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Research Shows Early Birds To Be Happier, More Productive Than Night Owls

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PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- It's early birds vs. night owls. For those who love to stay up late, the typical 9-to-5 workday can be a real challenge.

It seems pretty obvious. Early birds go to bed earlier so they are better rested for the workday, but it may not be that simple, leaving half of the population struggling to keep up.

Tucked in your smartphone, there is a clear indication of one's true nature.

If you have anywhere from 10 to 834 alarms set minutes apart in order to pry yourself out of bed, chance are you are a night owl.

"On a nice night like this, I'm kinda thinking I'm a night person," one man said.

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"Night person for sure. Night, night, definitely night," said a group of boys.

A new study now criticizes the notion that late to bed and late to rise "owls" are lazy, compared to seemingly motivated early to bed, early to rise "larks."

The study published in the journal "Sleep," found owls and larks have completely different brain patterns and that owls suffer with attention issues, slower reaction times and even maintaining consciousness when forced to perform under society's typical 9-to-5 schedule.

While early risers outperformed night owls in reaction times during the morning, the study noted that night owls did not significantly outperform early birds in the evening, signaling to researchers the all day impact that early rising has on a nigh owl's brain.

The research also suggested that society should become more conscience of individual internal clocks, something early birds understand, too.

"Just different kind of people. After 9 p.m., I wont be functioning. I'll be sitting in the chair, like couch potato," one woman said.

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Research has shown morning people to be more productive and happier.

And that night owls can be partial to unhealthy habits, but tested slightly higher in intelligence.

A 2011 study found night owls to be better at baseball. Random, but we'll take it.

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