If you are up late at night reading this, kudos to you, it appears that you are of higher intelligence. What makes us say that? A recent study has uncovered some fascinating results. It appears that if you stay up late you are smarter.
But as with almost everything, there are always some catches, anomalies and exceptions to the rule. Take for instance the favorite old saying, “early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” This particular phrase was coined by Benjamin Franklin, undoubtedly a man of exceptionally high intelligence and one who preferred an early night. Benjamin Franklin is clearly an exception to the rule that if you stay up late you are smarter. So lets get to the study that shows that who go to bed late and wake up later in the morning are more intelligent.
If you stay up late are you smarter?
In a study conducted by The London School of Economics, the results clearly showed night owls had higher IQ’s. A psychologist who conducted the study believes that the genetic predisposition that control our circadian rhythms (the body clock), can be more easily altered bu smarter individuals. The reason is that our ancient ancestors had little reason for nocturnal activities, instead choosing to build social interactions and navigation just to name a few. Before humans could tame fire, it made more sense, both for safety and navigation reasons to rise and retire with the sun.
So staying up late is genetically unusual for people, and it requires intelligence to overcome our predisposition. The higher the IQ of a person, the later they can generally stay up at night because it requires our intelligence to over-ride our instinct to go to bed early.
But proceed with caution. If you think that you can stay up late at night and have a higher IQ with no side effects, think again. Several health issues accompany the midnight oil burners. It can lead to heart disease and stiff arteries. Also, generally people who stay up late generally suffer from a higher frequency of mental health issues. It can cause many people to be more irritable, and less agreeable. Who wants to be around a person like that? Also those who head to bed in the wee hours of the morning are much more likely to suffer from depression than those who make a beeline for the bed not long after the sun has passed over the horizon. So is it really worth it just to be that little bit smarter?
