Morning Lark, Night Owl or Meditation?

One of the areas I found really interesting during my psychology degree was the concept of the morning lark and the night owl. Having disliked mornings for as long as I can remember, it was comforting to discover a concept that explained why. My brain just didn’t seem to fit into a society built for morning larks—those seemingly strange creatures who are full of happiness and cheer in the morning lecture, or laughing and joking in the office.

Meanwhile, I—and the majority of my friends—would sit quietly until the second coffee hit. I used to drive to work with one friend who you simply couldn’t talk to for the first 45 minutes of the journey. Then, like clockwork, as we hit the roundabout about 15 minutes from the hospital where we worked, they would come alive, like someone had flicked an “on” switch.

This life experience, combined with some academic research, made me feel safe in my dislike for mornings. That was, until I started to meditate.

I don’t know if it was the meditation itself or the deeper sleep I began getting thanks to the evening rituals I now had around winding down to meditate. It’s important to note that my meditation practice isn’t what people might first imagine—not hours of sitting in a quiet room trying to clear my mind (though that has helped).

The meditation I practice is short and sweet, never longer than 30 minutes. I might use a burning candle or listen to a guided meditation that leads into a set frequency for sleep.

The outcome was quite surprising:

I started to enjoy getting up in the morning.

I stopped snoozing my alarm—sometimes I used to hit it up to five times!

I began feeling more refreshed.

I could finally have pleasant conversations with my once overly-chatty friend.

I even started getting up at least an hour before I had to leave, just so I could make a coffee and enjoy it in bed. Sometimes, I’d even read.

Previously, I would be rushing out the door, wondering if I had my pants on the right way round—or if I’d put them on at all.

This transformation got me thinking: is this “morning lark vs night owl” concept just another label we adopt and start to live by? Or is there something deeper?

It’s times like this I wish I were still at university with the opportunity to turn this into a research project.

Anyone fancy a fun experiment?