

Are night owls generally more intelligent than other people? - helwr
http://www.quora.com/Are-night-owls-generally-more-intelligent-than-other-people

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philk
Good news. What I thought were lousy sleep habits actually mean that my Fields
Medal should be turning up any day now.

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kqr2
Paul Erdös quote:

 _A mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems._

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obiterdictum
A more modern variant is "A computer programmer is a device for turning coffee
into bugs." -- Bram Moolenaar

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seanlinmt
drink coffee. create bugs faster. :)

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olliesaunders
There was an article posted to HN some time ago that claimed that being a
Night Owl or Morning Lark isn't an intrinsic disposition so much as a
lifestyle choice. Does this mean I can choose to stay up later and I'll get
more intelligent?

Claim: [http://www.supermemo.com/articles/sleep.htm#Lark-
owl%20misco...](http://www.supermemo.com/articles/sleep.htm#Lark-
owl%20misconception)

HN post: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1207945>

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_pi
Anecdotal evidence: I swap between the two, it just takes a creative sleep
pattern, I had a strange schedule last year due to the layout of my courses,
so some days I'd stay up till 4 sleep till 2, and other's I'd sleep at 11 and
wake at 7:30. I guess my IQ last year was sinusoidal.

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jaytee_clone
Interestingly, this post, <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1488225> talked
about how morning people rule the worlds.

So the conclusion is - less intelligent people rule the world.

Of course, I always take IQ score with a grain of salt.

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sliverstorm
From what I have seen of history, the most intelligent people (from what we
have been able to tell) are _never_ a regular part of the mainstream. They
only dabble occasionally.

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tomjen3
I don't know about that, Jefferson, Einstein and many of the members of the
Royal society was quite involved with politics and society.

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keegangrayson
Are you saying Jefferson and Einstein are mainstream? That is clearly not the
case. Their popularity is, but their actions were from from it. Hell, just
LOOK at Einstein!

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greenlblue
I interpreted night owl as an actual owl and hilarity ensued. More seriously
though I have thought about this issue from an evolutionary perspective and in
social animals it makes sense for a certain part of the population to be
nocturnally inclined. If everybody wants to sleep at night who's gonna watch
the mouth of the cave?

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cema
The more intelligent ones?

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nooneelse
Perhaps it takes a bit more "intelligence" to keep one's attention focused for
long periods on the kinds of subtle clues that one would first get of danger
out in the dark beyond the cave.

And it could be a mutually reinforcing thing, in one direction, the higher IQ
provides the right skills to form thoughts that keep the listening-&-watching
game interesting longer and that interest gives one personal motivation to
stay up. In the other direction, groups who delegated this job to those with
higher IQ did better; as those members are better able to tease the right
danger signals out of the noises in the dark. I.e. do you want the smart guy
or the idiot to watch for the wolves as you sleep? I want someone at least as
smart than all the wolves put together.

Personally speaking, I know my most creative schemes (leave aside the question
of paranoid or not) for attacking/robbing a house all came as I sat listening
to the sequences of noises from outside the house... trying to determine if I
needed to use the flashlight or yard lights to confirm/dispel danger, weighing
the benefits against giving my attention/position away to anyone who might be
out there.

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romymisra
I am not too sure this has a lot of weight:

When I was in college there are far more might owls than early morning risers.
Out of a 100 people 80 are probably night owls (some of them might just end up
partying the whole time). So there is an inherent bias there, because there
are more nightowls than 'early morning risers'. Which leads to the conclusion
in a sample of 100 if 10 of them are intelligent: then obviously 8 are night
owls. I would personally never judge a person's intelligence on this factor
(even though I am a night owl myelf).

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Loy
When we say "night owl", it is fair to assume we mean someone that would stay
awake late into the night without any kind of social stimulation. Nobody will
be tired if they're going to a party with tons of people and loud music, but
most people will eventually get tired if they are alone. Night Owls usually
enjoy the deep solitude and quietness of the night.

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GFischer
"Nobody will be tired if they're going to a party with tons of people and loud
music"

I disagree, introverts (like myself and probably others here in HN) find
social situations very tiring.

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astine
Large parties with a bunch of strangers aren't the only form of social
situation. When I was in college, I had a mostly regular group of friends that
I'd hang around with and chat politics/philosophy/whatever till late in the
might. Regularly to 2 AM, sometimes to 4 AM. These days, I spend most of my
evenings alone and naturally go to sleep around 12:30 to 1:00 AM if left to my
own devices. I'm definitely more of a night-owl and an introvert, but close
proximity to friends, as I had in college, I would stay up real late.

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RiderOfGiraffes
This is related to the earlier submission

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1492124>

to an article from Psychology Today

[http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200911/intelligence-...](http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200911/intelligence-
the-evolution-night-owls)

which seems to assume this as fact, starting:

    
    
        Night owls are smarter than other people,
        and now we may know why.

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arvinjoar
One of the cited sources is Satoshi Kanazawa. I really like Satoshi and he has
an excellent blog on Psychology Today.

[http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-scientific-
fundament...](http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-scientific-
fundamentalist)

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ecaradec
may be they are so bored with the world that they'd rather live apart from it
?

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sliverstorm
I am a night owl because the evening is the best time to pursue things of
personal interest, and when I am on to something really interesting, sleep
seems boring and useless in comparison.

Unless I know I have to get up by X hour tomorrow for something important, I
will then proceed to stay up until I can't perform physically (e.g. I can't
solder because my hands are shaking, or I can't read because my eyelids weigh
50lbs each)

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marknutter
I've been seeing quora show up on HN more and more lately. Seems to be gaining
steam.

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pier0
They have probably started to work at night...

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mfukar
Those studies do seem to indicate so. However, they do not take into account
multiple other factors that could make an individual wanting to, consciously
or not, become a _night owl_. The same is true for all a person's preferences,
although we don't have enough theoretical nor practical knowledge on the
topic. Also, the way they are phrased, particularly the one by Kanazawa and
Perina, seem to indicate a causal link between the two states. Correlation
does not imply causation. Furthermore, how many studies indicate the opposite
point? I'd be interested in a comparison of results.

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benwr
How unfair to post this so late! (3am EST)

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dacort
Psh, the night is just barely getting started out here on the West Coast!

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jamesbritt
Tell me about it. I've been trying to get to sleep by 1am so I can get up and
out in the morning to go running before the Scottsdale heat is overly
oppressive. But even when I'm physically tired, I just want to stay up and
hack on one ... more ... thing.

Would that I had that same drive at 9am. :(

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gaius
I can believe owls are more intelligent than most people.

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eagleal
Can the stats be like this because generally great engineers _can_ chose their
time?

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anigbrowl
If you stayed up as late as I do, you would already know the answer to that
question.

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geezer
My question: Does forcing oneself to get up early lead to stupidity?

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rcfox
It does for me.

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swah
If staying awake is an effort for them, then yes, they generally are going to
be more intelligent because they are dedicating more than the rest of the
population, on average.

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IgorPartola
No. Night owls get more time do perfect their skills while others are asleep
(no distraction).

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nooneelse
It provides a good opportunity to self-censor the more screwy ideas too. Just
show people the little program you finished around 2am, and no one need ever
know about that 3am idea to revolutionize the world of juggling using
hairdryers. Just put everything back where you found it before they get up.

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c00p3r
It's works only for amateurs - mature people love to wake up with sunrise and
emptiness and clearness of an early morning. ^_^

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crpatino
Why would you want to _wake_ into sunrise and early morning, if you could
_wait_ for them?

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ww520
Yes.

