According to a recent study, there is an association between the college major people choose and their natural disposition to be night owls or morning larks. The research was conducted at Pennsylvania State University and was presented at the annual SLEEP 2013 meeting.
The study is based on data from 1,200 college juniors and seniors, who together represent 30 majors. The participants answered questionnaires about their morning or evening preferences, and 492 of them went on to answer questions specifically about actual sleep and wake times and durations.
Some of the results included, Nutrition majors tended to be “morning types,” while those who majored in Management Science & Information Systems or Administration of Justice were more likely to be “evening types.” Researchers also found the students majoring in Media were the most likely to be sleep-deprived, getting anywhere from 3 to 3.6 fewer hours of sleep than they would like on both weekdays and weekends. Speech Communication majors reported the smallest sleep deficits, getting just 10 to 18 fewer minutes of sleep than they would like to on weekends and weekdays.
When job times and biological times don’t match it can lead to sleep loss and can negatively affect influence peak job and school performance. It can become a major source of stress and increase on-the-job errors and accidents. Also, students with a strong aptitude for certain professions may end up pursuing a different career based on their preferred morning or evening routine. In addition, if the university doesn’t offer coursework at natural preferred times, a student may be dissuaded from continuing that major.
Does your job and biological clock match up? Sleep plays more of a role in our decision making than it gets credit for. Some us may not have chosen our majors if we had to stay up all night. Sleep is truly a life-changer!
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