Proven: night owls are smarter and earn more money

Can't seem to fall asleep in the evening? Are you actually really awake around 7 PM? And can't you get up early in the morning? Good for you.

Because being a night person has clear advantages, research shows.

The day is still long
People were asked whether they were night owls or morning people and what jobs and degrees they had. It turned out that night owls who go to bed late often possess the kind of intelligence that is usually linked to high incomes and important jobs. They are emotionally smarter: more social, therefore. And they earn more money. This is because the jobs they are good at often continue into the evening. They are the types who are still typing strong emails to their boss or a new client at 8 PM. They are the types who persevere with their own businesses because they make use of every hour of the day.

Sleeping in is fine
And anyway, they are just smarter, those night owls. Research from the University of Madrid showed – after examining the sleep patterns of a thousand students – that those who go to bed later and therefore wake up later score higher when it comes to problem-solving and abstract reasoning. This is often associated with ‘general intelligence’. Also, people who like to sleep in fall into this category of smart ones.

From another study it appears that night owls often stay up longer than morning people: logically, they are at their best in the evening and don't want to go to bed early. It's a kind of habit that many intelligent people have: you can't teach yourself this by suddenly going to bed late. But these people are fine with sending some emails or doing some accounting before sleeping; they are still wide awake. This has also been proven in research: a group of night owls and morning people were allowed to sleep for the same amount of time. After that, they worked for ten hours: the morning group made mistakes much faster because they got tired, while the night owls could still keep working for a while, as they only got into their groove after a few hours.

So: if you have a late night again: no worries. You're doing well.

Source: Peninsula Doctor