If we want to have a successful day, we have to get up early, right? After all, the early bird catches the worm. But one initiative in Denmark shows us a different perspective. One that can be good for our productivity, health, businesses and schools. We talked to Camilla Kring: This is the story of the B-Society.
All over the world there are people waking up to the abrupt sound of an alarm clock. They do this almost every day, without giving it much thought. It is based on the idea that getting up early is key to success in life. Getting up early has a kind of status, and we tend to view people that get up early as morally superior. That they are lazy and will have an unproductive day when they do not. After all, the early bird catches the worm.
However, some experts say that our views on getting up early versus late is a form of stigmatisation. That we have bias against night owls and for early birds. So, we could ask ourselves: are we naturally all early birds? And what is the effect on our health, work and life, when we force ourselves to be one, when we are not? We could also wonder: are all early birds successful because they got up early? And finally: are all great achievers so successful because they are early birds?
Early bird by nature?
As scientists are now increasingly telling us, not everyone is an early bird by nature (only 40%). Turns out, we each have our own internal wake time: our chronotype. They also say that forcing ourselves to be one creates a special kind of social jetlag. That this can happen as a result from getting up different times during the week and in the weekend. Studies are now showing that waking too early may increase the risk for metabolic conditions, such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease.
Utopia
But…a society set up for both early as well as late risers would never work, would it? Well, says the Danish B-Society, it not only possible, it is already happening. Their own initiative has been helping schools, companies and workplaces around the world do just that since 2006. It calls early risers A-persons, and late risers B-persons, and is fighting for a paradigm shift away from the classic 9 to 5 model.
It has found that different start times across public life, can help create healthier, happier and more productive workers and schoolchildren. The B-Society now has members in 50 countries. There are also several employers, as well as Danish politicians and ministers who support the initiative. Its positive results are also being noticed by Danish and international media.
Early bird status
B-Society’s founder Camilla Kring, a B-person and leading expert in applied chronobiology, told us: “Ten years ago, research in chronobiology was sparse. Today, it is scientifically proven that genetics play a large part in determining biological rhythms.”
Kring thinks she has been verbalising what many B-persons have been struggling with in silence. Such as the feeling of not being accepted, having to give in to the prevailing discourse, and having to deal with general stereotypical ideas about people who get up early and those who don’t.
This is something Kring can relate to even in her own professional world, and she said: “I’ve often met dedicated and nuanced journalists, who cite the problem that many editors cling to the stereotypical portrayal of A-listers as heroes and B-persons as sluggards who come to work late and have to learn to get up early.”
“It made sense to reward A-persons in the agricultural societies, where productivity depended on activity during daylight hours,” she continued. “But why should A-persons have a competitive advantage in a knowledge-based society, where an increasing number of work tasks can be solved with or without sunlight?”
In other words: Why are all of us getting up early when we no longer need to? When we can be just successful when we get up later, and feel better for it?
“Why should early morning people have a competitive advantage in a knowledge-based society, where an increasing number of work tasks can be solved with or without sunlight?”
Early Bird: A vision
Kring believes that cities around the world, where most people live (56% of the world’s population), could adopt her model. This will take time, she adds, as it will rely on changes in mindsets, structures and institutions. It will also depend on complex integrations of family, schools, work and traffic politics. But, she adds, it would have a huge positive impact on many lives.
“Imagine that you can have the power over your time and over the social time in the community. How would you tackle this? I would give the population as much opportunity as possible to control their own work time. I would also throw out countless alarm clocks,” she explained.
“And my battle cry would be: Calm mornings for people, better quality of life, and more productivity when we work in sync with our biological clock. A biological rhythm is not something you choose,” Kring concluded. “You are born with one, and I will fight for equality between both early as well as late risers.”
“My battle cry would be: Calm mornings for people, better quality of life, and more productivity when we work in sync with our biological clock.”
Camilla Kring
Ms. Kring is the founder of the B-Society (2006). She has been supporting companies attract and retain talent by creating flexible and attractive work cultures through Super Navigators. She is the creator of Life Navigation, a toolbox to improve work-life balance and of Navigators ApS (2005), and has founded the information site Center for Applied Chronobiology.
Early, or Wise Bird?
Many of us get up early. But is it something that comes natural to all of us? Living out of sync with our inner clock has been linked to diabetes, heart disease, depression and obesity. For example by author Russell Foster in ‘Life Time: The New Science of the Body Clock, and How It Can Revolutionize Your Sleep and Health.’ What about teenagers?! They suffer the lazy reputation as late risers, yet we now know that getting up early is bad for their health and developing brain!
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