By Donna Hruska

Do you bound out of bed in the morning, throw up the window, do three minutes of deep breathing exercises, fifty push-ups and a mile or two of running in place? Or are you the type that disappears under your pillow at the first buzz of the alarm clock, arising only at the last minute, grousing and grumbling at anyone who dares smile in your direction?

If that first person sounds like you, you are a matutinophile, or, one who loves the morning. You probably refer to yourself as an early bird, because, like the birds in the trees, you are up and ready to fly soon after the sun rises.

Our friend with the grouchy morning disposition, who winces at the light creeping over his windowsill is a matutinophobe, a person who dislikes the morning. By late afternoon the early bird will be longing for the nest, while his night owl friend will be coming into his most productive part of the day.

Scientists have been aware of this difference in individuals for many years, but have never come up with a completely satisfactory explanation for the phenomenon. Sir William Osler, who was one of the first to classify individuals as morning people or afternoon people, believed that body temperature was responsible. Others have suggested that man acquires his timing system through heredity, experience or necessity. Whatever explanation he accepts, the person who can learn to take advantage of his daily moods will find life much less complicated.

“Know thyself,” was described by Plato as one of the ancient rules of wisdom, and that admonition was never more important than in today’s pressure-ridden society. Not that we should spend all our time in self-analysis, but once we understand what affects our efficiency and peace of mind, we can forget the analyzing and be peacefully and efficiently on our way.

Night owls are often at a psychological disadvantage in a society that honors the work ethic. Americans are reared on the old adages “The early bird gets the worm,” and “Early to bed, early to rise…” We tend to feel that the man who lies abed mornings is at least lazy, if not slightly disreputable, while actually he may just be responding to his own biological clock. The first thing a night owl should do is quit feeling guilty because he doesn’t pop out of bed like a jack-in-the-box in the morning. His body timing system may require that he move more slowly. However, he should also be aware that psychologists

have discovered that for night owls, particularly, the first half-hour after awaking and the last half hour before retiring are the low points of their day; but that that blue mood will disappear as soon as he is up, showered and has his breakfast. Don’t lie in bed and dwell on your problems after you wake up, night owls. Once conscious, you might as well get up and watch those problems dwindle in size.

Psychologists have come up with a number of interesting studies concerning how efficiency and productivity are influenced by moods. Tests show that when we feel depressed, our mental reaction time is slowed to the point where it is difficult to make decisions. Anxiety, worry, or any of the negative emotions hamper our performance of physical work and ability to do mental problems. One study of 500 industrial accidents found that over half of them occurred when the worker involved was in a low emotional state—a fact that becomes startling when we consider that the average worker feels low less than one-fifth of the time. You aren’t necessarily safer when you’re feeling on top of the world. Studies at Stanford University show that people overestimate distance when they are elated and underestimate it when they are depressed. They found that you are the best judge of distance when you are neither high or low, but somewhere in between.

Our moods run not only on daily cycles, but on weekly, monthly, yearly, and even lifetime cycles. Blue Monday is not just a cliche. It is a fact for most people, but our mood tends to brighten as the week wears on, reaching a peak on Saturday and Sunday. Women are particularly susceptible to monthly mood cycles, these being tied into their endocrine system, but men find their moods fluctuating on a three to four week cycle as well, although their ups and downs are much more irregular. Our feelings tend to be at the lowest level during January, February, and March, beginning to rise with the advent of spring to the highest point of the year in June. We taper off in July and August, rise to our second highest peak of good feeling in September and spiral downward in October, November and December. Over our lifetime our feelings change from a general air of exuberance in the early teens to a sharp drop in average level of good spirits in the late teens and early twenties. The late twenties bring consistent good feeling for most people, beginning to drop off in the thirties and reaching life’s low point in mood in the forties. Things begin to look up in the fifth decade for most of us. This upswing lasts until around the sixtieth birthday when it begins to taper off again.

What other factors influence our moods? The weather, for one. Scientists at Columbia University found that the moods of their subjects often mirrored the weather—cheerful on bright sunny days and depressed on gloomy days. Most of us are aware that our feeling of well being is influenced by temporary setbacks and accomplishments. The salesman tends to feel elation after closing a big sale. No one blames the housewife who is out of sorts when the washer breaks down the same day that her children ran across her newly waxed kitchen floor and caused the cake in the oven to fall.

Success does not always bring elation, however. Dr. Chester L. Carlisle studied many cases where depression followed attainment of both financial and social success. His studies show that where a person is basically dissatisfied with himself, success seems to make the individual feel worse than before as he realizes that the things he counted on to solve his personality problems have completely let him down. Dr. Carlisle believes that this type of depression may account for those unexplained suicides where the deceased apparently had everything to live for.

The person who wishes to be in control of his life, then, must take his moods into consideration. They will influence his performance and efficiency and affect his decisions. By following a few simple suggestions he can make his moods work for him rather than against him.

FIRST, he must know himself—whether he is an early bird or a night owl, what sort of weekly, monthly or yearly cycle he tends to operate on, what outside factors tend to influence him the most.

If you have doubts that you operate on a mood cycle, try this simple test. Keep a pencil and calendar by your bedside for a while. Each evening before retiring, jot down a one word description of your general mood of that day. You will probably be surprised over a period of a month or two to begin to see a pattern emerge.

SECOND, take a good look at yourself as a person. Do you like what you see? Are you the kind of person you would like to have for a friend? If not, make whatever changes are necessary to gain your own self-respect. If you count on financial success or reaching the top of the social ladder to correct your faults, you risk severe depression at some later time in life.

THIRD, plan your activities to take advantage of your best periods. If you find that you are at your best in the late afternoon, schedule your most demanding work for that time, whether it’s balancing your checkbook or scrubbing floors. If you have an important decision to make when you are depressed, put it off if at all possible. Your judgement is best when you are somewhere between the peak of elation and the depths of depression. You might even be better off taking a winter vacation to pick up your lagging spirits rather than leaving your job in the summer when your efficiency is at its peak.

FOURTH, when you have a good day, take advantage of it to get a lot done, knowing that you are sure to have some low days when your efficiency will suffer. When your spirits are low, don’t despair, feel guilty or wonder what is the matter with you. Recognize it for what it is—a natural adjustment in your mood cycle.

FIFTH, keep busy. Don’t leave yourself time for soul-searching. One study of the moods of various occupational groups showed that the busier people are, the less fluctuation there is in their general feeling of well-being.

You will find that just being aware of the factors that can affect your moods will do much to even out your emotional ups and downs. If you wake up in a depressed state of mind, chances are you will be able to pinpoint the reason for it. In any case, you will know that it is temporary and you can dismiss it from your mind and get to the business at hand.

Whether you are an early bird or a night owl, keep flying!

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Donna Hruska
2711 2nd Private Road
Flossmoor, Illinois 60422

Approximately 1500 Words

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