They're called many things - "lazy", "unproductive" , "lacking in ambition"- but late risers are starting to fight back. Long the butt of demeaning office jokes, sleepyheads are officially up in arms thanks to a Danish campaign to stop "the tyranny of early risers".
"The Owl has the right to say: 'Give me the late riser's rhythm at work, at home and in society,"' trumpets the B-Society website, a movement rallying against Denmark's 8am to 4pm working culture. "Let me come to work at 11am and go home at 8pm. Let me have quiet mornings to read my newspaper and ease into the day gently and peacefully."
It may sound far-fetched, but the B-Society has packed quite a punch in Denmark, attracting almost 5000 members in its first four months. Copenhagen city council is preparing jobs for "chronic late risers" and Carina Christensen, the Danish minister for family affairs, has thrown her weight behind the campaign, saying: "We all live better if our existence is not constantly dictated by an alarm clock." "We've had tremendous success," agrees B-Society founder Camilla Kring, who has a PhD in work-life balance. "We now have a B-high school, with classes starting at noon. Sweden has its own movement, Finland and Norway should soon follow and there's been huge global interest."
According to Kring, an individual's preference for early rising (an A-person or lark) and late rising (a B-person or owl) is as genetically determined as eye or hair colour. And, she says, far from the stereotyping of people who can't get out of bed in the morning as lazy sods, it's all down to different circadian rhythms.
"B-people find it easy to stay awake at night, preferring to go to bed at around 1am or 2am but have difficulty waking in the morning, not feeling fully awake until after 10am," Kring explains. "A-people are the opposite - they love the mornings but collapse in front of the TV at about 10pm."
A convenient excuse to ignore the alarm clock and snuggle under the quilt perhaps but sleep experts agree Kring has a point. Researchers believe 10 per cent of the population are extreme owls, 10 per cent are extreme larks and the remaining 80 per cent fall in between. And according to experts, it's genes rather than laziness.
Scientists have long known that early and late risers have genetic differences. A study from the University of Surrey found that extreme larks are more likely to have a long version of a gene called Period 3, while extreme owls are more likely to have a shorter version, leading to physiological differences. Professor Angela Clow from the University of Westminster in London found that early risers had higher levels of cortisol, the body's main stress hormone, than the alarm-clock refuseniks. "Personally, I think this is better for you," she says, citing a link between high cortisol levels and greater powers of concentration. "But because cortisol is a stress hormone, some scientists think early rising puts the body under greater stress."
German researchers Dr Peter Axt and Dr Michaela Axt-Gadermann subscribe to that point of view. In The Joy of Laziness: How to Slow Down and Live Longer, they argue that these higher cortisol levels can damage brain cells and lead to premature senility. Lazy lie-ins, they say, are the key to good health.
Clow's research showed that in a 10-week period, early risers were more likely to suffer from aches, colds and headaches. Meanwhile, a Southampton University study found that those who burned the midnight oil and slept in the following day were no less healthy than the early risers. In fact, they were slightly healthier.
So why is our work culture biased towards the rhythms of the average lark? Isn't that all a bit "sleepist"? Carolyn Schur, author of the night owls' bible, Birds of a Different Feather, thinks so. Now self-employed, she spent years in the workplace struggling to cope with early appointments. "I've been called lazy, undisciplined and unprofessional. I was even told I had a psychological problem. I tried to change but just grew more stressed."
At her clinic in Saskatoon, Canada, Schur treats people with insomnia-related problems who, instead of being actual insomniacs, are what she calls "desynchronised night owls", unable in a nine-to-five schedule to get the sleep they need. "If you're a night owl who needs nine hours' sleep, you won't survive," she says.
Experts agree that we generally need seven to eight hours of sleep but this varies. "Some people need less than six, and some more than 10. We don't need it all in one go; napping can help," says Dr Adrian Williams, consultant physician at London's St Thomas's Hospital sleep-disorder centre. According to Williams, sleep deprivation can seriously affect one's judgement, a view backed up by research. One such study, conducted at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, examined volunteers playing a computer card game and showed that sleep deprivation causes areas of the brain to malfunction, making people blunder and take rash risks. "We all carry a sleep debt," says Professor Derk Jan Dijk, sleep and physiology director at the University of Surrey's sleep research centre, "and this debt accumulates the longer we skimp on sleep. One night without sleep impairs you to the same degree that drinking alcohol to the legal
driving limit does." All of which paints a bleak picture for an owl struggling in a nine-to-five job. So what should sleep-deprived employees do? "The first thing is to take your sleeping rhythm seriously," Schur says. "Ask your employer if you can work more flexible hours. State the benefits for the company; say you can provide increased hours of service at no extra cost."
Can you change your sleep rhythm?
"No, but you can modify it with good routines," says Maria Lennernas, from Sweden's Uppsala University, who has a PhD in nutrition and shift work. "Eat at regular times, go to bed and get up at the same time every day. Then make sure you get enough bright light in the morning." Failing that, says Professor Jim Horne, from the sleep research centre at Britain's Loughborough University, you can always go for damage limitation: "A 20-minute nap and a good dose of caffeine should help." How to be a B-person and not get fired:
- Choose the right profession: owls flock to journalism, the arts,entertainment and hospitality - anything in which you can control yourschedule or work at night. Avoid lark careers such as engineering, banking,medicine and the law.
- Ask your employer for later shifts: point out the benefits to them.
- Modify your circadian rhythm: go to bed and get up at the same time.
- Make sure you get bright-light exposure in the morning.
- Eat at regular times and avoid eating late at night: it's easier to overeat at night because the hormone that regulates your sense of satiety is not functioning as well.
- Keep bedrooms dark and quiet.
- Exercise during the day: this will decrease stress and improve sleep.
- Get your vitamins: melatonin and B12 can adjust your body clock.
- Take a lunchtime nap.
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