Is there any truth to 'Early to bed early to rise makes you healthy wealthy and wise'?

The way I heard it, “Early to rise, early to bed / makes you healthy, wealthy, and dead.”
Seriously, I think it’s more important that you get enough sleep every night, but not the particular hours by the clock. Most people are locked into a daily schedule of waking and sleeping determined by their job. Besides, everybody’s diurnal cycle differs a bit from everyone else’s.

@gasman I agree. It’s way more about the quality and sufficient length of sleep, than what time you get to bed that really matters.
As for the “appropriate” times to be awake and asleep, as someone who is a night owl by nature (to say it lightly), I think that is a load of bull pucky. ;)

Yes…definitely. Early to bed means you are organized and completed all you need to do and still get to bed at a decent hour. Early to rise means you are task oriented and will get up early enough to get a jump on what needs to get done. Do this consistently and you will be rewarded. Being able to do both means you are wise enough to keep your act together to get it all done! ;)

The phrase came about before we had artificial lighting. If you need daylight to go out and tend to your fields and fight battles and whatnot, then yeah, sleeping the daylight away will not get you anywhere in life.

Yes, because with me it’s like this—- “Late to bed, early to rise, leaves me with headaches, irritability and red-eyes.”

Early risers have more work-day, hence the wealth.

@Nullo Perhaps this is why I want to sleep early now that I am struggling financially and I was not when I would stay up late. I hadn’t thought of a longer work day but it makes perfect sense, thanks!

I don’t know about all the financial gains but I know that I feel great when I get up early and am able to do a few extra things before heading off to work. Going to bed early facilitates this.

That said, on weekends I can’t wait to stay up late. I’m a mess.

Meh. I think this is a case of the tyranny of the majority—the majority being early risers, who generally can’t stay up past 9 pm even if they want to. They spring out of bed because their biology forces them to be wide awake and alert first thing in the morning.

Night owls don’t feel that way until 9 pm. Except for the fact that most work is done during the day, giving the appearance of slack, night owls are, in fact, no less productive—just on a different schedule.

So, there’s certainly truth to the phrase, but I think it’s more out of a mob rule than anything intrinsic.

I know a lot of “night owls,” myself included, who revert to late hours when not constrained by early-morning obligations. Is there doubt that night owls have the same potential productivity as natural early birds?