Which sleep animal are you? It matters more than you think
Early-rising lion or late-night wolf? Our internal body clocks have a type.
January often feels like a month when we should be hibernating, emulating a dormouse or a hedgehog and tucking ourselves up for the foreseeable future.
Or perhaps we should channel a bear, a lion, a wolf or a dolphin. Many sleep experts believe that we all fall into one of these four so-called animal chronotypes, with its own specific characteristics that define our levels of alertness and activity throughout the day.
It matters. “If you understand your chronotype then you know what your hormone schedule is, which becomes critically important for any and all activities you do throughout the day,” explains the clinical psychologist Dr Michael Breus in a video on his Sleep Doctor YouTube channel. He is the author of The Power of When: Discover Your Chronotype — And the Best Time to Eat Lunch, Ask for a Raise, Have Sex, Write a Novel, Take Your Meds, and More, in which he argues that “there’s a perfect time of day to do just about anything based on your chronotype”.
While you can train your body’s circadian rhythms — your 24-hour body clock, in other words — by sticking to a rigid schedule, evidence suggests that chronotypes are determined by genetics.
How do you know which yours is? By tuning into when you naturally feel wakeful or sleepy. You can also measure sleep onset (what time you tend to feel sleepy), sleep latency (how long it takes to fall asleep) and your natural night-time temperature dip — the point at which your body is coldest — by using a sleep tracker such as a Fitbit or Oura ring.
This is how the four common chronotypes inspired by the animal kingdom could shape your ideal schedule.
Bear
About half of us identify with this animal — and that includes me. Broadly speaking, bear chronotypes have a sleep and wake cycle that follows the sun, and they’re most alert in the late morning and the early afternoon. Bears typically need seven to eight hours of sleep a night, sleep fairly soundly and may also take a short nap in the afternoon.
According to Breus, bears find their energy levels peaking around 10am, which means late morning can be a good time to crack on with work while your mind is sharpest. My mood should peak between 3pm and 6pm (debatable: that’s school pick-up time) and I should be hitting the hay no later than around 11pm, which all sounds about right.
Lion
Lions are early risers. Unfortunately for me, my husband is 100 per cent lion: a man who has no problem getting up at 5am to go to the gym and is happy to go to bed around 8.15pm (unless he falls asleep on the sofa). This does not make for a peaceful bedroom, not least because his early bedtime messes with my night-time routine that requires having the bedside light on for at least an hour while I moisturise, read, drink my herbal tea and faff around before I shut my eyes.
“It’s rare to see a lion push bedtime past 10pm,” Breus agrees (my husband reminds me regularly that nothing good happens after 10pm — he’s wrong). I guess I should count myself lucky that he is not an “extreme lion”, whose natural melatonin levels can wake them up around 4am.
How to marry our sleep schedules? “It’s about finding the middle ground,” says Dr Mithu Storoni, a neuroscience researcher and the author of Hyperefficient: Optimise Your Brain to Transform the Way You Work. “The key thing is to avoid getting up really early during the week and having a lie-in at the weekend to readjust.” She advises I handle mornings that start earlier than I’d like with heat, light, movement and food — all of which can help to get me going when I’m feeling groggy. This is also a useful checklist if you’re travelling across different time zones. Luckily, my big cat spouse can sleep quite happily with a bedside light on, so if I’m quiet I can read while he slumbers.
Wolf
Just 15 per cent of the population identifies with the wolf chronotype. These wild dogs prefer to go to bed late, which is not compatible with the regular working world/school schedule/having small children. Wolves are most productive in the evening and may not feel tired until midnight or later. I’m still trying to work out if my son is a wolf or just a teenager.
Wolves should avoid sleeping in too late, says Breus, who also recommends they set two alarms: one to wake up and the other to signal the end of their slow drift into consciousness. Naps are not recommended for wolves, who have an energy peak in the afternoon — a doze at this time will only push bedtime even later.
Being a wolf could affect your career, Storoni says. A role that requires an 8am start may also see you consuming far too much caffeine to get going, which will then interfere with your ability to sleep later on, “a vicious circle that could end up with sleep deprivation, poor performance and mood issues”.
Dolphin
Dolphins are light sleepers that are easily disturbed by noise, movement and temperature changes; they wake frequently and often get less than eight hours’ sleep a night. This is the rarest chronotype, although I suspect any woman who has had a child or is hitting perimenopause may find herself feeling rather dolphinfish.
Dolphins are most productive from late morning to early afternoon. I had a dolphin boss once — he had a ferocious work ethic, despite the lack of sleep.
If you are one, focus on good sleep hygiene: don’t eat food or watch TV in bed, instil a proper bedtime routine and make sure your bedroom is cool, dark and quiet. Storoni cites a Japanese study from 2018, which found that if you’re trying to fall asleep but not feeling sleepy, wear warm socks while keeping your torso as cool as possible. Having warm feet can lower your core temperature, which should help you to fall asleep faster.
The Sunday Times
