ruiner
Member
Registered: 2009-08-20
Posts: 751
http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic … ay-up-late - Early Risers Crash Faster Than People Who Stay Up Late
"Early birds may get the best worms—or at least the best garage sale deals—but they also tire out more quickly than night owls do. In a new study researchers Christina Schmidt and Philippe Peigneux, both at the University of Liège in Belgium, and their colleagues first asked 16 extreme early risers and 15 extreme night owls to spend a week following their natural sleep schedule. Then subjects spent two nights in a sleep lab, where they again followed their preferred sleep patterns and underwent cognitive testing twice daily while in a functional MRI scanner.
An hour and a half after waking, early birds and night owls were equally alert and showed no difference in attention-related brain activity. But after being awake for 10 and a half hours, night owls had grown more alert, performing better on a reaction-time task requiring sustained attention and showing increased activity in brain areas linked to attention. More important, these regions included the suprachiasmatic area, which is home to the body’s circadian clock. This area sends signals to boost alertness as the pressure to sleep mounts. Unlike night owls, early risers didn’t get this late-day lift. Peigneux says faster activation of sleep pressure appears to prevent early birds from fully benefiting from the circadian signal, as evening types do."
Last edited by ruiner (2009 September 10, 5:10 pm)
undead_saif
Member
From: Mother Earth
Registered: 2009-01-28
Posts: 635
From my experience, nothing beats studying at dusk, it's hard to sleep early and wake up early, but when done, I found that I become much efficient. I love the fresh early morning air! 
And in the "night owls" mode, I'm off all the day until night (10 PM),at which I become a human being! lol
All in all, I love long nights and early mornings, I wish if I could sleep from 3 am until 5 am only!!
Last edited by undead_saif (2009 September 11, 12:48 pm)