reasons for getting up in the morning?

May 25, 2005 6:34 PM

Does anyone have any hard information on why mornings are considered the most productive or focused time of day?

Is it more the time after first waking or the quality of light at that time of day? Excepting the chronically sleep deprived and the variance in circadian rhythms, I'm wondering what factors are at play besides having a usual routine (which could explain much of how it effects the elderly or, for instance, Alzheimer's patients).

posted by philida to Science & Nature (23 answers total)

Huh? I can't get shit done in the morning. I'm usually no good until maybe three in the afternoon. Probably at my most productive after 10 PM.
posted by mr_roboto at 6:54 PM on May 25, 2005

Heck no, this can't be a hard & fast rule. My productivity and creativity ramp up more and more as the day progresses. I peak about 2 hours before bed. Being self-employed I've tried different schedules and mornings just don't cut it.
posted by rolypolyman at 6:56 PM on May 25, 2005

Me too: I'm best between 7 and 10pm.
posted by forallmankind at 7:28 PM on May 25, 2005

I had no idea that anyone believed that mornings are "considered the most productive or focused time of the day." In my experience at workplaces, most people spend the first hour or two moving slowly and drinking lots of coffee.

I personally have a delayed sleep phase and thus my most productive time is in the evening, but I've always assumed most people have their productive time a couple of hours before and after lunchtime...

If you consider mornings the most productive... more power to you. You're a lucky person and it's bound to help you out in the workplace.
posted by mmoncur at 7:47 PM on May 25, 2005

Your boss wants you to work hard in the morning so he/she can leave at 4 to go golf.
posted by Kwantsar at 8:01 PM on May 25, 2005

I agree with the last 4 posts.....who says this?!?

I am LEAST productive in the morning. It's only past 10pm I seem to be most productive (I am a student, so I don't work a restricted 9-5)

At work(when I did work) I was most productive 1 hour before lunch, and then 3 hours after lunch, at which I go into a "it's almost time to go home phase" and accomplish nothing.
posted by Sonic_Molson at 8:05 PM on May 25, 2005

I posted above that I'm a night person. However I have to add that those bright, chirpy morning people do exist, and in my experience they don't bother much with things like computers or online stuff. I wonder if maybe we have a skewed cross section here.
posted by rolypolyman at 8:10 PM on May 25, 2005

The true answer is that every body (that is, everyone's body) is different.

I am unlike the rest of these slackers. I pop up early and am ready to charge. I am rested, alert, and ready to go.

It must be clean living - no more than three or more drinks the night before.
posted by yclipse at 8:34 PM on May 25, 2005

I believe the observation comes from the idea that you (like myself) are night people...and when we get into work, the 'morning' people have quite a bit work finished.

Now, my other side opinion. People who are truly morning people...are well rested.

People (like myself) who rationalize themselves as night people...are worthless in the morning... stay up late...and are tired when the instinct should tell us to go to sleep...which leaves us tired the next day
posted by filmgeek at 8:42 PM on May 25, 2005

This is a fallacy promoted by the corporate machine. It comes from the MAN's need to control.
posted by Carbolic at 9:05 PM on May 25, 2005

I found when I was working at a large corporation in a publicly visible role that my most efficient time was before everyone came in, so I got to work as early as 5:30 in the AM and left around 3 pm. In my current job, I'm most effective in the early afternoon, right after lunch -- at that time, it seems I can focus best. About 3 pm I need to get out of my office and jump up and down for a little while.
posted by SpecialK at 9:53 PM on May 25, 2005

I think people with healthy routines and good sleep would be well-rested and alert in the morning more than any other time. I don't fall in that category but young children and most animals seem to wake up bright eyed.
posted by foraneagle2 at 10:02 PM on May 25, 2005

I've always considered myself a night person. When I'm not working, I tend to sleep until 1 or 2 p.m. each day and stay up half the night, and I'm most creative after dark.

As in Special K's experience, however, I find that I am most productive at work early in the morning. I can get a lot more done in a given day if I can arrive at least a half hour before my boss and chattier coworkers, so I can set goals for the day and get various projects rolling. Certain people are just roadblocks to progress, and in my office they tend to show up late and work late.

In order to be productive in the morning, I have to go to bed quite early (it's actually half an hour past my regular bed time right now). As a result, my energy usually starts flagging in the middle of the afternoon. My mind grows hazy late in the work day and I have a hard time with creative thinking, though I can still slog through routine tasks that I've already set in motion.
posted by croutonsupafreak at 10:19 PM on May 25, 2005

I'm a morning person, and motivated to be so. I like being alone for a couple hours. But I wake up ready to begin work as soon as I sit down with coffee, first cup.

Firs thing I prefer to do analytical work. Coding, book keeping, math. Its amazing how much work I can do in those first couple hours, and when alone, this keeps up for a good 6 hours.

Then, if at home (which I vastly prefer), I do housework for an hour or so. After that, I'm ready for creative work. That's when I start working on front end type stuff, or art work, or music. (Doing graphics or music in the morning really disrupts my day!) The creative work is productive 'til bedtime (except not music, which has to be stopped or I don't get sleepy), which is relatively early, since I get up very early (to be up before the other half).

I am often amazed that other people don't wake up alert. I even wake up alert 2 hours after going to bed, and sometimes misread the clock and think its time to get up! Even so, I still tend to get up 2-3 hours after going to bed to use the bathroom, and I usually go outside for a smoke and to appreciate the night. Sometimes this can take as long as 20 minutes. Then I'm right back to sleep without a problem. My optimum sleep time is 7 hours, but if I get that for days in a row, I'll start waking up after 6 hours. If I sleep more than 7 hours its very unusual.
posted by Goofyy at 11:21 PM on May 25, 2005

I'm with mr_roboto, I get work done as the day tends to a close. I think this is largely as a result of me going 'Fuck, I've wasted another day doing fuck all'.
posted by biffa at 3:17 AM on May 26, 2005

Goofyy, are you looking for enemies? :)

I have found that over the last few years I've learned to become much more of a morning person than I ever used to be - I saw my sister recently and she was a complete basket case in the morning; it reminded me that I used to be that way. But these days I can pop out of bed in the AM also. Might be thanks to more exercise and more healthy diet, in part anyway. Might just be something I trained myself to do (I did decide at some point that sleeping until 1/2 hr before leaving rather than an hour of snooze alarms would ultimately be more productive).

However, I can't say that my best analytic thinking comes at that time of day. I do like being up when no one else's up yet, in the clean morning air, but I usually don't dive right into analytic thought. Sometimes can do some creative work right away though, as the dream life fades...

It feels really good to have done some significant amount of work before noon, though. I like days when I have really covered some territory early on, but I don't have that every day.
posted by mdn at 3:29 AM on May 26, 2005

First, recognize that being a "morning person" may only be relative -- i.e., it could be not that you're unusually effective in the A.M., but that you're unusually ineffective in the P.M.

Second, I'd hypothesize that people who are distinctly morning people might have an exaggerated reaction to early morning blood chemistry, which varies in important respects from midday and evening chemistry, due to depressed metabolism while sleeping and the fact that one has usually hasn't eaten for 10 to 12 hours by the time one awakes.
posted by MattD at 5:44 AM on May 26, 2005

I find that there's a bias towards morning people and early risers. It's sort of a moral approach. I'm more energetic and effective later in the day, even with 8 hours sleep. It takes plenty of caffeine for me to conform to the schedule my work requires.
posted by theora55 at 7:03 AM on May 26, 2005

Honestly, I think a lot of it has to do with an urban legend type acceptance of historically puritanical beliefs. Particularly people taking to heart the old Ben Franklin phrase of "Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise."
posted by aaronh at 7:04 AM on May 26, 2005

Could also be because as the day goes on people are looking at the clock more and more... or don't want to start a new project... or whatever.

But yeah, there are also stereotypes about people and times of day which, if they don't precisely correlate to your life, can be harmful. If you sleep late, you're not considered as productive.

If you naturally get up early and have trouble staying awake until the wee hours of the morning, you're generally considered a party pooper.
posted by dagnyscott at 7:12 AM on May 26, 2005

I'm a morning person and I think you afternoon-bloomers are sluggards and layabouts only invigorated late in the day by the thought of the approaching 5 o'clock whistle. : )

Actually, the difference in my morning and evening abilities are so striking that I often say that I wake up a genius and go to bed an utter moron, by a clinical definition. But I do find that between about 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. I hit a zone where I can drive straight through any project without stopping, until begging belly and bursting bladder intervene.
posted by Mo Nickels at 9:46 AM on May 26, 2005

Having just started a job (programmer) and not wanting to limit my evening life, I've been getting about 6 hours of sleep recently, instead of my customary 8-9. However, I always have been, and still am now, more alert and energetic in the morning, without coffee -- just a hot shower. I get the majority of my work for the day done between 8:30 and 11:30am.

I lag in the afternoons, and occasionally grab a cup of coffee to keep me activue until quitting time. At around 7:00, I pick up again until midnight kicks me in the face and I'm out like a light.

As to why, I can't say, but I know not everyone is, and I've never heard that said. I think the majority of people here are right: everyone's got their own schedule, based on their sleep, daily/nightly habits and metabolism.
posted by ThePants at 9:46 AM on May 26, 2005

Response by poster: Actually, I was looking for more objective clinical data.
Personally, I have an extremely varied schedule and find I have to work for six to sixteen+ hours at a stretch in the active creation stages of a project, with more than four hours of sleep derailing, and can do that more easily in the darkened hours (for a variety of reasons).
Not being well rested, having to force yourself up, still being in developemental stages-- thanks for the effort, but subjective lifestyle info wasn't the goal.
There are a lot of examples to support that mornings have a certain quality of focus for many, and I was wondering if and how it had to do with the unique quality of the light at that time of day.
Should I find the time to slog through the research, I'll add any findings if possible for anyone interested.
posted by philida at 2:15 PM on May 26, 2005