Late?

June 3rd, 2023| Topic: RaMbLeS | 2

Last week I touted (well, I quoted touts) the values of waking up earlier.

To be an equal opportunity touter, this week it is the other side: the values of waking up earlier (and staying up late).

Culture favors the larks, not the owls. Discrimination, saith I. Even proverbs are prejudiced; after all, it is the early bird that catches the worm. (Though I’ve often wondered why no one seems to be concerned about the fate of the early worm!)

Said one commentator in TIME Magazine:

Research says that early birds are happier, more punctual, do better in school, and share more conservative morals. Night owls are more impulsive, angry, and likely to become cyberbullies; they have shoddier diets and, most critically, are worse at kicking soccer balls.”

Is this true?

A major problem is the binary classification that is just not sustainable.

Brian Gunia, a sleep researcher, professor, and associate dean at Johns Hopkins’ Carey Business School:

I think most people would recognize that, in reality, chronotype is more of a continuous type of variable. It exists on a spectrum: not everyone is always one or the other. But so much research uses this binary classification because people are usually able to self-identify that way.”

The bias that people who rise early are morally superior to evening people is at the very heart of the principles of industry and hard work.

Declan Gilmer, a PhD student at the University of Connecticut, said:

If someone gets up at 6 a.m., and they show up at work early, they’re viewed potentially as more committed.”

Gilmer found that research subjects acting as managers rarely treated chronotype-related scheduling requests—like asking to start and end the workday later when such a schedule didn’t interfere with meetings—as legitimate. And when night-owl employees made such requests, they viewed them much more negatively, even when they were just as productive as the early birds.

Remarked another expert:

Some of the better work in the area has been trying to identify the genes that are most tightly linked to morningness and eveningness—genes that, if understood, could open the door to a more nuanced view of the topic.”

Humans don’t always fit neatly into one of two categories, even when it comes to their sleep preferences. Bottom line: You don’t have to be a morning lark or a night owl. You can be any kind of bird you like—there are plenty of worms to go around.

And Scripture agrees.

God blesses owls:

Blessing [upon] the person …
[for whom] the law of Yahweh [is] his delight,
and in His law he meditates day and night.
Psalm 1:1–2

God’s presence is acknowledged by owls:

I will bless Yahweh who has counseled me;
yes, by night my innards correct me.
I have set Yahweh before me continually;
because [He is] at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
Psalm 16:7–8

God is praised by owls:

When I remember You on my bed,
in the night watches I meditate on You.
… and in the shadow of Your wings I shout with joy.
Psalm 63:6–7

God is remembered and obeyed by owls:

I have remembered Your name in the night, Yahweh,
and I keep Your law.
This has become [a practice] for me,
that Your precepts I have observed.
Psalm 119:55–56

God is served by owls:

Behold, bless Yahweh, all servants of Yahweh,
those standing in the house of Yahweh in the nights.
Psalm 134:1

After all, both owls and larks are his:

To You is the day; to You also is the night.
Psalm 74:16

SOURCES: TIME Magazine