Dr. Matt Walker

Society is, we are desperately biased towards the morning types and we chastise and stigmatize evening types as being slothful or lazy, that they just can't get it together.

Why can't you be at the gym

Yeah, there is that reward bias that's given.

It's this notion, you know, the early bird catches the worm.

So I think the...

We were desperately unkind.

Society is engineered towards morning types.

It's engineered against evening types.

The reason that that's not fair is that this, and I'll come back to timing again and how it works and why it's important and the fourth ingredient, the fourth macro, but coming to chronotype,

The reason it's unfair is that it's not your fault, that your chronotype is largely genetically dictated.

And we now understand that there are at least 22 different genes which augment your chronotype, which determine your chronotype.

In other words, it is gifted to you at birth, it's hardwired, and it is not your fault.

Yet we still have this stigma and this, I think, disgraceful, not only under appreciation, but almost this kind of wry look.

Evening types are of a certain kind, not very favorably viewed.

So think about it this way.

You would never, let's think about another trait, eye color that is genetically determined.

And you were to look at me and you would say, he's got blue eyes.

It's just, you're kind of lazy because you've got blue eyes.

Oh, you've got green eyes?

Gosh, that's wonderful.