4 Sleep Myths Most People Still Get Wrong

Do early risers really enjoy better health, greater happiness, and more success than people who prefer to sleep later? Many people think so. In reality, that is only one of several common myths about sleep. These beliefs may be widely repeated, but they are still false.

How many of these supposed facts about sleep do you believe?

1. Waking up earlier is always better.

Many people praise the benefits of being an early bird that “catches the worm.” But research does not fully back up the idea that getting up early is always the best choice. What the evidence does show very clearly is that adults need seven to eight hours of sleep each night. Getting less can harm your health, mood, judgment, and mental performance.

So if you plan to follow the example of former Apple CEO Tim Cook and rise at 4 a.m. every day, you would need to go to bed at 8 or 9 p.m. That may require turning down invitations and cutting back on your social life. But research also shows that too little social connection can hurt your physical and emotional well-being.

2. Early risers have more self-discipline.

People who wake up early may seem more disciplined, but science does not necessarily support that claim either. What research does tell us is that each person has a different chronotype, meaning the time of day when they feel most alert and productive. According to brain researcher Erin Venza, that period is morning for most people, so getting up earlier may bring some advantages, though not necessarily as early as 4 a.m.

Still, not everyone is naturally a morning person. Some people are night owls and do their best work in the late afternoon or evening. It is wiser to work with your chronotype rather than against it, and to plan your most important tasks for the hours when you are mentally sharpest. It is also worth dropping the idea that early risers are somehow morally superior to late risers, especially since chronotype is partly genetic.

There is also the issue of social jet lag, which happens when people who wake early during the week sleep later on weekends to make up for lost rest. That creates very different sleep schedules between weekdays and weekends, and research has linked that pattern to several health problems.