We all have to set alarms to wake up at a specific time, but many cannot leave bed when the time comes, often early, so they set it to a later time. The best time to wake up early.
Sleeping late is often linked to laziness, perhaps a personality problem, or describing it as lazy, which may lead to a feeling of inferiority, especially if it fails the expectations of other more active people in the family or friends environment.
However, experts assured the Guardian newspaper that sleeping for a long time, or even an hour late, may not be the person’s fault, but rather it is mostly genetic, “each of us has his own chronological pattern, and people’s sleep or wake-up cycles are naturally diverse.”
A study conducted last year in Finland found that 10 percent of men and 12 percent of women are the “night type.”
While a Dutch study conducted in 2007 concluded that the most common time pattern for these is sleeping shortly after midnight, until 8:18 am in the absence of “social obligations”, noting that they represent 14.6 percent.
The newspaper quotes neurologist, sleep expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Beth Ann Malo, as saying that our temporal pattern is “an integral part of our identity,” adding that it is not optional for a person to be a “night owl”, but rather “something biological.”
Phil German, a clinical psychologist who specializes in behavioral sleep medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, agrees, who considers the prejudice against nocturnal people to be “purely cultural.”
For many, sleeping from nine in the evening until five in the morning may be beneficial, but it is not so for others who need to sleep late.
The problem arises when we engage in jobs that do not match our circadian rhythms. When the obligations of waking life interfere with one’s sleep schedule so badly that it becomes difficult to function, the nocturnal person develops a condition known as delayed-wake sleep phase disorder, which complicates and makes daily routine functions of the individual difficult. About 0.2 to 1.7 percent of adults suffer from this condition.
Malou says that treatment often starts with seeing if the individual can adjust their work schedule to fit their circadian rhythm. “From a health standpoint, the best case scenario would be finding ways to stick to our body clocks, rather than trying to juggle social demands.”
And the sleep expert prefers that these people follow a fixed schedule, so that they go to bed at two in the morning, for example, and get up at ten or 11 in the morning.
Mallo acknowledges that “of course, many people are not fortunate enough to have such transitions,” but points out that “in this case, the disorder can be treated with exposure to light, melatonin, and exercise, as such techniques make it possible to change circadian rhythms.” However, the success rate of these techniques varies.