Move over, larks and owls! There's a new sleep habit paradigm in town: dolphin, lion, bear, and wolf "chronotypes"

TJ_Fitz

Well-Known Member
See this article by Dr. Micheal J. Breus (who has written four five books on sleep):

Regarding sleep/wake habits, you've probably heard a lot about larks vs. owls, and possibly about hummingbirds as a third alternative. But humans are mammals, not birds, so doesn't it make more sense to look to the mammals for our different types of sleep/wake habits? And apparently, there are actually four distinct patterns, not three.

In a nutshell, lions and bears are your more conventional sleepers, with wolves having more nocturnal tendencies, and dolphins are just a hot mess where sleep is concerned. Personally, I look more like a dolphin than anything else. Which type best describes you? Take the quiz here:

If I could fix my sleep problems, I'm confident that just about everything else would fall in line for me, so I've looked at this topic a lot over the years. For example, one common piece of "sleep hygiene" wisdom is that we should try to be in bed by 10 pm and asleep by 11 pm, lest we hit a "second wind" and be awake for a few more hours. Hand in hand with that is the idea that our bodies do most of their regenerative work early in the night, so staying up past midnight causes us to miss the best window of time for recuperative sleep. Personally, I've found that I usually feel better rested and fewer aches and pains if I can get that early night sleep, but getting it is really tough for me!
 
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madie

Well-Known Member
The quiz is hilarious! "If you were going to chop wood for 2 hours, would you prefer to do it [choice of timeframe]."
 

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