My fellow night owls, grab a strong cup of coffee and gather around: I have great news. For a long time, our kind has been unfairly maligned. Stereotyped as lazy and undisciplined. Told we ought to be morning larks. Advised to go to bed early so we can wake before 5am and run a marathon before breakfast like all high-flyers seem to do. Now, however, we are having the last laugh. Science has officially crowned us superior to our early-rising brethren.
OK, it may be a tad more complicated than that. A study published last week, which you may have already seen while scrolling at 1am, suggests that staying up late could be good for brain power. Is this study a thinly veiled PR exercise conducted by a caffeine-pill company? Nope, it’s legit. Research led by academics at Imperial College London studied data on more than 26,000 people and found that “self-declared ‘night owls’ generally tend to have higher cognitive scores”. And we are talking quite a lot higher. “Evening types … scored about 13.5% higher than morning types in one group and 7.5% higher than morning types in another group”, according to a write-up of the study.
Experts have urged caution in interpreting the findings, saying, for instance, that there are “important limitations”. Still, I think we can ignore these limitations for now and focus on the thrilling fact that night owls have finally been vindicated.
Unfortunately, this vindication comes at the wrong moment in my life. Having a small child means I have been forced into the routine, if not the mindset, of a morning lark. It turns out that toddlers don’t come with a “snooze” button. Nor do they respond particularly well when you try to explain to them that some people are born with a genetic disposition – a chronotype – that means they function better at certain times of the day, and my chronotype makes me useless before 10am.
Still, while it may not make an impression on my toddler, I am glad to see a study that finally challenges long-held stereotypes about sleep. Better late than never, eh?
• Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist
