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“It’s not that there are ‘night owls’ and ‘early risers’ per se,” Dr. John Saito, a representative for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, tells Popular Science. “It really depends more on where people are in their lives.”
But while research shows that our internal clocks shift significantly between ages 10 and 30, primarily driven by changes in hormones, our relative chronotype—our body’s natural inclination to snooze and wake at specific times—remains highly consistent.
‘Bears,’ a type of ‘intermediate’ that Breus says account for between 50 and 55 percent of the population, tend to rise and sleep according to the solar cycles. Late-night ‘wolves’ (15 to 30 percent) are most productive in the evening.
Then there are ‘lions’ (15 percent), those early risers who at 9 p.m. are begging for sleep. Light-sleeping ‘dolphins’ (10-15 percent) get their moniker from always being on high-alert.
While studies show that early risers are typically in better health physically and mentally, night owls and intermediates are both associated with sharper memories. However, those staying up until the crack of dawn often have an increased risk for obesity, depression, and even Type 2 diabetes.