OTTAWA — Highly intelligent people are often portrayed as night owls. The dedicated novelist writing all night until daybreak, for example. While prior studies actually support this notion, finding that night owls typically display more robust verbal intelligence, new research from the University of Ottawa suggests otherwise.
Turns out the early bird really does get the (verbal) worm.
“Once you account for key factors including bedtime and age, we found the opposite to be true, that morning types tend to have superior verbal ability,” says Stuart Fogel, Director of the University of Ottawa Sleep Research Laboratory, in a university release. “This outcome was surprising to us and signals this is much more complicated that anyone thought before.”
This latest research out of Canada provides some much needed insight into how the impact of a person’s daily rhythm and activity levels during both wake and sleep relates to intelligence.
The research team identified participants’ chronotypes (evening or morning tendencies) by monitoring their biological rhythms and daily preferences. An individual’s chronotype is related to when in the day they prefer to pursue or accomplish demanding or important tasks, from intellectual pursuits to exercise.
Typically, younger people tend to be “evening types,” while older individuals and those more regularly entrenched in their daily/nightly activities are more often “morning types.” Ironically, the morning is usually a critical time for young people, especially those still attending school.
“A lot of school start times are not determined by our chronotypes but by parents and work-schedules, so school-aged kids pay the price of that because they are evening types forced to work on a morning type schedule,” Fogel explains. “For example, math and science classes are normally scheduled early in the day because whatever morning tendencies they have will serve them well. But the AM is not when they are at their best due to their evening type tendencies. Ultimately, they are disadvantaged because the type of schedule imposed on them is basically fighting against their biological clock every day.”
This study used volunteers representing a wide variety of age groups. All subjects were rigorously screened to rule out sleep disorders and any other possible confounding factors. Subjects wore a monitoring device to measure their activity levels.
Fogel explains that establishing the strength of a person’s rhythm, which drives intelligence, is key to understanding this study. Study authors point to a person’s age and actual bedtime as important factors. “Our brain really craves regularity and for us to be optimal in our own rhythms is to stick to that schedule and not be constantly trying to catch up,” he concludes.
The study is published in Current Research in Behavioral Sciences.
What in the world. Verbal ability is just a part of overall intelligence. The author was using a big word they did not know the meaning of -debunked. This research doesn’t debunk anything.
I’m with Errk. Hogwash!
I am assuming they mean people who voluntarily awake early. I awake at 5:20 am 5 days a week but not by choice because of my job and I am as dumb as dirt until about noon and even then Im still struggling.
Peace
Pal, to draw this kind of conclusion, you must be one heck of a night owl.
Nine types of intelligence:
Logical-mathematical intelligence. …
Linguistic intelligence. …
Spatial Intelligence. …
Musical Intelligence. …
Bodily-kinesthetic Intelligence. …
Intrapersonal Intelligence. …
Interpersonal Intelligence. …
Naturalistic intelligence
and
Critical Thinking skill intelligence, i.e. the kind used to interpret study data and draw a plausible logical conclusion.
I’m going to guess I might know which one the author lacks much ability in…..
Mensa night owl, that was pretty cool. I dig it.
I was reading this study and then my neighbor came and we read it together. He said that this study changed his life and touched his heart. I then went and rented a projector in a big field and my entire town read it and it changed their lives too. We all are so grateful.
Thank You for this study….
Lol
People believe what they want to believe. Im betting those who agree are early risers and those who disagree are late risers.
To the sameself tune and wordsn
Did these researchers oversleep?
This is a load of bs considering some of the greatest minds in history were night owls. How does this bozo explain that.
Would hate to be a morning person, knowing when you wake up that’s the best you would feel all day!
Most ppls schedules aren’t voluntary from 18-65!
There were 61 subjects in this study. Anyone who has taken college freshman level basic statistics knows this study was not valid. Beware what you read on the Internet.
How exceptionally poor.
This study debunks another study, and soon another study will debunk this one.
Sorry, I lied, I firmly believe that the earth is round…or round. But let me tell you, when I was in high school, I had no idea what it was. I found the horizon fascinating and everything I experienced confirmed the spherical nature of the earth.