Night Owl (person) - Origins and Characteristics

Origins and Characteristics

The term is derived from the primarily nocturnal habits of the owl. Usually, people who are night owls stay awake past midnight and extreme night owls may stay awake until just before or after dawn. Night owls tend to feel most energetic just before they go to sleep at night. Some night owls have a preference or habit for staying up late, or stay up to work the night shift. Night owls who work the day shift often have a problem with being on time for work.

Researchers have found that "differences in a fundamental property of the circadian timing system, its intrinsic period, will determine whether someone is an early bird, who awakens before dawn, or a night owl, who tends to stay up late at night but sleeps in late." Some night owls who have great difficulty adopting normal sleeping and waking times may have delayed sleep phase disorder. It has been suggested that "circadian rhythm can change over the course of a lifetime so that a onetime early riser becomes a night owl later on (or vice versa)." Light therapy may be helpful "if you are the night owl type... shift your sleep rhythm so that you can fall asleep sooner in the evening and wake up earlier in the morning."

Often in a work context, "night people are viewed as lazy, undisciplined, unpunctual or as having an attitude problem...Night people have been speaking out against this bias, though, until recently, mainly in a humorous vein." However, in January 2007, night owls in Denmark began a serious push for change. They formed the "B-Society", arguing that the early bird model was inappropriate for a post-agricultural world and lobbying for "a more flexible workplace".

Others would celebrate the status of night-owl. "As one of the night people, I realized I was among the select....We have the world to ourselves." "Blessed are the owls, for they shall inherit the mystery and magic of the night."