Characterics of morning people:
- enjoy waking up with or before the sun, often without using an alarm clock
- can be extremely productive before 7am
- get tired by around 10pm and typically have no trouble falling asleep
- do their best thinking first thing in the morning
Characteristics of night owls:
- have a general hatred for alarm clocks and a disfunctional relationship with the snooze button
- loathe getting out of bed above all things
- gradually become more energetic throughout the day and enjoy staying up past midnight on a regular basis
- sometimes try to go to bed early but lie awake for hours, unable to fall asleep
- do their best thinking after sunset
In my opinion, the difference is not just a matter of how much sleep you need or whether you like to be awake before everyone else. I think it has much more to do with your body's concept of a "day".
For morning people, the equation is something like:
(number of hours you naturally want to be awake) + (number of hours you want to sleep) <= 24
And for the night owls, it's more like this:
(number of hours you want to be awake) + (number of hours you want to sleep) >= 25
This would explain why night owls seem to get in a cycle of going to bed later and later, then either waking up later and later or else building up sleep debt night after night. It's hard to go to bed when your body says that it's not ready to sleep yet, but it's hard to want to get out of bed when the morning always comes too soon. On the other hand, for morning people their bodies tell them that it's time to go to bed with enough time for them to get fully rested before they need to wake up in the morning. Sometimes I am amazed that morning people don't have to exercise extreme willpower to get out of bed when the alarm rings, but maybe this theory explains that behavior too. /shudder
