Night Owl: Staying Up Late in a World Built for Early Birds

An investigation, celebration, and vindication of "noctonauts," those of us who are most productive at night.

As a culture, we revere morning people. The early bird catches the worm, right? We exalt those pre-dawn risers as disciplined, productive, put-together members of society. But what about those of us more inclined to burn the midnight oil? For centuries, night owls have been deemed lazy, unmotivated, and childish—unfounded characterizations that nonetheless follow late sleepers throughout their lives.

What if staying up late was seen as a superpower rather than a failing? After all, people who sleep later often have a higher IQ, are more creative, and spend more of the day mentally alert than their early-rising counterparts. And while many portray sleep schedules as a matter of sheer discipline, our default circadian timing is in fact baked into our DNA, shaped by millions of years of evolution, and there’s only so much wiggle room.

In Night Owl, journalist (and lifelong noctonaut) Haley Shapley sifts through academic research, historical anecdotes, and expert interviews to create a compelling, fast-paced read on the culture of night owls. Along the moonlit way, she offers insights on everything from the biology of our internal clocks and the ways sleep varies around the world to the benefits and drawbacks of going to bed later and why it would be good for everyone if we better accommodated the very real, very normal variation in sleep-wake patterns among humans. The result is a long-overdue celebration of a large but misunderstood population, with the power to change our relationships to sleep, to ourselves, and to one another.