Our results indicate that later sleep timing in those with higher IQs is not due to physiological differences, but rather due to later work schedules. Later working times and the resulting lower social jetlag may be one of the reasons why higher IQ is associated with lower prospective morbidity and mortality.
The relationship between intelligence and sleep duration is complex and varies among individuals. However, research suggests that there is no consistent evidence that smarter people inherently sleep less than the average person.
Past midnight—The golden hour(s) for human IQ.
Psychology Today reported that intelligent people are likely to be nocturnal beings, with those with a higher IQ going bed later on both weeknights and weekends.
Revol et al11 reported that children with high IQ (≥ 130) often complained about their sleep (35% vs 9% of TDC), including difficulties falling asleep, night awakenings, and short sleep duration.
A recent study from the Imperial College London found night owls, those people who stay up late and wake up later, appear to have superior cognitive function, while early risers had lower scores on the cognitive test.
The other was a study of over 10 000 adults who filled out the Cambridge Brain Sciences cognitive battery and reported their average sleep duration on a website [23•]. Both studies found lower cognitive test scores among those sleeping either less or more than the average.
Research suggests that we experience peak alertness and cognitive performance in the late hours of the morning. Some studies have proven that our cognitive functions, like memory, focus, and analytical reasoning, are sharpest in the early hours.
Albert Einstein is said to have slept 10 hours per night, plus regular daytime naps. Other great achievers, inventors, and thinkers – such as Nikola Tesla, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Edison, Winston Churchill, Leonardo da Vinci, and Sir Isaac Newton – are said to have slept between two and four hours per day.
A study investigating the effect of sleep on brain performance has found a link between an individual's preference for morning or evening activity and their brain function, suggesting that self-declared 'night owls' generally tend to have higher cognitive scores.
Some people are genetically wired to wake up earlier or sleep less. Others seem to thrive on less sleep only through sheer determination. For executives like PepsiCo's Indra Nooyi and Twitter's Jack Dorsey, sleep is often sacrificed in order to excel at work and still manage to have a personal life.
Albert Einstein, a household name that has inspired many a crazy hair day and who is most famous for his theory of General Relativity, was a huge fan of catching some Z's. He would sleep an average of 10 hours a night as well as taking daytime naps.
Research and personal experiences suggest that talking to yourself can be a sign of a sharp mind. If you often find comfort and clarity in verbalising thoughts, you might be an auditory learner. “Self-talk” is a method through which auditory learners validate their thoughts by hearing them out loud.
But the problem isn't sleep. Morning larks tend to live longer than night owls, research has shown.
This was Nikola Tesla's Intense Daily Routine… .. and I decided to step into his foots to live his life for 48 hours. This means up to 17 hours of work (actually 20 hours to be honest), 10 miles of walking, a specific diet, doing mental methods, and only sleeping 2 hours per day.
85 to 114: Average intelligence. 115 to 129: Above average or bright. 130 to 144: Moderately gifted. 145 to 159: Highly gifted.
Many studies show people who wake earlier are far less likely to develop depression, anxiety or other mood disorders. Researchers believe one reason could be those who wake up earlier have more access to daylight, which is a natural mood booster.
The results suggest that patterns and amounts of sleep stages in superior IQ children do not differ in any dramatic fashion from those of children with average IQ.
We assessed sleep timing differences between highly intelligent subjects and matched controls. We did find later midsleep timing and waking time in Mensa members, but this was limited to work days, and even then, it was fully accounted for by later work start times.
Individuals with high IQs often exhibit a heightened capacity for abstract thinking. They can easily move beyond the concrete and tangible, venturing into the realm of concepts, theories, and hypothetical scenarios.
Leonardo Da Vinci: The Uberman Sleep Cycle
Instead of going to bed at night, Da Vinci would take a series of 20-minute power naps at regular intervals throughout the day. The result? Over any 24 hour period he averaged just two hours of sleep.
While abstaining from sex doesn't directly clear your mind, some people feel more able to concentrate on school or work if they're not thinking about sex. Choosing to be celibate frees them from thinking about or planning sexual encounters.
Our results reveal considerable heterogeneity in when cognitive abilities peak: some abilities peak and begin to decline around high school graduation; some abilities plateau in early adulthood, beginning to decline in the 30s; still others do not peak until the 40s or later.
The results indicate that, contrary to conventional folk wisdom, evening-types are more likely to have higher intelligence scores. This result is discussed in relation to current theories concerning the nature of human cognitive abilities.