Is Being A Night Owl Keeping You Single?

Yet another study has come along to finally, hopefully, with fingers crossed, explain to you and all the other singles out there why you're just that: single. This time researchers took a look at sleep patterns, night owls specifically, and declared a resounding, "Voila!" So, yes, there you go, night owls of the world, you are single because you refuse to go to sleep at a normal hour.

The Comparative Human Development at the University of Chicago studied a group of night owls to see how that way of living affects their life. Not only was it found that those who keep such odd hours have higher energy, but their arousability, at least in comparison to those to who go to bed at a regular hour, was also really high. Combine that factor with late nights out on the town, and it’s no wonder that, statistically, male night owls tend to have twice as many sexual partners than their "early to bed, early to rise" counterparts.

According to personal matchmaker, Julie Ferman, these finding that night owls are more likely to be single, or in and out of short-term relationships, should really not come as any surprise:

"Folks who are awake at night are also out at night, when other night owls are out and about, drinking, carousing, being playful, socializing — the conservative, paint-within-the-lines folks are all home in bed, alone or in partnership. Who's more likely to have a one-night stand? Who's more likely to be a serial dater? Um.... right... the night owl who leads a more unconventional life."

It's also those with that unconventional lifestyle who tend to take more risks. Those risk takers with higher energy and cortisol found in their saliva were the ones staying up later and sleeping later to make up for it. As Ferman points out, that unconventional night owl is "more likely to beat to their own drumbeat," which attributes to risk-taking behavior and, in the long run, doesn’t make for an ideal mate, at least not in the minds of some.

Professor Maestripieri, who led the study at the University of Chicago, suggests that, from an evolutionary standpoint, night owls were specifically meant to not have what we deem as a conventional partnership, but instead engage in "sexual interactions outside of committed, monogamous relationships." While that may be all well in good for a time in history long gone where spreading one’s seed was a biological and inherent animalistic need, it’s a harder concept for many to swallow these days.

However, if you find that you're up late, out and about, up to no good, and still single after all these years, you may want to re-evaluate your sleeping patterns. Unless, of course, you land a night owl of your very own during one of your late nights carousing about; if that's the case, I'd say you hit the jackpot. Conforming one's lifestyle to procure a mate is never a particularly fun or even advisable task, but finding someone who fits the person you already are, definitely is.