Contrary to the old adage that the earlier you got to bed the wiser you become (who came up with this anyway?), research now proves that night owls are indeed smarter than the early birds.
A recent study has found that those who tend to stay up late and wake up later in the morning are mostly people with a high IQ. In other words, the more intelligent you are the more likely you are a night owl. Perhaps this was the origin of the old phrase-burning the midnight oil-as characterized by more intelligent people?
A psychologist at The London School of Economics going by the name Satoshi Kanazawa, argues that as much as humans have specialized mental modules for carrying out tasks such as social interaction, navigation among many others, general intelligence is a module on its own. He even has data to prove that those with higher IQ have values and preferences that just didn’t make sense for our ancestors to come to terms with. Staying up late is one of these and it all boils down to genetic predisposition. Our ancestors may not have had electricity 5,000 years ago though. So our general intelligence has to override the early-to-bed instinct.
Don’t be quick to attempt being one of them, however. It comes at a price. For one, other studies show that ‘eveningness’ is attributed to a high level of emotional instability. Implying that you will be less agreeable and conscientious than the average person. Not only that, the staying up late habit is three times more likely to make you suffer from depression symptoms. And you all know that the habit us not good for your physical health, not to mention the risk of heart disease and arterial stiffness. Is it a price worth paying?