Why Your Biological Sleep Schedule Might Be Costing You a Promotion

Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared on MyPerfectResume.com.

For decades, corporate life has catered to the early risers. Morning meetings, nine-to-five office schedules, and leaders boasting about being the first in the office all send the same signal: The workplace belongs to morning people.

But a new study of more than 1.5 million workers in the U.S. and Canada, conducted by Herrmann International in partnership with MyPerfectResume, shows that not everyone operates at peak energy in the morning.

In fact, younger and creative workers are far more likely to identify as “night people.” The problem? Leadership is dominated by morning types, raising big questions about whether chronotype, our natural rhythm for energy and focus, quietly shapes who gets promoted.

Climbing the Ladder Turns Night Owls Into Early Birds

The research shows a sharp divide between entry-level employees and executives:

• Entry-level workers are 29% more likely than the average worker to identify as night people, the only management tier that overindexes on night preference.
• Executives are 32% less likely to be night-oriented.
• Entry-level employees are nearly 2x more likely to be night-oriented than executives (1.9x difference).
• Directors are also more likely to be morning people, at 27% less likely to be night people.

Research suggests multiple factors may be at play. Studies show that genetics (particularly the PER3 gene) strongly correlate with chronotype and that individuals tend to shift toward a morning orientation as they age.

Social factors, such as family obligations and work schedules, may also lead to behavioral adaptation to earlier schedules.

But here’s the question: Do morning people get promoted more simply because they are more visible to leadership in traditional nine-to-five structures?

Why it matters: If chronotype and career success are tied, companies risk sidelining talented night-oriented workers who thrive later in the day. This could result in the loss of innovation, creativity, and leadership diversity.

Creatives and Service Workers Fuel the Workforce’s Night Energy

Creative and high-demand service roles disproportionately attract or cultivate night-oriented workers. The best jobs for night owls are concentrated in creative and service industries:

• Art: 52% more night people, the strongest skew of any field
• Education: 51% more night people, despite early school hours
• Writing: 33% more night people
• Entertainment: 25% more night people
• Consulting: 30% more night people, tied to a long-hour, deadline-driven culture
• Services: 22% more night people, consistent with 24/7 operations

Creative work often thrives on uninterrupted focus, and night hours can provide freedom from meetings and distractions. In service industries, shift work and round-the-clock operations naturally cultivate more night energy.

Education’s high night orientation is especially surprising given early school hours, but perhaps reflects that teachers, drained by structured daytime work, reclaim energy at night when they finally control their schedules.

Why it matters: Industries that rely on creativity, flexibility, or round-the-clock service could unintentionally penalize their own talent by adhering to rigid, morning-heavy schedules. Employers risk worker burnout if energy patterns aren’t recognized and chronotype discrimination at work is prevalent.

Culture, Not Latitude, Decides Who Wakes Up Early

The data reveals night-owl vs. early-bird productivity patterns that don’t follow simple geographic or cultural predictions:

• Italy: 52% more day people, 41% fewer night people; the world’s strongest morning preference
• Denmark: 48% more day people, 44% fewer night people
• Sweden: 43% more day people, 49% fewer night people
• Singapore: 45% more night people, making it the most night-oriented country in the study, nearly 3x the rate of Sweden
• Philippines: 39% more night people, 22% fewer day people
• Spain: Above-average share of day people, despite famously late mealtimes and social norms

These findings highlight an interesting nuance in the assessment’s wording, where respondents were asked to describe their “energy level or drive.” Those interpreting “drive” as work-related energy may report daytime preference if evenings are culturally reserved for social and family time rather than productive work.

The strong daytime orientation of Northern European countries such as Sweden and Denmark aligns more with expectations.

Singapore stands out with 45% more night people, nearly three times Sweden’s rate. As an international business hub with a 24/7 urban culture, Singapore’s night orientation may reflect both the necessity and the cultural acceptance of late working hours. The Philippines, Brazil, Mexico, and France also show above-average night preference.

Why it matters: Global teams cannot assume one universal rhythm. Companies that expand globally or work across time zones must consider cultural differences in energy and productivity, a key issue for remote and hybrid work.

Day People Still Dominate, But Night Owls Concentrate in Critical Talent Pools

Morning orientation remains the majority, but the minority of night-oriented workers is concentrated in groups critical to future talent pipelines.

Across all groups, day people outnumber night people, typically by 40% to 45%. Night people never exceed around 20% of any population.

Digital culture and remote work have made latent night preferences more visible. The real question is whether more people are actually becoming night owls or if we’re simply seeing them more clearly now that work has become less rigid.

Why it matters: Recognizing and supporting night-oriented workers can help employers unlock new pools of talent, particularly among younger generations and creative industries.

Bigger Picture: What It Means for Employers

Chronotype diversity is relatively tied to age, culture, and occupation.

• Chronotype differences: Rigid nine-to-five systems favor morning people but create friction for younger, creative, and globally distributed workers.
• Structure versus preference: The concentration of night orientation in creative fields and day orientation in senior roles raises questions about whether workplace structures select for certain chronotypes or shape them.
• Cultural boundaries between work and personal energy: Mediterranean morning preference, despite a late social schedule, may reflect protected evening time; they have the energy, but it’s not for work.
• Small changes, big impact: Later meetings, flexible deadlines, or split shifts can accommodate diversity without disrupting operations.

Why it matters: Accommodating energy diversity is about more than fairness; it’s about resilience. Employers who adapt will retain creative and global talent, reduce turnover, and create pathways for workers who might otherwise be overlooked.

Methodology

The analysis draws on a dataset of over 2.5 million assessments processed through Herrmann’s cognitive intelligence platform. All percentages represent deviation from the population baseline. Statistical significance determined using chi-square tests (p<0.05).

Respondents selected their energy type (“day person,” “night person,” or “day/night person”) along with demographic and occupational information, including management level and field of work. All detailed breakdowns by management level and occupation are based on population data from the U.S. and Canada (n=1,553,136).

For global comparisons, additional countries were included only if they had at least 1,000 respondents to ensure a meaningful sample size. This enabled researchers to examine cultural and regional differences, with findings from 29 countries across six continents reported in the study.