Morning, Midday Or Evening Person?

Each person has their own preferences when it comes to a working schedule. Most work experts like to categorize a person as either a morning or an evening person. But I like to add a third, which is the midday person.

This article will not try to establish which working schedule is the best one. Rather, this article would try discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each. This is because each time block of the day has certain advantages and disadvantages inherent in them.

There is an importance in why a person must know in which time frame they should work on. A person who is obviously suited for a morning work schedule cannot do their best if they work in the night and vice versa.

As the name suggests, these are the kinds of people who prefer working during the morning. In fact there is a great many articles that recommend people should start working as early as possible during the day.

For example, there are motivational experts, CEOs and celebrities who began their day at 4 am. This includes apple CEO Tim Cook and actors Dwayne Johnson and Mark Wahlberg. Even many militaries around the world start their day between 4 and 5 am in the morning.

The Exercise

Morning persons prefer doing their exercises first thing in the morning which is a good thing. By doing your exercises first thing in the morning, you mind can first concentrate on making itself healthy. This is also the time of your peak strength because your body just woke up from a long sleep.

For example the famed Japanese author Haruki Murakami is a morning person. He jogs for more than an hour each day before having his other morning routines. Once he has finished exercising, he then spends his day writing from 6 to 8 hours.

One thing that must be established though is the degree of exercise one needs to make. For example, a bodybuilder can train for several hours a day while an author does not need this much exercise.

There have been people who tried to be morning person with the goal of exercising early in the morning to get their body healthy. However, they soon found out that their body rhythm does not blend well with a morning person personality.

Internal Body Clocks

Simply put, there are people who need more sleep than others and by waking up very early, they disturb their natural body clocks. Have you encountered people who are very lame during the morning but as the day progresses they gradually become very active?

These are the people who have different body clocks than people with a morning person personality. For example, I find it very hard to wake up in the morning. I feel like I have a headache everytime I wake up early.

I gradually found out that I am not a morning person. This is not a blight against my personality. Others might think that people who are not morning persons are lazy but they are wrong. A person’s productivity can be directly related to their internal body clocks.

For example, Lee Child, the author of the bestselling action book series Jack Reacher proudly admits that he is not a morning person but an evening person. He wakes up very late in the morning but stays very late at night when doing his writings.

And the results speak for themselves. Franz Kafka did his best works during the evenings. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec did his best work at night where he painted the nightlife of people. The list of successful evening persons are just to many to elaborate.

The Advantages of a Morning Routine

Perhaps one of best advantages of having a very early morning routine is that it allows you to work in peace. By waking up and doing your work while everyone else is still sound asleep, you ensure that you would have less interruptions in your work.

For example, a person who is located in a noisy area may not be able to concentrate fully because of all the noise during the day, but can concentrate on their work in the wee hours of the morning while everyone else is asleep and not making any noise.

Another advantage of a morning routine is that you get to start earlier than most people would be. For example, if you are a stock market analyst, you could examine the days projected stock movements while your competitors are still soundly sleeping.

While your competitors are just starting to wake up and have their breakfast, you would have already plotted your stock investment strategies of the day. And while your competitors are just analyzing the stock market, you would have already made your stock moves for the day.

Another example also would be the relative peace in your surroundings. For example, if you were to jog in the morning, you would find that there would be less people in your way. You can in short jog more in peace and perhaps admire more your surroundings.

If you are a fisherman who lives near the shore, you can better appreciate the beauty of the sky and sea as you walk along the beach. There are many people who never get to experience these simple pleasures in life because they are not morning persons.

The Disadvantages of a Morning Routine

Perhaps the greatest disadvantage of the morning routine or morning person is the fact that they have to sleep early. It is no big secret that most of the fun activities during the day are held at night.

For example, most nightclubs and other night spots are at their most fun or alive during the later parts of the night. If you are a morning person, chances are you would be sleeping by 9 or 10 pm which is about the time the nightlife of the day starts to liven up.

Another disadvantage of the morning routine is that you could be in danger especially if you have to go out of your house very early in the morning. News about joggers being attacked early in the morning is not uncommon news these days.

Are You A Morning Person?

My mother is a morning person while I am not. It became clear to me that my mother was a morning person when she cannot stand to stay awake very late in the night. There are many instances when a morning person like her would be asleep as early as 8 pm.

While she can sleep as early as 8 pm, she also awakes very early. Sometimes, she would be awake as early as 2 am in the morning. Is she at her best and most active during this early time of the day?

Yes, she is. Most often, all her household routines would have been finished even before it is 8 am in the morning. If you are like her, then you are definitely a morning person. You sleep early and also wake up early.

Can You Become A Morning Person?

I know of a vegetable vendor who has to be awake as early as 2 am in the morning. After his day is finished, he sleeps very early and begins his day again using the same schedule. Is he a morning person?

I don’t know if he is a morning person but he has been doing the same schedule for such a long time that he is used to it. It not clear if his internal body clock has adapted to his schedule, but one thing is for sure, you can survive a very early morning routine.

The only question is this: Is he at his best working during these very early morning hours? Would the productivity of a vegetable vendor be the same as the productivity of for example, a person who uses more of his brain for a living?

This is not to insult the mental capabilities of a vegetable vendor, but compare him to someone who writes books or computer programs for a living. Would these people who write books or novels be as effective if their brains are only at partial creativity?

This kind of person’s activeness and creativity peaks during the night. They usually stay awake past midnight doing their work. At times, they might even forgo sleep just to finish their work. In spite of their impressive work output, they have a negative image to the public at large.

The media likes to portray these kinds of people as some sort of people addicted to adrenaline enhancing products such as cigarettes, coffee and energy drinks which they use to stay awake at night.

There are even darker media portrayals of these persons as actual addicts who use illegal drugs and other illegal substances just to remain active at night. These people even have the reputation of shunning daylight which is a bit extreme.

The Internal Body Clock Is Once Again To Blame

Just as there are species of animals which are nocturnal in nature like bats, owls and other insects and animals; there are people who because of their internal body clock are at their best during the night.

As already discussed, successful author Lee Child as well as similar night persons like him thrive in the night. While the internal clock of these people are humming with activeness during the night, the internal body clock of morning persons are already priming them to rest and sleep.

The Advantages Of A Night Person

The advantages of a night person is that while others are preparing to sleep or are asleep, the night person can work in relative peace because most people who are likely to disturb them are already asleep.

The night person like the morning person can also enjoy the tranquility of night around them and appreciate this simple pleasure. Since most noisy activities are banned during the night, the night person can work in relative peace.

The Disadvantages Of A Night Person

The disadvantages of a night person is that the night has real effects on the night person. While the night person may enjoy working at night because of the relative peace or other reason it gives them, they do not escape the effect of night.

This is why it is true that many night persons or night owls as they are sometimes called, use products that increase their alertness in order to work very late in the night or sometimes throughout the night.

The Night Party Mode

Perhaps it is the mood that night routines bring that brings out the best in a person. For example, a person who is writing a novel very late in the night is in some sense partying. They may be alone writing a novel, but by writing a novel they feel that they are talking to someone.

Just like a person partying at night, they might have some wine or beer as they write. They might also smoke as well. So in a way, night persons who do creative work at night are partying in their own way.

This is the person which takes up the slot vacated by both the morning and the night person. While the morning person sleeps and wakes up very early, and while the night person stays awake and wakes up all night, the midday person is most active during the hours before and after lunch.

In fact most people fall in this category. This is because the internal clock of humans have adapted to the normal cycles of work as dictated by society. Most humans normally work now between 8 am to 6 pm.

This is no coincidence as society follows the sun when scheduling its activities. That is why, no matter how hard society tries, it can never change most people to become morning or evening persons.

The Advantages of A Midday Person

Because the midday person is working on hours where most other persons are also awake and morning, they stand to reach and work with the most number of persons. This is good if your job is concentrated on human interactions such as sales, services and teaching.

Another advantage of the midday person is that they are likely the most comfortable in terms of sleeping schedule. They sleep when most people are sleeping and awake when most people are also awake. In terms of health, they might have the best one.

The Disadvantages of A Midday Person

One of the obvious disadvantages of a midday person is that you are the person most likely to be disturbed by other people as compared to morning or night persons. This is due to the part that this is the part of the day when most activities occur like social and household activities.

Another obvious disadvantage of a midday routine is that unlike the morning person where you gain extra hours before the day, and unlike the evening person where you gain extra hours after the official day is finished; you are limited to the allotted schedule of the day only.

This means that you cannot wake up too early because you would lack sleep and you cannot also stay awake most of the night because you would also lack sleep. This means the hours you remain active is most limited in scope.

There are plenty of articles that suggest that people should wake up as early as they can so that they can do more things even before the day begins. But this does not apply to everyone as each person has their own internal body clock that dictates when they are at their most alert and productive.

There is no one advantageous personality, each personality or schedule has their own advantages and disadvantages. Rather the most important thing is that people work as near to their internal body clock as possible to fully take advantage when their brains and body are at their best.

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