Late risers: disadvantage for "owls"

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MunichThe early bird catches the worm - researchers have now scientifically substantiated this proverb. They found that the so-called “larks” among the students who find it easy to get up early and who are particularly fit early in the day did better at school and later at university. “Owls”, on the other hand, who go to bed late and have their performance peak late in the day, had poorer grades.

"The evening types are just as intelligent as early risers, they just have to call up their performance at the 'wrong' time," explains the chronobiologist Professor Christoph Randler from the University of Heidelberg.

Worse grades

In cooperation with the University of Bologna, Randler and colleagues viewed 31 studies from around the world with a total of 27,309 test subjects. It was found that evening types on all continents performed worse at school than early risers. On average, the performance of the owls was rated half a grade lower than that of the larks. And that definitely decides who gets a place and who doesn't.

The performance phenomenon is problematic because it affects the majority of adolescents: Most adolescents turn into owls for a few years during puberty. Around 20 percent of them are even extreme late types. This is apparently due to the hormonal turbulence in this phase of life - in the further course of life, the chronobiological rhythm of life for most of them shifts forward again.

Required to start school later

Later in the course, the differences in performance between larks and owls turned out to be less serious for another reason. The researchers suspect that students can better organize their study times according to their needs, while the start of school is mandatory for schoolchildren.

As a consequence of their meta-analysis, the research team calls for the start of school at least from the seventh grade to be postponed. Randler says: "9:00 am, as many scientists agree, would be a good time." (Cf)

Source: Lorenzo Tonetti et al .: Association between circadian preference and academic achievement: A systematic review and meta-analysis; Chronobiology International: 1-10; Posted online on 30 Jun 2015.

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