Night Owls And The Fascination Of The Night

It is considered “normal” for people to get up early to go about their work and then sleep at night. However, there are more and more people who prefer to do it the other way around: sleep during the day and be awake at night. There are two types of night owls: there are those who cannot fall asleep before midnight and those who do not close their eyes before the sun rises again.

Generally speaking, it’s a matter of preference. Nobody is forced to stay awake. Night owls simply find the night hours more inspiring, stimulating, and productive. They are also called “night owls” and there are a number of myths about them.

Famous night owls are (or were) Barack Obama and Winston Churchill, the artists Marcel Proust and Kafka as well as criminals like Jack “The Ripper” or Adolf Hitler.

The unique fascination of the night

The night is full of magic and an infinite number of poems about the moon, the stars and the nighttime mood testify to this. The night is also the natural setting for the mysterious or for love. The rhythm of the day is undoubtedly very different from that of the night. While the day is the time for movement, noise and commotion, the night is the place of rest, solitude and break.

Why do some people prefer to work at night? There are actually many reasons. The quiet of the night makes work that requires high concentration easier. Since there are fewer distractions, you can work almost without a break. The calm and slower rhythm of the night also makes it easier to connect with yourself. That is why so many artists are night owls.

However, there are not all positive reasons that motivate you to turn night into day. There is also the case of the insomniac, people who fall into a state of anxiety and cannot fall asleep, no matter how hard they try (and especially if). Or the case of those who have great difficulty adapting to the social environment that surrounds them. For some people, the night becomes an escape from reality.

In these cases, the night is not a source of rest, but rather a bubble in which the individual hides from all the demands of daily life. For one reason or another , these involuntary night owls feel incapable of facing life and therefore withdraw into the shadowy world.

Theory about night owls

There are many myths about night owls, even if there have been studies on the subject. For example, it is said that night owls are more intelligent than other people. This claim was derived from the large number of artists, intellectuals and famous people who fell in love with the night.

Findings from a study conducted at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, Italy suggest that night owls tend to be more creative. This goes hand in hand with their unconventional way of life, and allows them to develop a more original perspective on some things.

For its part, the University of Madrid (Spain) carried out a study on the intelligence of 1000 day and nocturnal young people. It was concluded that the nocturnal active had a higher IQ, although the day active scored better on school exams.

However, a psychologist from Western Sydney University (New South Wales, Australia), Dr. Peter Jonason, points out that night owls are more likely to experience what he calls “the dark triad of personality”. Negative traits such as narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathies are therefore more common in night owls. In other words, for Dr. Jonason are night owls in their essence, conspiratorial and manipulative people.

A   study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism shows that night owls are more likely to suffer from diabetes. Apparently, the habit of sleeping during the day creates high levels of cholesterol, triglycerides, and body fat. The lack of morning sun can also lead to organic problems because the calcium metabolism and thus the bones are dependent on the sun.

Despite everything, the night owls feel like fish in the water when night falls. In the late hours of the night, serious decisions were made for humanity and wonderful works of art were created. The fascinating night has its own inhabitants.

Images courtesy of Megatruh, Pascal Campion