By Afiur
February 17, 2026
Are night owls really more creative and intelligent, or just wired differently? Science suggests that people who sleep late may think differently—but what's better is that it's not about the clock, it
A 2007 study found that people with evening temperament showed stronger divergent thinking skills when processing visual information—scientific language that inevitably points to higher creative art
A 2009 study by psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa linked subsequent bedtimes to higher intelligence in 20,745 adolescents, suggesting that night owls may thrive because staying up late is an evolutionary
A 2024 Imperial College London study on more than 26,000 UK participants found that late sleepers performed better than morning larks on intelligence tests, showing what researchers call “improved cog
Research conducted on nearly 1,000 adolescents found that evening type adolescents scored higher on inductive reasoning, a measure associated with general intelligence and innovative thinking. Getty I
A review in Current Research in Behavioral Sciences reports that evening types showed better verbal abilities in some measures, challenging the idea that getting up early is universally associated wit
In 2018, a study showed night owls faced a 10% higher risk of early death and greater health issues than early risers.Getty Images