Woman Calls For ‘Justice’ For Night Owls — ‘I Can’t Attend Brunch At 9 AM’
"You're being rude, so be more considerate."
Miriam Alonso | Pexels Most of us fall into one of two camps: early birds and night owls.
The only thing separating these two groups is their sleep schedules, but one woman believes that early birds are given far more grace.
The woman is calling for ‘justice’ for night owls.
TikTok user @knz_kng complained that people are very understanding towards people who wake up early. However, they seem to lack this same compassion for their counterparts, who prefer to stay up late and sleep in.
"I just don't really think it's very fair that all of the morning people in the world can be like, 'Sorry I cannot attend that thing that's past my bedtime,' and everybody's just like, 'Oh my god yes, love that for you, you get that sleep,'" she said. "But the second that I, a night owl, am like, 'So sorry I can't attend brunch at 9:00 a.m. Could we please push it back to like 10:30 — cause that's when brunch is supposed to be anyway — everybody's like, 'you're just like so sleepy, all you do is just sleep.'
Night owls often get the same amount of sleep as early birds, just shifted back several hours. Yet a stigma surrounds night owls, and many assume that they spend all of their free time in bed just because their day starts a bit later.
The woman insisted that going to bed late doesn't make you lazy. In fact, she gets countless tasks done while the morning people of the world are fast asleep.
“I was up until three in the morning being a productive girly," she added. "I was doing my laundry, I was washing my dishes, I was cleaning the toilet, I was making stuff, I was reading my books."
While the world seems to revolve around early risers, she would like some respect.
“I will not be able to attend something at 9:00 a.m. on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday because I will still be getting my full eight hours of sleep that began at 3:00 a.m.,” she declared. "So be more considerate."
Fellow night owls flocked to the comments in support of the woman's opinion.
Many online agreed that it's unfair that those who go to bed later tend to be looked down on.
"They treat it like a moral failing, and I'm so sick of it," one of the top comments reads.
"Why is sleeping only considered lazy in the morning?" another TikTok user questioned.
puhhha | Shutterstock
"I think morning people tend to assume everyone usually goes to bed when they do and choose to stay up late occasionally," a third commenter theorized. "This makes them think we sleep more than 8 hours by sleeping past 6-7 a.m."
A night owl's sleep schedule is later than the societal norm.
It's undeniable — society is built for early birds.
Starting at a young age, kids are expected to wake up early and go to school. Then, they get to college and are often forced to attend the dreaded 8 a.m. classes. Once they get a job, particularly a 9-5, they must wake up early to get to work, often until retirement.
Of course, not everyone's schedule falls into this box. Some people work nights and others have flexible remote jobs that allow them to choose their own hours, and even sleep in if they so choose. But most of us must eventually adapt to the sleep schedule of society or spend our days tired and unrested.
And yet, according to Vox, some of us are biologically night owls.
Each of us has an internal clock with our own unique sleeping patterns, otherwise known as chronotypes, coded into our DNA. People with an average chronotype go to sleep around 11 p.m. and wake up at 7 a.m., but others fall outside that range.
Those who do not have an average chronotype tend to feel tired because their sleep schedule doesn't align with that of society. People who have an average chronotype are alert and ready for the day by the time they get to work or school, but those who operate outside the average chronotype may feel unprepared because their body performs functions to wake them up later in the day.
So, the next time someone asks for an early-morning activity to be pushed a few hours later, consider that their internal clock just isn't in sync with yours.
Sahlah Syeda is a writer for YourTango who covers entertainment, news, and human interest topics.