The Health Benefits Of Being A Night Owl

Physical Strength

Night owls can display a phenomenon called “night strength.” In 2009, researchers at Canada’s University of Alberta tested the leg strength of volunteers who had described themselves as night owls or early birds. They found that early birds showed consistent results throughout the day, but a night owls’ physical strength increased at around 9 P.M. The researchers hypothesized that night owls showed increased spinal cord and motor cortex excitability at that time. By contrast, an early bird's motor cortex, like the rest of their brain, was at its most active in the early morning and its activity thus never coincided with the evening activity of the spinal cord. Night owls consequently find it hard to exercise in the morning, but they perform a lot better and get more out of their exercise regime if they can shift their workout time to later in the afternoon or into the evening.

Next, find out precisely why night owls tend to have better reasoning skills.