Waking up early has traditionally been put equal to being good, efficient, even heroic. Early risers have been praised in literature such as The 5am Club. One of the recommendations in that book is to go to bed at 10pm. Great, that’s the time when I am most creative. How about normalizing diversity in people’s biorhythms? For some, waking up at 5am is not even a challenge – they are programmed that way by nature. Then there are night owls like me. If I’d follow my body rhythm I’d probably wake up at noon and go to bed at 4am. I am an involuntary 5am club member though, as in my daily job my day often starts at 5am due to the time difference between California and our headquarters in Stockholm. My colleagues know: at 5am I may look awake but my brain is at 30% capacity. Moreover, when it gets exposed to the 5am torture it never reaches 100% that day. I found a life-hack to go for a nap when I’m done with the bulk of my morning meetings so that I look and feel like a human when I reach the office in the afternoon. My brain gets fooled by that restart and starts being creative again.
In his epic TED Talk “Choice, Happiness and Spaghetti Sauce”, Malcom Gladwell said: “By embracing the diversity of human beings you will find your way to true happiness”. Our society has done a good job embracing gender, cultural, and age diversity, and even the diversity when it comes to our taste preferences (and monetized on that). Biorhythmic diversity has not received much attention though. Working nine to five has been a standard for many office workers in the past. Covid-19 forced many companies into mandatory remote work in the past that has now transformed into hybrid ways of working, where people get to spend part of the working week working remotely, and the rest from the office. Remote work opens opportunities to work across time zones, and time your days to optimize your biorhythmic efficiency.
Our society is made for early risers. Schools start early, and I feel the everyday suffering of my kids who inherited my night owl genes. My daughter’s morning ritual in order to wake up is pouring cold water on her face, among other things like multiple alarm clocks and shaking her heavily. Even that does not always help. At the same time, she rarely falls asleep before 2am.
Let’s give recognition to the night owls, who code, write, create, innovate, design and do their best job at their most efficient hours. Let’s not shame people who turn up at the office by 10am or later – they are probably doing what’s best for the employer they are working for – working when they are most efficient.
Elena Fersman 