The Morning Myth

by Frank J. Rumbauskas, Jr.

  So when Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, blasts out one of his obnoxious tweets bragging about how he was up at 4:30 a.m. (yet again), or some self-righteous morning person who thinks they’re better than you brags about getting up at 5:00 a.m., what they’re really subcommunicating to you is, “I have a 24-hour circadian rhythm or close to it. Why don’t you?”

  As with racism, people are afraid and even hateful of those who differ from themselves, and that’s where the discrimination against night owls comes from. There’s no logic or reason to it, just prejudice, and an “I’m better than you” attitude, just because they got up at an hour when most people are still in bed.

  On the other end of the scale, I’ve already mentioned DSPD, where someone has a circadian rhythm that is at or near 25 hours. This is indeed problematic since those with DSPD can experience extreme difficulty coping in modern society and holding on to good jobs. On the other hand, they may be prime candidates for overnight shift jobs during those hours when morning people cannot possibly stay awake. Better yet, they can be like Mark Cuban, who stayed up all night in his twenties learning coding, and now he’s a billionaire. That’s not a bad option either!

  Your inborn circadian rhythm is called your chronotype, and your chronotype is just as fixed as all of your other physical characteristics. You cannot change it. Or, I should say, you can temporarily, but it will soon catch up with you and you’ll find yourself back on your natural schedule. There is a method that physicians use to “treat” those with DSPD, but the effects do not endure long-term.

  Having said that, you can change your wake time by an hour, maybe two hours if you’re lucky, just as those friends I’ve mentioned who used to get up at six o’clock and now get up at five o’clock have done.

  As a general rule, morning people have a rhythm closer to 24 hours, with somewhere around 24.3 considered “intermediate,” or those who are neither early risers nor night owls. Night owl rhythms can run as long as 24.5–24.7 hours. Anything beyond that, up to 25 hours, falls under DSPD.

  (Note: In doing my research for this book, I’m increasingly—and sadly—seeing the term “delayed sleep phase disorder” being thrown around to describe anyone who isn’t up at the crack of dawn, even though it affects only 0.2% of the population. It’s yet another example of the prejudice and labels night owls must suffer.)

  You Can’t Change Your Inborn Chronotype— You Can Only Adapt

  Whether you’re an early riser, a night owl, or one of those “normal” people in between, the reality is that your natural chronotype is inborn, it’s genetic, and attempting to change it will be frustrating, fruitless, and harmful to your physical health and well-being.

  Bear with me here while I get all scientific on you:

  The suprachiasmatic nucleus (let’s just stick with SCN) is a tiny region within the brain, located in the hypothalamus, that is responsible for regulating your circadian rhythm and is hard-wired to follow the chronotype that is yours.

  Normally, your body regulates itself through natural daylight. When outdoor-intensity light is sensed by the human body, melatonin production is abruptly ceased and cortisol comes rushing out of the adrenal glands, into the bloodstream and brain, to wake you up.

  However, with night owls, or anyone with more than 24.3 hours to their chronotype, it’s not exactly that simple.

  (By the way, if you’re wondering how “normal” people can live in a 24-hour world when they get 24.3 hours, it’s bright morning light that somehow “rolls back” that 0.3 of an hour and resets them back to 24 hours.)

  While the SCN is normally the body’s master clock regulator, just like those 555 clock chips for those who were also electronic geeks as kids (though they’re still in use now), a large genetic component comes into play, and twin and heredity studies have shown a strong link between chronotype and genes, explaining why my siblings are also night owls.

  Just like the SCN is the body’s clock and the 555 chip is the most common electronics clock, your body has clock genes that can regulate the expression of upwards of 20% of all of the other genes in every cell.

  These genes feed back into the master clock—the SCN—and influence its time. Researchers have found that even small variations in those genes lead to earlier or later than average chronotypes as a result. The more of these genes in one’s body, the harder the SCN must work to attempt to regulate the circadian rhythm, and frequently it simply cannot fully adjust.

  To further complicate matters, it’s been found that night owls, or anyone in general who tends toward the evening hours over morning, may be unusually sensitive to light exposure at night. That’s why you hear all that advice about “no blue light” before bedtime, and they’re right, especially for us night owls. Those with DSPD are even advised to keep the blinds closed and wear dark sunglasses after 3:00 p.m. in order to have any hope of falling asleep at night.

  As for me personally, I wear blue-blocking glasses (no magnification) for television and any other activities in the evening and night that might interfere with sleep. I use the “night shift” feature on my computers, iPad, and iPhone, along with the f.lux app, and combine all of that with the blue-blocker glasses; they’re cheap on Amazon. You can also get reading glasses with the yellow blue-blocking tint, which I’m starting to need at my age, particularly when I’m very tired. Speaking of Amazon, where you can find anything that exists, there are even blue-blocking protective screen covers for phones, laptops, and tablets that are another option.

  The reason for blocking blue light is that it suppresses melatonin production; because the sky is blue and daylight is toward the blue end of the color temperature scale, the brain misinterprets blue screen light as daylight, which in turn unnaturally delays bedtime.

  By the way, once chronotype is set by your natural-born clock, your genes, and the time of day your body becomes accustomed to sensing morning daylight, it’s damn near written in stone. According to Leon Lack, a circadian rhythm researcher at Flinders University in Australia, “Our feeling at this point is that these are probably unchangeable characteristics.”

  The one exception is that people tend to awaken earlier as they age; however, this isn’t due to the popular myth that less sleep is needed as the years accumulate. The reality is that the body’s melatonin production drops with age and reaches a point where it’s not producing enough. This is why it’s so common to hear older people complain about waking up too early, or of insomnia.

  What happened is that evolution lags by about 100,000 years. So we’re living in bodies that are made for ancient times when we went to sleep after sundown and arose shortly after sunrise, and that, more important, aren’t fully developed to live as long as we are now thanks to advances in medical technology.

  The end result is that modern humans find themselves unable to sleep as much with age. While many believe that older age means a reduced sleep requirement, what’s really happening is a melatonin deficiency that can be remedied with a safe, low dose of melatonin 1–2 hours before planned bedtime.

  Medical Treatments for Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder

  Doctors have come up with some ways to attempt to treat DSPD—I say “attempt” because the result is never permanent. However, they do help some with DSPD to function semi-normally in a morning-centric society.

  The following are the most common.

  Light Therapy (Phototherapy)

  This is the practice of either getting out of bed and immediately getting outside into bright sunlight, or, alternately, using a therapy lamp with a brightness of at least 10,000 lux, or, to put it more simply, enough light to suppress melatonin secretion and send the signal to your body to wake up.

  I use one on days when I want to get up early, or have to for some business or school event. Since jumping out of bed early really doesn’t work for me, I keep one on my nightstand and use it for 30 minutes while reading something on my Kindle. Nowadays they’re available as small LED-powered lamps instead of the big fluorescent monstrosi
ties of only a decade ago, which also makes them portable and inexpensive. (WARNING: Do not begin the use of a therapy lamp without consulting an eye doctor if you have macular degeneration, or even a family history of the same. If you’re not sure, ask around your family.)

  Darkness Therapy (Light Restriction)

  Remember I had mentioned that DSPD patients are advised to wear dark sunglasses past 3:00 p.m., and that I use blue-blocking glasses along with blue-light diminishing features and apps on my various electronic devices? Darkness therapy is the reason why.

  Phase Delay Chronotherapy

  This therapy is normally only used with severe DSPD patients, and even then, it’s falling out of favor due to doubts about its safety and a track record of leading to non-24-hour sleep-wake rhythm disorder, a far more serious and severe disorder.

  In phase delay chronotherapy, the patient goes to bed two hours later each night until the desired bedtime is reached (obviously it takes some time off from work or school to accomplish this). Once that bedtime is reached, the patient is then advised to go to bed at that same time every night.

  However, the body is always working to achieve homeostasis, which is a fancy way of saying an ideal state. As part of that, it works hard to get back to your natural born chronotype, and patients who undergo this treatment must repeat it anywhere from every few weeks (!) to every few months.

  A modified version of this plan is called SDPA: controlled sleep deprivation with phase advance. With this, the person stays awake overnight and all through the next day, then goes to bed 90 minutes earlier than the desired bedtime and maintains that for a week. The process is repeated weekly until the new bedtime “sticks.”

  There isn’t enough research on SDPA to show whether or not it will work in the long run, but if previous methods are any evidence, it won’t, and it’s potentially unsafe, just as phase delay chronotherapy may be.

  Melatonin

  A small dose of melatonin about an hour before the desired bedtime may induce sleepiness (it doesn’t work very well for me personally, hence the “may”).

  Melatonin doesn’t come without its own share of problems, though. While healthy lifestyle websites and blogs tout it as a powerful antioxidant, and it is, it can also cause sleep disturbance, nightmares, daytime sleepiness, and even depression.

  If you have had, or if there is any family history of melanoma, the deadly form of skin cancer, then you must not take melatonin. If you are in any doubt, please consult your physician.

  The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has found little difference between melatonin and placebo for primary and secondary sleep disorders, so take everything you hear with a grain of salt.

  Modafinil (Brand Name: Provigil)

  This is a strong stimulant used in the U.S. military, particularly with pilots who must fly very long missions, for whom it is mandatory.

  While it does in fact help a sleep-deprived individual get through the day with mental alertness and acuity, it has an extremely long elimination half-life, meaning it has a strong likelihood of interfering with sleep and even causing insomnia.

  I personally asked my own doctor about it after hearing that it was a wonder productivity drug and his response was that just like excessive caffeine, it will lead to adrenal exhaustion, which was all I needed to hear. I’ll pass.

  But Will Treatment Work?

  As you can see, there’s very little here that’s anything remotely scientific, with the exceptions being light and darkness therapy.

  Even the medically approved methods of changing one’s sleep schedule—phase delay chronotherapy and controlled sleep deprivation with phase advance—are only temporary and must be repeated over and over and over to remain effective (or at least their definition of effective). All these treatments do is put the patient through a hellish roller-coaster ride of sleep deprivation when they should simply be allowed to live and work on the sleep schedules they were born with. It’s all just more fallout from the discrimination and brainwashing, fallout that is messing with people’s lives and well-being.

  Instead of coming up with labels like “delayed sleep phase disorder,” and assuming there’s something medically wrong with those who go to bed very late and get up late, society should accommodate and not alienate such people.

  Can You Really Get Up Earlier—and Live to Tell About It?

  As with far too many things in life, the answer is maybe, and closer to probably not.

  If you’re a mild night owl, say, someone who can go to bed by midnight and get up at seven o’clock, then perhaps you can.

  If you’re any much more of a night owl than that, sure, you may be able to get up an hour earlier, but you still won’t conform to current societal norms, so what’s the point? After all, it’s only going to harm your health in the long term.

  However, if you really would like to have a go at it, or if you’re getting up at seven o’clock but need to be up at six o’clock to get to work on time, a combination of light therapy and darkness therapy is probably the safest option, and most likely to work.

  For starters, I recommend getting a therapy lamp. As I’ve said, they’re cheap on Amazon, eBay, and other online sellers. You can, of course, get outside into sunlight immediately, but c’mon, we both know that’s not going to happen! And, once again, if macular degeneration runs in your family, do not use one, at least not without visiting with an ophthalmologist first. If you have macular degeneration, forget it.

  Follow the directions that come with the lamp; they do differ in brightness and that will determine how far it needs to be from your eyes along with how long you need to use it. Since they’re so bright, never look directly into the light, but rather simply have it within your field of vision. For me, I sit up in bed and keep it slightly off to the side of my Kindle (or book) so my eyes are exposed without directly looking at it.

  The key to light therapy is to activate the light at your desired waking time; however, don’t jump an hour back in one fell swoop. The most you can realistically work with is 10–15 minutes earlier, every two to three days. Any faster than that and you’ll crash. Slower is better, but we humans are impatient. And remember this may not work at all; it’s simply a suggestion. Continue to do so until you reach your desired waking time, then continue the light therapy; remember, you’re going against your inborn chronotype here, so while you can probably knock back your wake time by 10 or 15 minutes, it’s still a long-term change.

  Therapy light bonus: They’re great for jetlag! And now that they’re small and lightweight, you can easily pack one when you travel.

  With darkness therapy, as with light therapy, the goal is to get to bed 10–15 minutes earlier, every few days. Now that most of the year is Daylight Saving Time in the United States, what I do is to close the blackout curtains in our house by 7:00 p.m. and then use the blue-blocking glasses with any electronics including television, computers, phones, and everything in between.

  As I’ve mentioned, I’ve tried melatonin, but it didn’t work for me. If you do try it, you’ll probably need to go to a specialty health food store with a large vitamin/supplement section to find 0.3 mg melatonin tablets. The usual 3 mg and 5 mg dosages found in common over-the-counter melatonin products are extremely excessive and may leave you feeling sluggish and groggy the next day, which entirely defeats the purpose. And, again, if you have any family history of melanoma whatsoever, do not use melatonin at any dosage.

  Be forewarned though: Unless you want to keep doing all this forever, your sleep cycle is your sleep cycle and it’s going to revert back to baseline sooner or later, and probably sooner.

  Morning Madness

  You were born with your natural, built-in clock. Accept it. Live with it. Use it to thrive. Most important of all, don’t fight it, and if you must do so for work or other reasons, be aware that any changes to your sleep schedule that you make are likely only temporary. The real solution is flexible working hours, and if your current employer won’t g
ive them to you, there are better ones who will.

  CHAPTER 7

  Night Owls Are More Successful: The Early Birds Just Don’t Make As Much Money

  It all comes down to one thing: Early risers who get up at the crack of dawn tire far earlier than their night owl counterparts and, overall, experience fewer productive hours each day.

  In other words, night owls make more money and are generally more successful in life because they have more usable, productive working hours available, despite the common myth that getting up super early is the only way to accomplish this and to “make more time,” as idiots who cannot do basic math and understand that we all get the same 24 hours every day will tell you.

  There’s no way to “make more time.” All you can do is make the most of the time you have. And that amount of time is the same for all of us, unlike our biological chronotypes, which can vary wildly from anywhere from 24 hours for extreme early risers and 25 hours for extreme night owls, or those with delayed sleep phase disorder.

  The Night Owl Experience That Set Me Free

  To demonstrate, let me tell you a story.

  Back in September of 2001, I was on top of the world sales-wise and was beyond 100% of my monthly number by the 10th of the month.

  Then September 11, 2001 happened.

  What I remember most about that day—and I remember it vividly, as most people do—was getting up for work on Phoenix time, and since Arizona does not practice Daylight Saving Time, the time difference between Phoenix and “back home” in New Jersey was three hours.