Can you change your sleep schedule?

Are you an early bird or a night owl? Explore how your circadian system acts as an internal clock to keep your body functioning.
--
An early bird rises with the sun, springing out of bed abuzz with energy. Meanwhile, a night owl groggily rises much later, not hitting their stride until late in the day. How many people are truly night owls or early birds? And are our sleep schedules predetermined at birth, or can we change them? Explore how our circadian systems act as internal clocks to keep our bodies functioning properly.
Directed by Avi Ofer.
A special thanks to Jamie M. Zeitzer, Ph.D who provided information and insights for the development of this video.
Support Our Non-Profit Mission
----------------------------------------------
Support us on Patreon: bit.ly/TEDEdPatreon
Check out our merch: bit.ly/TEDEDShop
----------------------------------------------
Connect With Us
----------------------------------------------
Sign up for our newsletter: bit.ly/TEDEdNewsletter
Follow us on Facebook: bit.ly/TEDEdFacebook
Find us on Twitter: bit.ly/TEDEdTwitter
Peep us on Instagram: bit.ly/TEDEdInstagram
----------------------------------------------
Keep Learning
----------------------------------------------
View full lesson: ed.ted.com/lessons/can-you-ch...
Dig deeper with additional resources: ed.ted.com/lessons/can-you-ch...
Animator's website: aviofer.com
Music: / aim-music
----------------------------------------------
Thank you so much to our patrons for your support! Without you this video would not be possible! Rohan Gupta, Begum Tutuncu, Brian Richards, Jørgen Østerpart, Tyron Jung, Carsten Tobehn, Katie Dean, Ezgi Yersu, Gerald Onyango, alessandra tasso, Doreen Reynolds-Consolati, Manognya Chakrapani, Ayala Ron, Eunsun Kim, Phyllis Dubrow, Ophelia Gibson Best, Paul Schneider, Joichiro Yamada, Henrique Cassús, Karthik Cherala, Clarence E. Harper Jr., Vignan Velivela, Ana Maria, Exal Enrique Cisneros Tuch, Tejas Dc, Khalifa Alhulail, Martin Stephen, Jose Henrique Leopoldo e Silva, Mandeep Singh, Abhijit Kiran Valluri, Morgan Williams, Devin Harris, Pavel Zalevskiy, Karen Goepen-Wee, Filip Dabrowski, Barbara Smalley, Megan Douglas, Tim Leistikow, Ka-Hei Law, Hiroshi Uchiyama, Mark Morris, Misaki Sato, EdoKun, SookKwan Loong, Bev Millar, Lex Azevedo, Michael Aquilina, Jason A Saslow, Yansong Li and Cristóbal Moenne.

[@edyrahman2208]

As an exhausted pigeon, I can confirm I am neither early bird nor night owl.

[@arkpiano13]

SAME AHAHA

[@gogominelans]

@@arkpiano13 2

[@Leo-ci4ib]

sameeee

[@marc21256]

Some people don't have enough of melatonin or cortisol, so make them an exhausted pigeon. Unfortunately, I'm a night owl at night, and an early bird in the morning. So I need a nap in the day (which I never get a chance to take). So I'm all three birds, just at different times in the day. Every day.

[@edyrahman2208]

@@marc21256 It's so true. Sometimes I can stay awake from night to morning (oftenly not sleep at all until noon), but in some other day I can easily feel tired at night and wake up early in the morning (like literally right now, I'm commenting this on 5am in the morning XD). But, I can be sure of something that my sleep duration is at least predictable. I hardly sleep for 30 minutes or 1-2 hours, so If I need to wake up to do something, my brain unconsiously "sleeping me up" for around 4-5 hours. If I'm free or sleep early, it's 7-8 hours (almost everytime idk why). But, badly for me if it's weekend when my brain knew I am free all-days, they would do that for 10-12+ hours!! (I hardly can move for waking up, but I must forced it if I don't want health risk/problem). Honestly, I feel like my brain is like different entity from me at this point. 😅

[@atlas4733]

“There’s no wrong time to fall asleep.” Tell that to a society that has everyone reaching a building the same minute, and punishes dissenters for their variation.

[@aryannarotra7487]

Real dude

[@rayansarin1011]

well time management also plays a factor for their work

[@shandrakor4686]

Yeah my natural chronotype has me wanting to fall asleep at 7am and waking up at 3pm. This has caused me no end of issues all my life from school to work to social life.

[@Authorrlee]

@@shandrakor4686I am so sorry to hear that! That sounds incredibly difficult

[@Yorick257]

I can get to work at plus/minus 2 hours. But in the last year I still decided to adopt morning schedule just because I got sick of not seeing any sun for months. In this case, sure, I'm a bit slow in the morning but then I can enjoy a nice walk after work.

[@Sunflowersarepretty]

I'm a night owl, have always been one so far as I can remember. As always the animation is amazing. The explanations are done so well! Thanks ted ed for educating us.

[@Notamanlowk191]

I was a night owl until I got diabetes..

[@Spencerlayne]

It's like your brain decides to start working when your head hit the pillow

[@Sunflowersarepretty]

@@Spencerlayne this!! And I make my most critical decisions at night.

[@katarinajanoskova]

Hi, I'm a night owl too! It's just gone midnight and I am planning a shower and about two hours for my reading and honestly, no one understands this.

[@Spencerlayne]

@@katarinajanoskova I'm still up as well. I'm tired but I'm just so restless. I want to sleep but I can't.

[@zabuzafan100]

Also a funny and important note is that different people require much different amounts of sleep, not just when they sleep. For example, my husband only requires about 6 hours of sleep in any given night. He usually goes to bed around 10:30-11 and is awake and going by 5am. He's done this for as long as I've known him. If he gets more sleep than that he is MORE tired and exhausted during the day. Myself, I require about 9-10 hours. I generally go to bed around 11-midnight and wake up somewhere between 8:30-10. We're both physically active and in good health, we just have different sleep requirements. If either of us tries to adapt to the others sleep schedule, one of us ends up dragging in the day. We've tried and it doesn't work. thankfully we have jobs that allow us the freedom to be able to get our preferred sleep schedules, but not everyone can.

[@user-ut1tf1yw2l]

I’m the same way as your husband. If I get anymore than 5 or 6 hours of sleep, I wake up exhausted and lethargic. 5 hours is the sweet spot for me with 6 being just on the edge of too much sleep.

[@Dani_1012]

I wish I only needed 6 hours to sleep refreshed and well rested, imagine what I could do with all that time available

[@user-ut1tf1yw2l]

@@Dani_1012 anyone can do it, it’s just consistency. Your body adapts

[@asteria1731]

​@user-ut1tf1yw2l wait isnt it genetic?

[@miajolie3837]

I wanna be like you so when i grow up. I'll have a work that can sustain my 12 hours of sleep and still survive :D

[@posthocprior]

I work from between 1 pm and 10 pm and go to bed between 2 am and 3 am. I've tried most of my life to change this schedule, I can't. When I was trying to change my sleep schedule, I read a lot of peer-reviewed papers on why there are people like me, who have very different sleep schedules from everyone else. One consistent reasoning I found: it was an advantage, millions of years ago, to have humans who were awake when others were asleep. That is, it was dangerous if everyone slept at the same time.

[@hakimdiwan5101]

Once I used to work in 1 pm to 10 pm and that made me sick physically, mentally and emotional. I'm not kidding I had to leave that job because of it.

[@Ashley-xu1lk]

Maybe you've tried it already, but I read once that to have better success at sleeping earlier is to do it by 30 minute increments. So let's say your goal is to sleep 1hour earlier. One night you sleep 30 minutes earlier than usual, the next night you decrease it by another 30 minutes. Of course it may take some fiddling of this formula for each person.

[@bitramedheswaralnsantosh630]

You're not wrong.. Just you are in the wrong time zone... Shift to a new time zone and you can sort it out probably

[@shanshan8928]

​@@bitramedheswaralnsantosh630I have been a night owl all of my life, and that does not change even when I change timezones 3 hours or even 12 hours after my normal time zone. As the video talks about, it is about the body experiencing light throughout the day. Your body may be confused but mine adjusts within a few days.

[@AyaDragonheart]

I do the exact same thing and I've felt so much better after I stopped fighting it. It's also come in handy when there have been family members who need help in the middle of the night. I'm already awake, so if I hear anything unusual I can respond quickly. Like the time my mom had sleep paralysis and fell out of bed because she went to punch her hallucination 😂💀

[@Felix-nz7lq]

Nice to know sunlight is essential when you live somewhere that gets 3 hours of it in the Winter and 24 of it in the Summer

[@sabrinarajan]

Sweden? 😅

[@rainymornings]

I use a sunlight lamp in winter... and I'm not even from a region with an extreme day/night rhythm. We get daylight from 8:30-16:30 in winter.

[@kiwilemontea4622]

I grew up in Alaska, so I definitely know how THAT goes. Everybody's sleep schedule is messed up up there.

[@vgtgoat]

I was a night owl and recently turned into an early bird. I'm 27 and I slept terribly late most of my life, around 2am unless I really forced myself. Part of that was revenge bedtime procrastination, part of it my burst of energy and willpower past midnight. For ten years I would promised myself I would quit this cycle with no success. Then, last month, I visited abroad in Asia. I left myself no days upon my return to the US to readjust my sleeping schedule for work. For over a week it was pure chaos as I tried to force myself to stay awake past my circadian rhythm and to sleep when I wasn't sleepy. It failed as I boomeranged between accidental 8 hour naps and missing my alarm and waking at 2pm and missing work. It was truly quite awful and traumatic. One day, amidst all this, I woke up at 4:30am after crashing at 6pm the previous night. That's when I decided I could lock this in. The following days I still had to fight hard to stay awake past 6pm, lest I wake up again at midnight, but soon I was making it to 9pm and waking up 8 hours later naturally. For the past two weeks, those morning hours have been bliss. I'm no longer "afraid" to sleep, because I know once I close my eyes I'll wake up to a few empty hours of tiptoeing and coffee instead of meetings and work. The most striking thing about all this to me is that I actually get uncontrollably sleepy at bedtime and feel my body "winding down" like I've always heard people do. I actually WANT and look forward to sleep which I realized I actually rarely ever truly felt before. In conclusion, I think it is possible to turn from a night owl into an early bird. But I think it requires either an ungodly amount of willpower or a week of self-inflicted sleep trauma.

[@Lauren-yr8ki]

Your post gave me hope 😄 I am 28 and for years I have been a night owl. Everybody forces me to change it, yet I wouldn´t even know where to start. Going to bed earlier resulted in laying awake for hours.. I came to a point where I believed I would never be able to change my sleeping patern. And that stresses me out since I live in an ´early bird society´.. But I will continu to try and change it, thanks to you👍

[@nightowl8032]

I am 18 and this has given me much hope. My sleep schedule has always been my core reason for a pile of failures. Let's see if I can make that happen. I would update if I succeed innit.

[@astudent63]

I live in a city so going to bed late wasn't a big thing coz everything was late even the dinner but when I used to visit my maternal grandma's home in the vacation , I used to go to bed at 8-9 pm (right after dinner) and my body requires around 9-10 hrs of sleep so even though I used to wake up at 7 and everyone in the village used to lecture me, I felt quite energetic throughout my day I want to follow that schedule so badly but studies and in future after college getting a job in city would only make it more difficult .... I want to live a peaceful life in countryside but there's no future in doing so therefore I've decided I'll earn as much as I can and take early retirement to live in the countryside ❤

[@grimjowjaggerjak]

It doesn't work for me, tried it but I ended up not sleeping for whole nights, or only 2，3，or 4 hours for like weeks now.

[@Authorrlee]

There are people who are adaptable and are neither “early bird” or “night owl” but if you are truly a night owl, this does not change nor can it no matter how much you try. It’s an unfortunate fact.

[@monblane493]

Any one else watching this instead of going to sleep

[@itonmoy]

😂😂

[@khan-cp7dh]

🙋

[@iqramuhammad341]

😂😂

[@evjq]

Having kids changed my sleep schedule 🥲

[@mr.sourarmpits1627]

Never having 'em

[@L17_8]

Jesus loves you ❤️ please turn to him and repent before it's too late. The end times described in the Bible are already happening in the world.

[@HaightTheGreat]

Having kids changes your everything.

[@jonathanerhard8353]

​@@L17_8when?

[@Spidey_Ethan]

Kid changed my sleep schedule for the worse. Wouldn’t change a thing. Love that little guy! (Besides, it gets better again)

[@guyg3333]

As someone who live in hot country, I personally prefer the night especially at summer time, it’s more quiet, less hot and dazzling, so during the day I exhausted from the hot, and at the night I became more energetic and productive, this is my reason to be night owls

[@adretter]

I can relate to that.. in my country you can't do anything during the time 10AM-7PM in Summer. Concentration is absolutely impossible for me when the temperature ranges between 35⁰-45⁰C.

[@celestialhylos7028]

Same, bro. Many people in Southeast Asia are nightowlish, including me. The unusual temperature this year doesn't help either

[@magicmysticman]

why is the art style red bull?

[@McBinnagin]

Night owl 100% since high school at least. I've successfully managed to have a "normal" sleep schedule for work many times but I never feel as productive, and naturally I'll stay up late and sleep in. Finally working evening hours and I've never had a conflict between sleep and work since, highly recommend for my fellow night owls

[@Off_the_clock_astrophysicist]

One positive outcome of Covid lockdowns. And yay for delayed send on email. I draft my emails late at night and schedule them to go out at 8am so I look like a productive member of society and not a drunk slacker.

[@Celisar1]

Most people cannot choose.

[@aayeeshah]

Me watching this at 2:59am

[@yassine8380]

I’m watching at 3:59 haha

[@angelicaheaven]

Im a night owl too...all these years , in school , college, work everywhere i found it extremely difficult to reach on time n have the energy in the morning...my productivity starts around 1 pm..my most productive hours are between 10pm - 2am ...I can read learn and gets things done real quick during these hours ...my family was quite supportive..but now after marriage my husband just dont get it that night owls exist.. anyways unfortunately the society is made for early larks..i think most of the ppl who comment here saying they had been night owls now changed and waking up early, they are actually pigeons and not true night owls...i have tried almost everything to change my schedule...it may work for a day or two ...but very difficult to get on track permanently...also i personally feel that night owls have better humor sense..they take things more lightly and enjoys things like silence, solitude, starry sky, phases of moon, rain , the night breeze etc😅 we have accepted that its difficult to fit into this society and its rules😊

[@Off_the_clock_astrophysicist]

My husband knows I am a night owl, but I don't think he truly understand what it's like to be a night owl and live in an early bird society. I cope with my shifted schedule by carefully planning and timing my morning routine. I have a little over an hour to get from my bed to my office. When I am in the middle of my well orchestrated and somewhat rushed morning routine, it's not rare for him to say "if you have time now, could you...". If he wants me to do anything other than get dressed in the morning, he needs to let me know the day before, because then I have to plan for an additional hour of sleep depravation and set my alarm clock accordingly. He, on the other hand, wakes up naturally and takes care of all kinds of things before he heads to the office. He doesn't even know how to operate his phone's alarm clock. The bliss.

[@pavanawasthi8258]

I agree 100%

[@arpitsrivstva]

It's very ironical of you saying that Night owls take things More LIGHTly. 😂

[@angelicaheaven]

@@arpitsrivstva 😂😂

[@tpsam]

This is very useful. Sleep deprivation is a crisis All schools especially high school should start at 9 am at earliest

[@kid10249595]

Honestly it should be later, and I think that shorter days may be a overall benefit too, given my school started at 8:45, but I would have to be up at like 7:30 to get ready and catch the bus, and then it was essentially a full work shift of school with only one break. I feel like having 2-3 classes a day to where there's more dedicated time to each class, and then a shorter day would do a lot of good as its a lot of cramming honestly going from say algebra, to history, to English, two electives, and then a science in one day.

[@Anonymoose66G]

@@kid10249595 I don't know, I like waking up early with a set goal, get ready and go. Sometimes I wake up an hour early to do chores etc but if I had multiple hours before school then I feel like it's get a bit boring. You also have to keep in mind a change in school schedules means a change in work schedules, I do think school days should be 4 hours a day, the most important thing is high quality teaching and socialization/activity. A teacher can be 12x better than another and so an hour could be covered in 5 minutes. We need to invest in education and increase teaching standards, a masters should be required, as well as a longer training requirement. Schools should follow the Finnish model and abolish privatized institutions etc.

[@hanhan005_5]

My school start at 6.45 ☠️

[@arkpiano13]

boarding school?@@hanhan005_5

[@Anonymoose66G]

@@hanhan005_5 Mine at 8:30.

[@Chuuyasimp_679]

I was a night owl, I am a night owl and I always will be a night owl🦉

[@Unan1mouz]

lol amen

[@jer103]

I'm a little of both early bird and night owl. In the past, I've had a job where I needed to be at work at 5am. Another job, I worked overnights from 10pm to 7am. Right now I tend to stay up to 1 to 2am. It depends a lot on when you go to bed to get enough rest to be awake and alert.

[@ElectricIguana]

I think my circadian rhythm is on a different planet's 27 hour day schedule. I tend to want to be up for a 18+ hours and sleep for 9+ hours. If unchecked, I would never go to sleep or wake up at the same time two days in a row.

[@Btburkhardt]

While I’m with you, this may mean you’re sleeping too much. Try 7 hours, and you’ll be sleepy around the normal time. I can sleep 12 hours, so I could go 30, then 12, then 30 again easily.

[@Livy_lives]

The voicing in this was incredibly engaging and informative. Thank you for explaining this topic in such a fun friendly way!

[@mcmerry2846]

No, the voice made me want to quit

[@isaacthek]

I knew a guy with a circadian rhythm significantly shorter than 24 hours, leading to him regularly transitioning between active days and nights over the span of a few weeks. This was even with light therapy.

[@falsemcnuggethope]

Mine is significantly longer than 24 hours so I experience the same unless I have to wake up every weekday at the same time. In which case I'm constantly sleep deprived.

[@Echo81Rumple83]

Having ADHD induced insomnia doesn't help much, hence why I take sleep aid and Tylenol when needed. Other than that, I'm actually a hummingbird: I adapt to whatever sleep schedule is needed for certain things life throws at me.

[@AtarahDerek]

Pro tip: Do not take more than 5 mg of melatonin, and take it an hour before you intend to go to bed. Taking too much melatonin spikes your insulin, which drops your blood sugar, which in turn spikes your cortisol and causes you to partially wake up in the middle of the night. This depletes your waking cortisol, making it difficult to get up and moving when your alarm goes off.

[@fuzzytadpole]

Im the same way, haha. I’ve always had a hard time getting to sleep and waking up.

[@zenedhyr7612]

As a fellow hummingbird, I can confirm this.

[@agelessorca]

Oooh, Hummingbird! I like that.

[@stephanhart1802]

Adhd can induce insomnia?? :0

[@thepast8376]

I've been a night owl all my life. Tried everything. When the sun comes up, I can't stay awake. When the sun goes down, I wake up! I've been trying to change this for over 70 years. I am a Night Owl!

[@Benni777]

Not only do all these point mentioned in the video affect your sleep cycle, another thing not mentioned was the fact that trauma, of any kind, of any degree, can totally set your sleep schedule off track, maybe even non-existent. For trauma survivors sleep is one of the hardest thing to maintain, even for a couple of nights; especially if a lot of the trauma started at night (like mine). The more trauma a person endures, the harder it is for the body to adapt to different sleep schedules and daily routines, and it’s not any of their faults; it’s just how our bodies naturally and to adapt in order to survive. So if you’re a trauma survivor like me, and who has such a hard time with sleep,and daily routines, you’re not alone! 🤗

[@johnnyearp52]

I am a trauma survivor. I also have autism and bipolar. My sleeping schedule is a mess. I try to stay on track but it is very difficult.

[@rainymornings]

What kind of trauma are we talking? I feel like everyone has trauma these days

[@johnnyearp52]

@@rainymornings Also, a lot of people are traumatized.

[@HavefaithinAllahswt]

I'm a trauma survivor too and it's actually very hard to maintain a healthy sound sleep routine but these days I've been very stressed and recently I've been found to have depression after summoning up my courage I told mom about it she's very supportive so I'm on medication now . Its quite difficult for me these days I can't focus on my studies and I have my exams coming up soon .

[@KasumiRINA]

@@rainymornings I usually wake up from air raid alarms, but on some days due to explosions... so definitely not everyone has the same trauma. (please don't EVER use fireworks if you have Ukrainian or Syrian refugees in your hood).

[@Vodolaga_Nova]

I am somebody between an owl and early bird. I like to run and walk under moon light in really early mornings like 4.30-5.00 am. And when I am doing this I feel so much energy and power that I get from that walk

[@charlielarson1350]

you might be a werewolf

[@Vodolaga_Nova]

@@charlielarson1350 yea maybe, lol

[@atlas4733]

HOW?!

[@isabellaweir2763]

my brother once walked home at 4:30 in the morning and he got mugged :(

[@Vodolaga_Nova]

@@isabellaweir2763 its really sad, but hopefully I live in small town and at 4am almost everybody sleeping, and I walking only with small clock

[@bethjacobx]

that opening quote? i felt that

[@sanchitabanerjee9236]

This video is too good thankyou so so much , loved it and the editing ☮️

[@mrjoshua1983]

As Michael Scott once said: “I’m an early bird and a night owl. So I’m wise and I have worms.”

[@kellyd6619]

That's hilarious! I can just picture him saying that. LOL

[@PoppyOxymoron]

I have adhd and i realised that it was probably responsible for my insomnia, however, what i found the most helpful is waking up at 4am everyday no matter what. Defo a morning person and it helps with my insomnia as if i wake up at 2 am and cant sleep (i have the insomnia where i wake up constantly in the night) then i still got six hours because i went to bed with the intention to get up at 4am. Literally, getting up at 4am doing a two hour run and then going to work has helped my sleep schedule so much

[@Dazzle835]

tbh, i'm such a night owl and in my country, it's almost midnight. when i was 16 years old, i can fully immerse when the night becomes darker and it sticks with me till now. the darker the night, the more the silence and the more i can focus. sometimes, i wish some exams would be held at night lol

[@dani33300]

Erasmus+ scholarship in Finland; I took an exam on december 31 at 23:00 - it was the coolest.

[@user-fl7vw5mv3f]

I feel more alive when it's night or raining, and all my senses are improved, not sure why

[@ozlemsavran2315]

It is difficult to categorize myself as either an early bird or a night owl. My sleep pattern is inconsistent, and there are times when I find myself falling asleep at my desk while studying, listening to podcasts, or even chatting with my friends on the phone, unlike consciously going to bed before midnight. It depends on how tired I feel during the day. The surprising fact is that, regardless of the circumstances, I can wake up without setting an alarm. I've got used to staying up late, but I've somehow managed to wake up early, sometimes kicking and screaming. When I experience sleep deprivation, it can come from anxiety, overthinking, and tossing and turning in nightmares. I've had to stay awake consciously even when I could barely keep my eyes open, but I've learned to handle it.

[@user-pr7dp3qb8j]

00:11 Early birds are energetic in the morning while night owls take time to wake up. 00:42 Most people fall somewhere in the middle of being night owls or early birds. 01:12 Nerve cell clusters in the hypothalamus track the day-night cycle and regulate circadian rhythm. 01:45 Your circadian system uses light and timing to predict when you need sleep 02:17 Stick to a strict sleep schedule to change sleep habits. 02:48 Maintaining consistent sleeping hours helps your body's circadian rhythm and hormone production 03:20 Light hygiene is essential for synchronizing circadian rhythm. 03:53 Maintaining a consistent sleep schedule is difficult

[@sundararaj13]

Useful and informative video. The VO given is indeed superb! Super lady!

[@AvanHamaland]

I am a night owl. When I have to get up early for work I'm just always tired. I don't get used to it. I am very happy I can now work a late shift. It feels so much more natural to me and I feel better and have a lot more energy.

[@deborahlee7496]

Love your reactions dude!!!

[@AnimealPlanet]

Meanwhile, me who is tired all day despite lazing around. Who am I? 🤔

[@LauraC369]

::: a senior?

[@chetananand1167]

Potato

[@KasumiRINA]

someone who doesn't exercise enough

[@jeanbrehon]

The man falling head first in his cup of coffee is absolutely a mood. Sent me rolling lmao

[@Shaykh-Waleed-White]

I have been a night owl for half of a decade and trust me,it's as normal as anything atleast for me Some argue that this is wrong but from a scientific point of view and as mentioned by Teded,there's no wrong time to sleep or wake,there's only you getting the rest you need and finishing up the tasks of the day.

[@falsemcnuggethope]

My only rule is to sleep whenever possible.

[@feyrelamentation1994]

I have an awful sleep schedule that I've been trying to change, but it's been difficult. I usually feel tired and go to bed around 4-5am and I wake up around 2-3pm. I've tried just getting into bed a few hours earlier, even though I'm not tired, but then I end up having trouble falling asleep and end up tossing and turning in bed for hours until I inevitably fall asleep around 4-5am as usual...

[@Kelly_Ben]

I was finally diagnosed with a broken circadian rhythm, after a lifetime of staying up late, and sleeping in random chunks. I’m most energetic at night, midnight to 2am,and 7 am for me is like 3am for others. I finally stopped fighting it, and have 2 jobs that work around my sleep. And a very understanding husband! Unfortunately, it HAS led to high blood pressure, though the rest of my lifestyle is so healthy.

[@hkayakh]

Something I’ve noticed (and mentioned in the video) is light exposure. If you are in your house all the time, with the lights on, then your body will still think it’s daytime and make you stay awake. But, if you have it so only the sun is your light source, then you’ll start waking up and going to bed in tandem with the sun because your body reacts to that light.

[@IbrahimLink-yc7nn]

I love this channel

[@nfc14g]

I have switched between the two quite a few times. Its easy to do and takes between a few days to a few weeks to get to that full sleepiness or wakefulness that you want. The more regular you are the easier the switch is. For those wanting to get up early, do things like leave a curtain open a little so in the morning there is natural light, an indicator your body can use. Put your phone / alarm on the other side of the room so you have to get out of bed to turn it off. If you live in a cold place, have warm comfy clothes there so you can stay out of bed and open the curtains fully. One thing that overrides this is job / school satisfaction. If you know as soon as you wake up, you are going to a place you don't want to be, your brain may try to prevent sleep the night before because subconsciously you know if you sleep, the very next thing is stress / tension or anxiety. If you are unhappy with it, change your job!

[@belliott88]

In my case, it’s probably a combination of how I was raised paired with how I spent my teens and early twenties. With that said, I have never enjoyed early mornings. Not once. And, I come alive between 10pm - 8am like clockwork.

[@alexandrabolotova1579]

The art style is so cuuuuute❤❤❤❤

[@andreahjalmarsson1092]

That’s so interesting, I’ve never really identified with either early bird or night owl because I’ve always liked waking up early but the first half hour or so in the morning I’m still kind of asleep, it feels like sleepwalking and I rarely remember that time. But staying up late is really not my thing either… so I guess my student life has impacted my sleep schedule a lot, not getting sunlight and looking at a computer all day, procrastinating and staying up too late to finish writing something.

[@abhayanand9585]

Beside the main topic, animation is simple and great! ❤

[@logicisuseful]

I would say that I’m pretty clearly a night owl, but that I’ve also clearly plumbed the depths of my ability to reprogram (which can, on a short-term basis, be pretty significant). During a summer backpacking trip in college and the subsequent summer job as a camp counselor, I was pretty reliably getting up at the crack of dawn and falling asleep about an hour after sunset, but that was summer (lots of light) with some pretty high levels of activity, and I was *still* slow to really get moving most mornings. When I’ve had the ability to sleep as I prefer, bedtime is somewhere around midnight and wake-up is somewhere around 8:30 AM (followed by a slow start to the morning). During my work week, I have to get up at 7:00 to be on-time to work. I’m not always on-time, my first alarm is set before 7:00 because “get up” and “wake up” are very different things, and I still stay up until at least 11:00 almost every night (sometimes after midnight).

[@creamycreamcheese]

i seem to be most productive and happier at night but during the day i dont wanna do anything and im so sleepy 😭

[@KaylaPearlCPNinja]

Having insomnia has thrown my circadian rhythm off balance ever since I was in high school. And it sucks so badly. Because I have a hard time falling asleep and staying asleep because of it!

[@AtarahDerek]

I have ADHD and endocrine issues due to the loss of my thyroid several years ago. I figured out that I'm supposed to be crepuscular. When I'm camping, I can easily get up early, go start the fire, put on water for tea, coffee or brewed cacao, and absolutely revel in the crisp morning air. It's one of my absolute greatest joys. But I still want a nap that afternoon. And then I can thoroughly enjoy the evening. I'm at my best when I'm allowed to live like that. At home, however, I'm a night owl through and through, even to my detriment. And I hate leaving my curtains open at night to allow sunlight in come morning, because there's far too much other light and inconsistency in our modern world, which inhibits sleep (a problem I don't have out in the mountains). Plus I live north of the 45th parallel, so leaving my curtains open could potentially trigger SAD in both summer and winter months, due to the sharp differences in daylight hours.

[@akankshapravin1418]

loss of thyroid? please elborate? i am just curious.

[@AtarahDerek]

@@akankshapravin1418 I had thyroid cancer and had to get a total thyroidectomy. Now I have to actively balance ALL of my own hormones using medication and lifestyle changes, because my body can no longer do it automatically. And it absolutely affects my ADHD. It's gotten worse since losing my thyroid.

[@flyby3079]

Sorry you hsve to go through all that. I also have ADHD but thankfully no thyroid issues. That sounds really tough what you’re going thru.

[@OmnipotentPotato]

The part about light was really surprising. Whenever I'm having trouble getting out of bed, usually a quick flash of the sunlight from outside the window makes me immediately wake up. I've always wondered why it does that.

[@Ownage4lif31]

For me it's the opposite. I see sunlight I fall asleep even harder for longer haha

[@falsemcnuggethope]

When indoor lights are dimmed down in the evening, that's the moment I feel I truly wake up for the first time during the day. I just feel hungover if I go to sunlight when I'm really sleep deprived.

[@kay-no]

Fantastic video

[@whatsreallyinvaccineshealt756]

Great Video 👌🏻

[@d00mf00d]

Yes. I changed mine from a "midshift" to a "dayshift". Went from waking up at 9am to 330am. Took about 4 months.

[@llfn1718]

Clever sense of humor Ted-Ed! I'm just waking up 2 minutes ago and rushing because I have work in 30 minutes!

[@hashblack11]

Have a great day❤🎉

[@v.l.963]

Be careful!

[@davea6314]

I'm guessing that you're in the Pacific time zone because it was about 8am there when you typed your comment. 8am on a weekday is an annoyingly typical time to be traveling to work. Try being different and work swing shifts and weekends...

[@icyalmond]

Perfect timing ted ed, its like 1am when I'm watching this and I've gotta wake up at 5am

[@bts_1999_jiminpark]

😮tht opening quote !!felt tht.

[@dadapotok]

i'll just give a shoutout to the huberman lab podcast having circa 6 episodes about sleep for those who REALLY need to figure things out. episode about the shift work and interview witth Matt Walker were particularly life-changing for me. Though light-sensitive, hyper-sensitive, neurodivergent and ASD people may need to dig even deeper and somewhere else

[@raghulmoorthi6230]

Kudos to the animators and the narrator. 👏👏

[@kimchi8022]

This art style is so silly. I love it. ❤

[@thebg0005]

Exactly the video i needed

[@SevenUnwokenDreams]

Aw man I have been trying to become a morning person for months. I like the idea of getting up before the sun and doing all my writing while I have my morning coffee.

[@msdenise1234567]

Omg Emma's quote! I love her art 🥰

[@ashishshukla14]

I love these animations

[@wahiawamang6622]

I don’t have a sleep schedule. I’ve worked shift work for 32 years. I know it’s wreaked havoc on my body and I’m slowly paying the price for it

[@freesoul8188]

My father worked shifts all his life. He paid a toll with his health 🥺 Take care of your body

[@mjr543]

Well sunlight gives me severe migraines so apart from that small snag we're all set.

[@Ikajo]

These never addresses the impact of living in an area that naturally has fluctuating daylight hours depending on the time of the year. Summer near the polar circle means long days and short nights, at times it will never get dark. Winter means short days and long nights. Often with only a couple of hours of proper sunlight. Ever experienced it being dark at 8 in the morning and then dark again 4 in the afternoon? In some places, they don't get any sunlight at all.

[@kongalaia]

Been working straight night shift for almost 3 years now. My work schedule is US EST time based which is -12/-13 hours from my time. I have weekends off so I usually try to stay awake after my Friday shift ends which is already Saturday morning my time. Overtime my body has gotten used to it that I always wake up at night and go sleepy during the day. It is crazy and chaotic but it is one of the highest paying job here. I already miss sleeping at night 😢 I was definitely an early bird before.

[@snowjae9380]

Is there any way you can switch schedules eventually? My dad worked night shift and he recommends not doing it for the long haul.

[@EmmanuelMarin07]

I tried that and it felt awful. One of the reasons why i quit. I hope you have better opportunities 🤞

[@fesyaa8407]

Wow! A new insight. Thanks!

[@craigmerkey8518]

Wow this is totally me! I love early morning and late night! The problem is these two time frames are too close to each other! My worse time of day is between 3 and 7 PM!

[@sediamakrez8373]

I'm a night owl but because of school I have to magically transform into an early bird. Gonna watch to the end for some gelpful tips. Thanks for the video!

[@choco_easty]

These animations are perfect and super funny!! I chuckled when the guy dunked his entire head into the coffee cup! LOL!

[@Tamizushi]

I moved into a new appartment this summer. My room has two of its wall entirely made of windows. I never had so much light exposure. And the normally night owl I am has suddenly turned into a 6h30 AM early bird. Apparently that's all I needed. It's kinda crazy.

[@LynHannan]

I've had different regimes at different life stages. I think most would agree that teens and early 20's are more of night-owl rhythms - it seems to be a natural phase before adulthood where hormones are coming to the fore creating stressors both physical and mental. Parenthood brings it's own dystopia of broken/ disturbed sleep with the natural responsibilities that entails. The most unnatural rhythms are those enforced by our education and career lifestyles (this wasn't such an issue in the old caveman days!). As we get older, we tend to do less physically and are therefore less physically and mentally tired, so actually require less sleep, but still seem to have our own rhythms. By the time we are elderly, napping at any time (intentional or not) is becoming frequent which throws out the window any outward aspirations of sleep schedules. While I do believe we all have our own rhythms, they are greatly influenced by simply living and the life stage we are at in a given moment. Life is a fluctuating rhythm that is influenced by other fluctuating rhythms, from daily commitments of hormones, school, work, family and ageing, to the yearly seasonal changes of light availability of the planet we live on.

[@ActiveAdvocate1]

I get up at 5:30 and go to bed at 11:00 pretty consistently, but the odd thing is, while I'm okay throughout the day, my creativity and intellect don't really start to peak until about 9:00 at night. I GUESS I tend more towards "night owl", in that case?

[@Devil-qn4gm]

Same

[@naryanr]

I've always been a night owl. To the extent that I think I actually may have a little owl DNA. I think I'd like to be an early bird, and the morning around 4-5am is, to me at least, often stunningly, staggeringly beautiful, far more so than sunset. But when waking early I just feel like there isn't time in the day to get certain things done. There's certain tasks, mainly computer-related tasks, that just do *_not_* seem to fit into any time of day besides 10pm-2am.

[@sudonym707]

The pan from the pigeon elegantly perched in their nest, eyes closed, and resting with an air of dignity, to the owl just slumped on the branch, with no hoots given, made me chuckle.

[@prairiefaerie]

This is what I’m currently trying to do to accommodate my new earlier job!

[@gretamortensen1411]

I am currently watching this video instead of sleeping. I hope other people can appreciate the iron as much as I do.

[@soundsqueerbutokay]

Ted-Ed probably noticed my non existing sleeping routine and made this video

[@FelinaFaerlaingal]

As a kid I was an early bird Then college happened and I became a night owl

[@sakshisharma-dq7wt]

I'm a total night owl! I just love the peaceful vibes when it's late, you know? It's so quiet, no one's bugging you, and my phone's not blowing up every second. Plus, I swear my focus goes through the roof at night. I usually hit the hay around 3 AM and then wake up around 9 feeling totally refreshed, ready to tackle the day! But hey, being a night owl's all good as long as you're using that time for something productive, not just binge-watching shows or endlessly scrolling through Insta. Seriously, if you're doing that, maybe consider flipping the switch and putting that time into something that'll really pay off!

[@FURYBrenton]

Can for awhile and then it slowly reverts back to staying up late and sleeping half the day

[@susannaalexanyan1345]

From an early age, I have been a night owl. My creativity peaks at night - when the distractions fade away, and I find myself alone and in peace. However, being a night owl always had its challenges; the biggest one is constant fatigue during daylight hours. I have tried to change my sleep schedule many times, but I never managed. I try to not lose hope)))

[@nevaeh9125]

Can TED-Ed do a video on Narcolepsy? Like what it is, what causes it, etc. I myself am a Narcoleptic with Cataplexy and I'd be really interested in a short video on it. ❤

[@kid10249595]

Night owl here, drives my family up the wall too because their early birds, and for me it takes a bit to fully wake up even when I wake up naturally. They all keep assuming its because I'm lazy, but dammit all I just am not wired like they are and tend to function better and more towards the midday and night.

[@ZeroOne-01]

"Early bird or a Night Owl".. hm.. What a nice set of options, sadly I can't choose between the two as I'm forced to do both as a student.

[@MiraBear]

That explains why I was sick four two semesters in college

[@R.M.MacFru]

I've been a night owl for most of my 55+ years. My work schedule is often at odds with it. My start time has primarily been between 5:30 am and 6:30 am. All these years and if presented with more than a few days off, I'll revert to getting up at 10:30 or so.

[@mrhoho]

thank you for sharing.

[@joshuamacdonald4913]

I slowly changed my sleep schedule. It took years and hard work.

[@sagittarius5466]

Watching this at 7am having not slept at all yet 👍

[@shazz0379]

I loved this video

[@Freemelon07]

2:32 is adorable. 😂❤️

[@adityatripathi103]

I drastically change my sleep cycle every exam season. Usually my day is 7 am to 12 pm but when exams are near I find it peaceful to study at night and change my schedule to 5 pm to 8 am. And yes that means I see very less sunlight and usually non at all since I also have blackout curtains

[@mariaeduardadias3935]

I'm both early birth and night owl depending the day. My body adapt quite fast in my schedule routine, so when I needed to go to school early, I woke up 5:00am - 6:30am; however in the vacations, I ever went to the bed before 2:30am - 3:00am. Nowadays I'm working, and is it the same schedule, switching to work days and weekends.

[@JustJordann_]

This sounds just about right- I literally start feeling tired and sleepy after staying up beyond 12 at midnight and then automatically wake up at like 7-8 (though i usually wake up for sch at 6 sum)

[@personaslates]

It doesnt seem to matter what i do or how little i sleep the day before. Ever since my years and years of graveyard shifts i find myself waking up around 3-4pm and going to bed around 6-7am. Once the sun starts to show it face i start to get sleepy.

[@joelhounak]

" there is no wrong time to wake up " Merci!