What causes some people to be "night owls"?

I have absolutely no idea, curious too, as I am also a ’‘night owl’’. But I wanted to answer this and be completely off topic because…why the hell is it called being a night owl?

Should we not assume that all owls are active during the night? Is it really necessary for the ’‘night’’ part to be there? It’s kind of like saying a young kitten, or wet water.

Now I certainly realize that some owls are diurnal, and some are actually active more at dusk and dawn than actual night but this ’‘night owl’’ thing has always seemed weird to me.

relevant study

Whoo-Whoo knows?

In my case, it is laziness. Too lazy to get up in the morning. Since I slept late, I dawdle at night and put off going to bed. Hubby likes to wander around the house after everyone else has gone to bed. He likes having it all to himself.

From your link @hominid” “Rosenberg suggests that people’s work schedules should change to fit in with their natural sleep patterns, ” LOL! “From now on I’m not coming in until noon, boss!” That should go over well. :D

Interesting study. Thanks.

For me I had the run of the house and I watched TV late at night and I loved the Jonny Carson show. Then the Jay Leno Tonight Show.

My mother would sit up late at night and fall asleep at the kitchen table. I now attribute it to the window of peace and quiet with 4 kids put to bed. Now I find myself staying up til 3–4 in the morning to the considerable annoyance of my wife.

Human beings get most of their sensory info from their vision. Thus humans are daylight critters.

It is normal for humans to be active in the daylight, and retire in the darkness.

It is my opinion that people who are active in the darkness are, or believe they are, engaging in behaviors that would not stand up to scrutiny and judgment in the light of day.

That was really the crux of my question, @josie. It’s really not normal behavior for primates, is it.

@Dutchess_III
The term normal is up for grabs since these days every body says “What is normal?” and nobody can actually answer, other than to use it as a statistical term.

But daylight activity is what humans were designed for. The fact that technology can illuminate the darkness does not change the basic foundations of human facility.

So being a “night owl” is sort of being rebellious against human nature. Which is OK, as long as everybody understands that. But some people think that human nature is arbitrary, which is not OK.

I like to be up late, but not all night. The link @hominid provided reinforces to me that night people are tortured by the expectations of the rest of the population regarding work hours.

A long time ago I saw some study where test subjects stayed in a place where they could not see if it was night or day and had no access to clocks. Basically, no cues for what timeof day it was the night people consistently stayed night people. Their bodies just knew. I don’t know how good that study really was, but the sleep researchers felt strongly some people naturally are morning people and some naturally are night.

I wonder what blind people think….

I’ve been a “night owl” since just before high school. I’ve held down jobs where I had an early in-time and learned to wake up for whatever events need to happen, but I’ve never been able to fall asleep consistently for more than about a week. I used to just lay there for hours and be tired the next day.

I kept sleep journals for a while, and it seems that without a schedule, it isn’t that I’m actually a night owl, I just generally fall asleep at a gradually later time. So tonight it’s 10, tomorrow 10:45, the next day it’s 11:15. That sort of thing until you get tired enough that you can reset. If you don’t reset, it just keeps getting later/earlier.

The closest explanation I’ve been given is something like Non-24-hour sleep–wake disorder. Your body just doesn’t cycle in 24-hour periods for whatever reason.

I’ve exercised regularly, and it helps some. I’ve had jobs where I work outside, and that didn’t seem to help at all. I’m honestly not undisciplined in other areas, so I don’t think it’s just that.

The best “cure” I’ve found is a polyphasic sleep schedule, most are impractical for anyone who has to interact with the world. But up at 8 or 9, two hour nap around 5, and then up until 3 or 4 is a great way to get a lot done, still have “office hours” and seems to stabilize my schedule when I can maintain it.

I’m not complaining, the world is awesome at night. It’s quiet and empty even in cities. In some ways it’s also a great advantage to be able to stay up long enough to finish just about anything. No one accepts it as an excuse since it’s often seen as a lack of discipline, so I don’t treat it as one. That’s just the way it is for me.

I would wager there’s a lot of people like me.

@Dutchess_III – from the first link above, ”It has been estimated that non-24 occurs in more than half of all people who are totally blind.”

Let’s face it, all the good stuff is after dark. The good TV shows, dance clubs and bars (a bigger deal when we are young obviously) parties, time with friends, dates, dinner, dressing up, looking better. Part of liking the night time is I associate it with fun. I was born wanting to sleep late, way before I was having fun at night I wanted to stay up late, but add in everything else and it all adds up.

Pretty sure I read somewhere that night owls tend to be of higher intelligence. Who knows, these studies from obscure sources. If left to my own devices I would naturally stay up til about midnight and sleep til 8 or 9, but can’t with my schedule.

It can be a variation of reasons, which is why I’m not fond of using biological arguments to determine human behaviors. Sometimes it’s the result of adjusting to working night jobs too.