研究：夜貓子收入更高

They are most likely to be healthy, wealthy and wise, according to the old adage.

But those who are early to bed and early to rise do not always have the upper hand, researchers say.

They have revealed that night owls are generally brighter and wealthier than those able to get up early in the morning.

Experts from the University of Madrid carried out tests on around 1,000 teenagers and found that those who preferred to stay up late demonstrated the kind of intelligence associated with prestigious jobs and higher incomes.

Larks or ‘morning people’, however, often secured better exam results, possibly because lessons are held at the wrong time of day for night owls.

The researchers examined the habits and body clocks of the youngsters to determine whether they liked to stay up late and sleep in later in the morning, or preferred to go to bed early and were at their peak in the morning.

School performance and inductive intelligence, or problem solving, were measured and academic grades in the major subjects were also taken into account.

The results showed that evening types scored higher than morning types on inductive reasoning, which has been shown to be a good estimate of general intelligence and a strong indicator of academic performance.

They also had a greater capacity to think conceptually as well as analytically. Such abilities have been linked to innovative thinking, more prestigious occupations and better incomes.

Famous night owls include President Obama, Charles Darwin, Winston Churchill, Keith Richards and Elvis Presley.

George W Bush, who is regularly in bed by 10pm, Thomas Edison, Napoleon, Condoleezza Rice, who wakes at 4.30am, and Ernest Hemingway are among those known as larks.

Jim Horne, professor of psychophysiology at Loughborough University, said: ‘Evening types tend to be the more extrovert creative types, the poets, artists and inventors, while the morning types are the deducers, as often seen with civil servants and accountants.’

A previous study of US Air Force recruits found evening types were much better at thinking laterallyto solve problems than larks.老話說，早睡早起使人健康、富裕、聰慧。

但研究者稱，那些早睡早起的人并不是總能占上風。

研究人員揭示，夜貓子一般比早起的人更聰明，也更富有。

馬德里大學的專家在約1000名青少年當中開展了測試，發(fā)現(xiàn)那些喜歡熬夜的青少年表現(xiàn)出與顯赫工作和高收入相關的才智。

然而，早起的人通常能取得更好的考試成績，這可能是因為上課的時間不適合夜貓子。

研究人員觀察了這些青少年的習慣和生物鐘，以確定他們是喜歡晚睡晚起，還是喜歡早睡早起。

研究人員還衡量了他們的學校表現(xiàn)、歸納或解決問題的能力，主要學科的學習成績也被考慮在內。

研究結果顯示，夜貓子的歸納推理能力得分要高于早起的人，而歸納推理能力已被證明是估測綜合智力和學習成績的一個重要標準。

夜貓子概念性思維能力和分析性思維能力也更強。這些能力都與創(chuàng)新思維、更顯赫的職業(yè)和更高的收入相關聯(lián)。

著名的夜貓子包括奧巴馬總統(tǒng)、查爾斯•達爾文、溫斯頓•丘吉爾、滾石樂隊吉他手基斯•理查德和貓王埃爾維斯•普雷斯利。

習慣早起的名人有小布什總統(tǒng)(通常晚上10點前上床睡覺)、托馬斯•愛迪生、拿破侖、美國前國務卿康多莉扎•賴斯(早上四點半起床)和歐內斯特•海明威。

拉夫堡大學心理生理學教授吉姆•霍恩說：“夜貓子通常是更外向、更具創(chuàng)造力的人，如詩人、藝術家和發(fā)明家，而早起的人則是善于推斷的人，多見于公務員和會計師。”

先前的一項對美國空軍新兵的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，夜貓子利用橫向思維來解決問題的能力比早起的人強得多。