Originally published 2019-07-19.
Short answer: no. Struggling to get out of bed in the morning is not, on its own, a sign of high intelligence. What the research does show is narrower and more interesting. Some studies find a small link between being an "evening type" (someone whose body clock runs late) and scoring a little higher on intelligence tests. That link is modest, it describes averages across thousands of people rather than any one person, and it says nothing about hitting the snooze button five times because you slept badly.
This piece looks at where the popular "night owls are smarter" idea comes from, what the two studies most often quoted in it actually found, and what is far more likely to be going on when mornings feel impossible.
Where the "late risers are smarter" idea comes from
The claim usually traces back to a 2009 paper by evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa of the London School of Economics and Kaja Perina, editor of Psychology Today, published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences under the title Why night owls are more intelligent.
Their argument runs like this. For most of human history, people were active in daylight and slept after dark. Staying up late is, in evolutionary terms, a relatively new habit. Kanazawa's broader theory holds that more intelligent people are more likely to adopt "evolutionarily novel" preferences, so he predicted that brighter people would drift toward later bedtimes. Using survey data from a large sample of young Americans, the paper reported that those with higher childhood IQ scores tended to go to bed and wake up later as young adults, even on weekdays.
Two cautions matter here. First, the study looked at bedtimes and wake times, not at how hard people found it to get up. Second, Kanazawa is a controversial figure. His wider work on intelligence has been heavily criticised by other researchers, and in 2011 the LSE found that some of his public writing had brought the school into disrepute. That does not automatically make the night-owl finding wrong, but it is a reason to treat the evolutionary explanation as one hypothesis rather than settled science.
Angelina Jolie wakes up wrapped in a sheet in a scene from Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005), the kind of leisurely morning the "late risers are smarter" headlines like to picture.
What the Southampton "larks and owls" study really found
The second study usually cited is a 1998 paper in the BMJ by Catharine Gale and Christopher Martyn of the MRC Environmental Epidemiology Unit at the University of Southampton. Its title, Larks and owls and health, wealth, and wisdom, is a nod to Benjamin Franklin's famous line about "early to bed and early to rise."
The researchers used a British government survey from 1973–74 of 1,229 people aged 65 and over, then followed them for 23 years. They grouped people as:
- Larks: in bed before 11 pm and up before 8 am (about 29% of the sample).
- Owls: in bed at or after 11 pm and up at or after 8 am (about 26%).
The results are often reported loosely. Here is what the paper actually says:
- Wealth: larks were not better off. Owls had the highest average income and were a little more likely to have a car, though the car difference was borderline.
- Health: neither group had a clear health advantage.
- Wisdom: scores on a simple cognitive test were almost identical across groups.
The authors' own conclusion was that their findings "do not support Franklin's claim" and that a late-to-bed, late-to-rise lifestyle did not seem to put people at a disadvantage. That is a long way from proving owls are cleverer or happier. The study measured older adults only, it did not measure happiness at all, and its cognitive test was not designed to separate high from average intelligence.
Too much time in bed is not a bonus
The same Southampton paper contains a finding that rarely makes the headlines. Once the researchers adjusted for total time spent in bed, the small differences in death rates between larks and owls disappeared. What remained was a link between long hours in bed and higher mortality: people who spent 12 hours or more in bed had about 1.7 times the risk of death over the follow-up period compared with those spending around nine hours. The lowest risk was seen at around eight hours.
Another still from the same scene. A lazy morning now and then is harmless; regularly needing twelve hours or more in bed is the pattern the Southampton data flagged.
This does not mean lying in bed is dangerous in itself. Long sleep and long rest are often signs of an illness that is already there, such as heart disease, depression or another chronic condition. The useful message is that regularly needing far more rest than usual is worth paying attention to, not something to brag about.
Chronotype: why some people are wired for later hours
Scientists use the word chronotype to describe whether your body clock leans early or late. It is partly inherited: large genetic studies have found more than 20 gene variants linked to it, many of them near genes involved in light detection and the circadian rhythm. It also changes with age. Young children tend to be early risers, teenagers swing strongly towards late nights, and many people drift back to earlier hours in later life.
On the intelligence question, a meta-analysis has reported a small positive association between eveningness and test scores, and analyses of the large UK Biobank sample point the same way. "Small" is the key word. Plenty of brilliant people are early birds, and a late body clock does not raise anyone's IQ.
Being an evening type also has downsides. Research has linked eveningness with a higher risk of depression and bipolar disorder, and evening types often live with a constant mismatch between their internal clock and work or school schedules. Researchers sometimes call this "social jetlag," and it can leave people tired, irritable and less focused during the day.
Common myths about mornings and intelligence
Myth: hating your alarm shows independent thinking. There is no evidence that reluctance to get up reflects initiative, creativity or problem-solving ability. It mostly reflects how much and how well you slept, and when your body clock wants you awake.
Myth: early risers are more successful. The Southampton data found no wealth or health advantage for larks, at least among older British adults in the 1970s.
Myth: if the research links owls to IQ, sleeping in is good for you. Correlation is not cause. Even if brighter people lean slightly later, shifting your own schedule will not change your intelligence, and regularly oversleeping can be a warning sign rather than a benefit.
Why getting up feels so hard, and what helps
For most people, a brutal morning has ordinary causes: going to bed too late for the time the alarm goes off, poor-quality sleep, alcohol or caffeine in the evening, screens late at night, stress, or simply a body clock that runs later than the job allows. A few practical steps make a real difference:
- Keep a regular wake-up time, including at weekends. Your body clock adjusts to consistency more than to good intentions.
- Get bright light early. Daylight soon after waking is one of the strongest signals that moves the body clock earlier.
- Dim the evening. Lower lights and put screens away for a while before bed.
- Watch caffeine timing. Coffee in the afternoon can still affect sleep that night.
- Aim for enough sleep, which for most adults is around seven to nine hours.
If you are sleeping a long time and still waking exhausted, snoring heavily, feeling low, or struggling to function during the day, talk to a doctor. Persistent tiredness can have medical causes that are worth ruling out.
The takeaway
Finding mornings hard is common and human. It may say something about your body clock, your schedule or last night's sleep. It says very little about how clever you are. The science behind the popular claim is real but modest: evening types score slightly higher on average in some studies, while the much-quoted Southampton research mainly showed that night owls are not worse off than early birds, and that spending very long hours in bed is a signal to take seriously.
So if you are a natural night owl, there is no need to feel guilty about it. Just build a routine that gives you enough sleep, and do not mistake the snooze button for a badge of genius.
Sources: Gale & Martyn, "Larks and owls and health, wealth, and wisdom," BMJ 1998; Kanazawa & Perina, "Why night owls are more intelligent," Personality and Individual Differences 2009; Wikipedia: Chronotype; Wikipedia: Satoshi Kanazawa. Still from Breakfast at Tiffany's © Paramount Pictures; stills from Mr. & Mrs. Smith © 20th Century Fox.
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