mind. These days, I have a pretty flexible work schedule and nearly always arrange it so my work is mainly in the afternoon and evening.
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@JenD: I too found the 3-11 shift the best for my body & mind (except for never seeing family & friends ). I was a zombie working the 11-7 shift & was always nauseated. When forced to take call hours in the middle of the night, when I should have been asleep was not safe for my patients nor I trying to drive both to & from the emergency.
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@JenD
For several years my now elderly uncle worked shifts: 3 months days then 3 months swing and then, worst of all, 3 months graveyard. The money was good, but you could see him age - he quit. He said he could handle days and swing, but graveyard was horrible, he felt like a zombie - and he was an electrician where any mistake could electrocute you.
13
Of course most of the research is being done in western and northern Europe where they actually care about workers' health and well being. Good luck implementing these types of changes in most US companies with their relentless focus on the bottom line and meeting quarterly revenue targets. Even at companies, like mine, where many employees work remotely, they are still supposed to be accessible from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm, and many people stay online much later than that.
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@Rob
Agreed. As I was reading this article I was thinking, U.S. corps. will practice these type of humane practices long after I am gone from this earth.
13
@Rob How is that going in France these days?
3
With untreated GERD endemic in the U.S. and CPAPs advertised on television, I think adjustment shifts for us will barely make a dent in our collective sleep deprivation.
3
I knew that if I ever worked the night shift, I would probably hurt somebody accidentally because I cannot function after 8pm. My brain just throttles back the functioning much as our data plans do when we exceed a cap. On the other hand, I have always been able to pop out of bed before 5 am with neurons firing full blast-instantly on. I remember struggling to stay in my room as a kid because I was ready to roll so early, and in college, needed extensive napping if I were to attend a later night function. No all nighters for me! Working the day shift, even starting my day at 4am, was a godsend to me, and my patients.
37
I have to wonder how many managers and others in charge of setting schedules will read these results and discard them -- not because they don't believe them (many won't, but not all), but because they perceive their roles in the company, and in the entire American economy, as getting lazy and unproductive people to work when they're told to, as generations have already done. For them, the issue is not productivity and efficiency, but power and contempt. Without a firm hand on their necks, they believe, Americans will just loll in their trailers and whine about their Welfare checks being late.
We need an effort to change this ingrained behavior before American managers will accept it. Otherwise, sleepy and unmotivated people are all they expect and will punish to motivate. It's all they know how to do. After all, no one works to be happy.... right? Especially them.
84
@Pete Rogan I’ll bet many of these managers are “larks”.
16
So the majority of people (56%) are night owls! Like me! Who knew!
Strange that the article cites this finding and then later repeats the myth (which has been intimidating us forever) that we are a small minority.
54
In the article, you write "Worker fatigue has played a role in many workplace accidents, most famously the Challenger space shuttle explosion ...:" What on earth? I've never seen this alleged, and Wikipedia says it was a failure of the O-rings that had never been tested in the low temperatures of the launch that were faulted, according to the commission (including Richard Feynman) that investigated the disaster!
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@Bonnie
You’re right - I worked on the recovery of the Challenger and read everything I can get my hands on about the accident. I’ve never heard of the theory that sleep-deprived workers contributed to it. Would love to know the source for this statement.
51
Yes this caught my eye as well. I’ve read Feynman’s account of the investigation and ultimately it was the O rings that became brittle at low temperatures, but also pressure to launch was a factor. However I don’t remember anything from the account that indicated sleep deprivation was involved.
10
@Bonnie
The O ring failure is accurate.
However how did these poorly made O rings occur?
Who decided not to test them & why?
8
I could not agree with this article more. I wish more businesses would embrace this kind of thinking. I think they would see a much happier and productive workforce.
48
It would be even better to limit the workday to six hours with a half-hour break so people can work at their peak capacity the whole time, and have time to have a life apart from work. Unless it is your avocation, a job should not have to take up the majority of your waking hours. This would enable people to have second jobs, pursue creative activities, take classes, be healthy and happy no matter what job they may be saddled with.
152
Interesting, given that the 40 hour work week was first introduced as a means of driving down unemployment, if I recall correctly.
Following that concept, your suggestion could result in reducing poverty levels further, I’m thinking...
7
@Grittenhouse
Half hour break isn't long enough, even if you bring your lunch to work.
An hour means you have time for a real break, such as going for a walk
19
@Grittenhouse Read The Six hour Day about this very idea implemented by the Kellogg company during the depression. Mr. Kellogg was motivated at least in part by a desire to enable more people to keep working. Workers loved it - they were paid the same, they had more time for enjoyment, and their productivity rose. Sadly the system ended when the war started - also there were some puritanical people who felt it was bad for workers to have that much free time - what sort of mischief could they get into?
15
I'm a night owl and I nearly always have trouble falling asleep when I'd rather be cleaning the house or doing laundry.
21
I am, and have always been, an early riser - I naturally wake up around 3 am. I have been fortunate enough to work in places that allow me to come in early, and leave early. However, I don't work with the public, but in a back office on a computer which really doesn't care when I am there.
18