Johnson: Sleeping in could cost you

Getting up early has long been considered a sign of productivity — a symbol of drive, and success.

link Sharna Johnson

Rooted in the days when labor was the basis for life, waking with the sun made sense, especially on the farm where hard work is best knocked out first thing — when cooler temperatures, peak energy levels and a fresh start make for ideal working conditions.

Farm or no farm, getting an early start first thing in the morning is a value that’s been handed down to generations as the thing that smart people do and as a key ingredient to success.

Over time, rising early has also become synonymous with gaining an advantage because while all the lazy folks are sleeping in, the early risers are out there making things happen and reaping the benefits.

It comes in different forms, but at some point, just about everyone has heard one version or another of the philosophy.

“Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.”

“You’ve got to get up pretty early in the morning to fool Grandma…”

“You snooze, you lose.”

And of course,

“The early bird catches the worm.”

It might be argued that times have changed a bit since these ideas worked their way into popular consciousness.

Whereas people once had to race the sun to get work done on the farm, they now delay their morning schedules to avoid traffic on their way to artificially lit offices, and where the whole world once went to sleep at sundown, there are now plenty of occupations and lifestyles to choose from for those that just don’t do mornings, or for that matter, daylight.

Sure enough, times have changed, and probably more now, than ever before, the world functions ’round the clock.

It may just be, however, that early risers do actually have an advantage — at least in the bird world, where it turns out getting the proverbial worm is only part of the picture.

European and U.S. researchers teamed up recently to test the concept of early birds by examining what, if any, difference there is between birds who sleep in and those who rise early.

To alter the body’s clock and cause the birds to sleep later than normal, the team implanted melatonin, a hormone responsible for regulating the “internal clock,” in a group of male German songbirds.

The birds where then tracked and observed and the data collected was compared to other male birds of the same species that were not given melatonin.

Researchers found that while the melatonin increase did not impair the birds’ ability to reproduce and had no effect on the size of offspring they produced, there were definite differences.

While the melatonin-treated birds were sleeping in, their peers were already up and going about the business of life, and getting a late start on the day, it turns out, ended up costing the late risers in the long run.

Not only did the sleeping birds lose daylight, researchers found they also did not father as many children, and were far more likely to end up caring for a nest populated with the chicks of males who did rise early.

Rising early, it would appear, really does give birds an advantage, researchers concluded, where as sleeping in even a little longer than their peers leads to missed opportunities — particularly when it comes to finding a lady and fathering children.

Admittedly, sleeping in late every now and then has its own rewards, but if birds are any indication, examining one’s priorities before hitting snooze may not be a bad idea after all.

Sharna Johnson is a writer who is always searching for ponies. You can reach her at: [email protected]