What makes a person a night owl or a second mouse?
I do think that there is a slight difference between a second mouse and a night owl. I’d definitely consider myself a second mouse, which in my own weird vocabulary means someone who wakes up right in the sweet spot between 9:30 am – 11:30 am or goes to sleep around 12 am – 2 am. Whereas I always thought of night owls as more of the type to go to sleep around 5 am and wake up early afternoon instead. However, seeing as how I’m an advocate for all late risers, I did design a planner for night owls too!
Is it unhealthy to be a night owl or a second mouse?
There are many things that early birds experience that night owls may not. For example, WHY DOES EVERYTHING CLOSE SO EARLY? Basically, if you don’t eat dinner until 10:00 PM your options are Mcdonald’s or Waffle House. Early birds tend to get in more exercise, because let’s be honest, who wants to wake up at 6:00 am to go on a morning jog? Not me! However, there have been several studies done on the benefits of being a night owl.
Let’s take a look at the benefits of being a night owl.
1. That’s just how your body works! It is completely natural to have a different rhythm than waking up at 7 am and going to sleep at 10 pm. I’m not a health expert, but according to various studies and articles, it’s called the “Circadian Rhythm” (read more about it here!) and it’s fairly easy to figure out your rhythm by just not using an alarm and seeing when your body naturally wakes up. For me, that looks like waking up around 10:00 AM and not falling asleep until about 2:00 AM. Still a healthy 8 hours of sleep!
2. I find that my creative juices are flowing a lot more during the night time. In my field, it is extremely common to have artists up until midnight working on projects. In fact, I think that’s the case for lots of creative fields!
3. A lot of early birds are, in fact, not actually early birds! Night owls tend to their own schedule, meaning that they’re sleep patterns are more their own. In this study, they discovered that only about 10% of the population can be classified as early birds and 20% as night owls. The other entire 70% of the population is somewhere between that (i.e. A Second Mouse!)
4. Early birds may hit the ground running in the mornings but tire out more quickly later on in the day than night owls. According to a study in the journal Science by the University of Liege in Belgium night owls were less sleepy and had faster reaction times than their early bird counterparts when both groups were tested 10 hours from their respective wake up times.
5. Lastly, and probably one of my favorite benefits…. THE SOLITUDE. It’s so quiet at night, it’s peaceful, it’s relaxing, and it’s NOT STRESSFUL. During the morning, you’re often shamed for not being productive. But HELLLOOOOOOO, none of those people are there at night. They’re all sound asleep while we’re creating, learning, and enjoying life!
Why I decided to make a planner specific for late risers
Well, honestly, it comes down to necessity. I’ve been driven up the wall by daily planners that end at 5 PM.
I need flexibility and I also need to be able to plan for the things I will be doing at night. Who says I can’t have a cute planner that goes until 4:00 AM? Sure, there are planner pages that are 24 hours…. But like, they aren’t cute?
I’ve created the second mouse planner to gather everything in small blurbs all on one planner page and enhanced it with colors and cuteness! No more are the days when you have to settle for black and white 24 hour planners or furiously scratching out the times on a 6 am – 5 pm planner! With these pages, you can plan your days on your schedule and not have to adhere to the limitations of a normal daily planner that ends at 5. Now let’s get planning!
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