Mar 14, 2022
It's time for another personality test podcast. And this one is fun because it also is going to tell me what time I should be doing things. Hi everybody. I'm Cindy Guentert-Baldo. Welcome back to the uncurated life podcast, where we talk about life, both on and off the internet. And this is an episode in an ongoing series.
I'm doing that. Really titled anything but loosely known to me, at least as personality tests, test for a cynic when it comes to personality tests. And this week I am talking about the chronotype test. Now there's apparently a chronotype test that has been used for years. Uh, called the morning eveningness questionnaire, but it has been expanded by a doctor named Michael J.
Bruce, who has expanded it into four. Chronotypes used to be three, but he expanded into four. Now this has to do with like your sleep and wake preferences. And when the best times are for you to do certain things, when your energy is highest and lowest and blah, blah, blah, he's written a book called the power of when I have it.
Maybe I will, maybe I won't, I don't know yet, but the book is all about discovering what your chronotype is and then making sure that you do your best to work along the lines of your internal clock. Now, I recognize that something like this in and of itself is inherently privileged because not everybody.
Choose to work at jobs or in careers that respect your internal clock. You know, I don't know what my internal clock is yet. I haven't taken the quiz yet, but I used to have to work at 4:00 AM. When I worked at a grocery store, when I was in the bakery, I'd have to go in at 3:00 AM and that was not necessarily something I use, but it got to pay the bills.
I get that. I just wanted to preface it with that mainly because when I talk about being able to. Alter how I do my work or when I could do my best work, I work for myself. And so that is both a blessing and a curse, but the blessing of it is that I'll be able to adapt based on whatever information I get from this shit.
Should I choose to? But the curse is that because I can adapt. It means I also sometimes adapt my way into doing nothing for a while and then I don't get paid. I just, I wanted to add the context there. Anyway, let's get. This Dr. Bruce Bruce Wayne situation here. So the tagline, one of the taglines for the novels is, or the book is to learn the best time to do everything from drinking your coffee to have sex or go for a run, according to your body's chronotype.
Okay. Well, one out of three ain't bad, right? Anyway. So I'm going to read to you about the chronotypes that he talked about in an article for psychology today, uh, so that we can understand which one is which, and then I will take the test and then we will come back and talk about it. He based the types on mammals, I guess, birds, I think I could be wrong about this, but I think the idea of like, um, an evening, a night owl or a morning Lark or whatever those ideas are from the original Kronos.
Framework. He has framed them around mammals because as humans we are. We got the boobies. Anyway, the first one is lions. Lions are morning hunters and people who are the lion chronotype are the early risers of the world. Lions are optimistic, naturally disciplined, including about their sleep routines, practical and goal oriented.
They're generally good sleepers with a medium sleep drive. It's rare to find a lion who struggles to stick to a regular early bedtime. Lions have a natural tendency for routine and moderation in their daily habits. And this shows in their overall health picture studies show that morning types of early bedtimes have a lower risk for cardiovascular disease, less obesity, and may have lower risks for mental health disorders, including depression, anxiety, and others lions leap into their days full of energy the morning and early afternoon, or when lions are at their most productive.
Aside from that. I, I don't, I don't anticipate that I'm Elian. He also adds that about 15 to 20% of the general adult population are lions. The second chronotype is bears. Bears are all day hunters and bear chronotypes are go with the flow types with middle of the road, sleep wake preferences of the four chronotypes bears adhere most closely to a solar schedule.
Bears are most alert and productive during the middle of the day. From late morning through early afternoon, bears are easygoing and social fun-loving team players. They have a high sleep drive and tend to sleep deeply, but many bears carry a sleep debt. They don't get enough sleep to meet their needs.
Bears are prone to inconsistency in their sleep routines. They often under sleep during the workweek and sleep extra on the weekend to make up for their insufficient rest inconsistent sleep habits can put the bare circadian Nicholas. Chronically out of sync, social jet lag has been linked to higher BMI and greater risk for obesity exists.
Weight is a common challenge among bears who tend to carry weight, particularly around their midsection. Their vulnerability to social jet lag is one highly likely factor bears are the most common chronotype. About 50% of the adult population are bears because it is the most common chronotype bear time has.
Influence over our social time. Six o'clock is the standard dinner hour because that's when bears are ready for their evening meal. Remember settling in to watch your favorite TV show at 10:00 PM. That's when bears are ready to lay low, but aren't quite prepared to fall asleep. And the majority of bear chronotypes modern society as long adopted bear time is the norm in large part.
All the other chronotypes live on bear time. When it comes to daily social schedules for schoolwork and social. I will say just from all of that, I think I'm a bear. I'm just going to say right now, bear is the front runner. Uh, the third one is wolves. Wolves are nighttime hunters and the Wolf chronotype has a strong preference for evenings wolves are the people who drag themselves out of bed before 9:00 AM.
And don't start really feeling tired until midnight or so. Wolves are creative, impulsive, and emotionally intense. They love to seek out new experiences and are natural brisk takers wolves have a medium sleep drive with peaks of productivity in the late morning. And again, Evening, because if their strong preference for evening hours, wolves often struggle with living.
According to the schedule society demands of them. Things like work in school, get going too early and social fund ends too soon. What was, they're highly vulnerable to chronic social jet lag and insufficient sleep. And that can have consequences for their mental and physical help. Health research shows.
Evening credit types are at greater risk for. Diseases wolves typically perform at their best with a run seven hours of sleep. Getting that much sleep can be tough for wolves because their biological rhythm is so at odds with society's timetable for daily life, about 20 to 15 to 20% of the population are wolves.
Yeah. It's not me. And then dolphins. Dolphins of the mammalian world, our uni hem, what the fuck dude, can I even read this uni hemispheric sleepers? That means they sleep with one half of their brain at a time with the other half awake and active. That is a pitch perfect analogy. The fourth chronotype of restless light sleepers, as I've said, dolphins are wired and tired types.
Chronically tired during the day. And wired with restless nervous energy at night, dolphins are light and restless sleepers with a low sleep drive who tend to wake frequently during the night, their minds are active in the evening with often racing thoughts and they feel physically keyed up. There are biological reasons for dolphins, nighttime, restlessness, and agitation.
It turns out that dolphins have a circadian biology that's turned upside down. In contrast to other chronotypes dolphins, brain activity increases at night in areas of the brain that promote alertness and unlike other chronotypes dolphins, blood pressure and cortisol levels rise in the evening, which leaves them in a state of physiological arousal at bedtime.
Come morning when the other chronotypes are experiencing elevations to blood pressure and cortisol that are fueling their morning, alertness, dolphin levels are playing. Personality wise, they're highly intelligent, cautious detail oriented. Perfectionism is a common dolphin trait and often anxious, as I've said, about 10% of the population are dolphins.
I don't think I'm a dolphin, but I do resonate with some of that. I tend to not be able to turn my mind off at night and that will lead me to not being able to fall asleep for hours. If I can turn my mind off, I can fall asleep. But if I can't, if I get going on anything, that's the cause of a lot of my like, slow to sleep until.
Anyway, I'm super interested in this now. So I'm going to take the quiz. It is@thepowerofwhenquiz.com. Everything will be linked in the show notes, and if it costs anything to get your big info at the end, I'll be sure to let you know, I'm going to take a pause here and I will be back in just a second with my results.
Okay, so I'm done. And like I thought I am indeed a bear. I was actually talking to Jesse about it when he popped in here to ask me if I wanted lunch. And I was like, what do you think you are? He thinks he might be a dolphin, which actually would track with a lot of things, but moving forward. So when I, the, the quiz itself, uh, was just a series of questions.
It's just, you drop your it's multiple choice type questions, and then you give them your email and they send you your results. Allegedly, I haven't actually gotten my results. There it is. They just showed up. This has been like 15 minutes since, um, since that's the case, now it does say he's going to be sending me a series of emails to tell me all about being a bear.
So I'm unsubscribing because I don't want all of those emails and a. But it's just some interesting information about being a bear. I guess I'm kind of interested in reading the book. I'll be real with you. That's not always the case with these personality tests, but I am curious, but I was like, okay, wait, this is not giving me what I want.
Like he's giving me all this info allegedly about being a bear. But what I really want is to know, well, if I'm a bear, what am I supposed to drink coffee and have sex and run. So I. Bear chronotype. And I came to an article on the website, bright side.me that has hell ads on it before warned, but it also has the perfect daily schedule that corresponds to your chronotypes.
So we're gonna go to the bear. And it says here on there, little infographic that bears are 50 to 55% of all people. They sleep a lot, but don't get enough sleep, lack of energy after lunch and on weekends, they try to recoup the sleep that that's basically me. I will be real. That is basically me. So here we go.
They, uh,
Ooh, the main rule bears shouldn't sleep more than eight hours. Even during the weekends. I wonder if being chronically ill with kidney disease is changes that because I swear sometimes my body just needs sleep. It feels like regardless. Let's look at the daily schedule for bears morning from 7:00 AM to 11.
Wake up and exercise from eight for eight to 10 minutes, eat a hearty breakfast and drink coffee. It'll help to not overeat in the evening. And the excess calories will give you the necessary energy for the whole day plan your day. Maximum productivity from 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM. Do things that demand a lot of energy and concentration.
First you'll complete them faster. You'll get tired as lunchtime approaches. That's why it's better to go out for a walk, bright colors, and the sun will wake your organism up and will help fight drowsiness have lunch at 12. It'll give you energy for the rest of the day. By two, you may start feeling tired again.
So arrange meetings and coffee breaks to help you get through the afternoon. After work from six to 10 is the best time for a workout. It's hard to start, but only at the beginning have a light dinner after exercising, more protein, fewer carbs. And the end of the day from 10 to 11 bears can stay up late, but they always feel tired in the morning.
You better turn off your gadgets at 10 and go to bed. The funny thing is looking at this schedule. A lot of that's already what I'm doing, kind of, I usually try to wake up around six 30 because I get my kids if it's seven for school and it gives me time to take a shower before they get up, or at the very least have coffee before they get up.
I don't usually eat breakfast because my stomach is really upset in the mornings, but I've been thinking that it might make me feel better if I eat something once my stomach has mellowed out. The daytime schedule is very similar to what I liked in an ideal day is what I would do. Eat lunch at noon.
Take a walk to like wake myself up, schedule things in the later half of the day. Like that's what I try to do anyway, but it's something to keep in mind. I actually have found myself when I do ride the Peloton. It tends to happen more frequently in the evenings, usually after dinner around eight o'clock.
That's just what it seems to work the best for me the end of the day is just shoot. Right anyway. So the idea here is, is this schedule actually feels very. Reasonable to me, I should look at a different one and see if they feel a little bit less reasonable, but this bear schedule, I'm looking at it and thinking
Yeah. So we'll look at the lions. The morning, people waking up at five 30 drinking coffee around 10 end of the day. Go to bed at 10.
And then for the wolves, wake up, set two alarms, 20 minutes apart,
postpone all your main test to one PMC that would never work for me because I feel like a lot of my creative work gets done between like 10 and 12 and then dolphins, very neurotic, restless sleep loved to spend time on the internet till late at night. Oh my God. I need to send this to Jesse. I'm pretty sure it's him.
Cause it says it's better to start your day with a morning and running some exercise. I've been telling him he needs to do this for years now. Holy shit. Anyway, I think this out of all of the personality tests that I've taken has been the one that I'm most amused by partly because I have been so stressed out about sleep anyway, because you know, being a kidney failure exhausted.
These schedules are actually like, kind of give, throwing me for a loop. I may just read this book. I don't know. So I would love to hear from you in the comments or in the comments. This is not a YouTube video, but on the podcast we go to the Instagram and the stories and you tag me at @llamaletters and you tell me what you think I'd love to know what your chronotype is.
And do you actually like subscribe to any of this? Does it work for you? Thank you so much for listening. Thank my patrons. They're the ones who, uh, subs who sponsored these episodes. You can find out more at www.patreon.com/cindyguentertbaldo. And until next time I hope you get some sleep. I hope you take care of yourself and peace out.