The World Before 8 a.m.

Picture a place where trust isn't a luxury, where crime is more fiction than fact. Imagine streets where smiles aren't rare, where a wave or a 'hello' is just part of the day. It's a place of solidarity, a real neighborhood vibe. A place where health isn't just a hashtag; it's in the stride of people jogging past, in the glow of faces that have ditched stress. Can you picture it?

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Before you pack your bags and move to a new place or cross borders to a new country

Try something simpler – just set that alarm early. Transform into a morning person. An entirely new world will open up to you. A.M. magic. The world of the morning and it’s inhabitants is different. Streets once known for their nocturnal quietude hum with the vitality of morning people. Runners nodded in friendly acknowledgment as they passed by, neighbors exchanged cheerful greetings, and every face seemed to carry a lighter, more contented expression. Everything is different. Everyone is just nicer. From the gym, to the street, to the stores, etc.

But watch it – don't swing too far into the early hours. Society's in a strange limbo around 4am. It's edgier then, but without that seductive thrill you get around midnight, 1am. It's a different kind of dark, less about the buzz and more about the shadows.

Is It Real?

Is this real or just more psychology BS? So much of our modern world obsessions over personality or mental issues are fake.

But morningness or being an evening person is indeed real.

The concept of being a "morning person" or a "night person" —a person’s chronotype — is grounded in real science. Chronotypes are part of the study of circadian rhythms. Is this real or just more psychology BS? It’s real. The concept of being a "morning person" or a "night person" —a person’s chronotype — is indeed grounded in real science.

These chronotype labels aren't just black-and-white; they're more like a sliding scale. A person's chronotype can change over their life, and there's recent research suggesting we should consider two more categories: those who rise early but sleep late, and those who sleep in but go to bed early.

The book, 'Why We Sleep', throws around this idea: about 30% of us are wired to roam the nights, another 30-40% are early birds, and the rest? They're like chameleons, flipping between dawn and dusk. The author hypothesized that this may be an evolutionary survival mechanism that allowed bands of humans to always have people who were awake or more likely to wake quickly if threatened after dark or in the early morning.

I always figured being a night owl was just who I was – like it was in my DNA or something. I got bad grades throughout school until I went to college and took afternoon classes. Suddenly, I was getting Straight A’s in every class. The ability to move classes to a later time helped me out.

But these past few years I have switched to a morning person. Initially, it was to stave off Seasonal Depression by making an effort to get more sunlight. But it seems to have stuck. I have become a contributing member to the high-trust morning society.

In This Newsletter

1) Why is Morning Society So Different?

2) Night Owls and Early Risers in Philosophy Throughout history philosophers have wrote eloquently about working at night or during the day. They were making objective pronouncements but maybe didn’t realize they were a morning riser or a night owl.

3) The Life of a Night Owl in a Morning Person Society: The "slow morning" thing is real. No matter what, your brain does not turn on till close to lunch time. Being a morning person would make life easier in a lot of ways, but it just isn't how many people are wired.

Why is Morning Society So Different?

A few reasons

1) Just a fundamentally Different Human. Studies have shown that morningness in a person was positively associated with conscientiousness, satisfaction with life and religiosity. It’s hard not to notice. Other studies show morningness was related to behaving style characterized by self-control, and a tendency to relate to authority in a respectful and cooperative manner and to behave in a formal and proper way in social situations.

2) Domestication. The situation where it wasn’t something you were born with, but life shaped you into a morning person, steering you towards the traits above. Like starting a family, that nudges people into the early hours. Once you have kids, those sleep-in mornings are a thing of the past. You're no longer the night owl you used to be. With children, you're more rooted in your daily environment, unlike the days of hitting the town on nights and weekends as a single person.

3) Work. Most jobs demand you clock in from 8am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. Some of the meetings can be quite early like this one from a company called Carta.

And then you have older people, mothers and families who go out during the day. People walking their pets. Health focused people engaging in their early workout. This combination basically creates a high trust society.

But there is an interesting twist. Studies have shown ethical behavior varies with time of day and individual circadian rhythms. Research showed morning people tend to act less ethically at night, while 'owls' do so in the morning. The findings suggest that ethical decision-making is influenced by when decisions are made relative to an individual's natural energy patterns. So as long as morning people stay in the morning and night people stay at night. You’ll have a tolerant society.

Night Owls in a Morning World

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