Researchers found that in tests those who consider themselves more alert in the morning can concentrate for less time than those who work best at night.
The study by the University of Liege, in Belgium, pitted the early risers against people who stay up late in a test to see who could perform complicated tasks for longest.
The groups were allowed to sleep for the same amount of time and kept awake and asked to perform a number of tasks.
The researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging to monitor the brain activity of early birds and night owls who spent two consecutive nights in a sleep laboratory and periodically performed a task that required sustained attention.
The results, reported in the journal Science, suggest that night owls generally outlast early birds in the length of time they can be awake before becoming mentally fatigued.
After 10 hours of being awake, the early birds showed reduced activity in brain areas linked to attention, compared to the night owls. They also felt sleepier and tended to perform more slowly on the task.
The scientists said that alertness depended on a combination of a person's natural circadian rhythm - internal clock that tells us when to sleep - and actual fatigue due to being kept awake, known as "sleep pressure".
Source: Telegraph.co.uk via Neatorama
I guess that's why I received such great marks during all those all-nighters in College, who knew?.
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