Do morning- and evening-type people really exist?

Yes, morning- and evening types really do exist; it’s not just something you talk yourself into. One of the causes is a difference in the functioning of a person’s biological clock. Lifestyle also has an effect, though, making it possible for an evening person to get up a little earlier, and a little later for a morning person.

A morning person wakes up early and easily in the morning, but by evening the curtains close and they want to go to bed early. An evening person, on the other hand, struggles to wake up on time in the morning and often doesn’t really get going until the evening. Performing well or exercising: a morning person likes to do them early in the day, but evening persons prefer to do them in the evening. The differences can be so large that a true morning person is already out of bed when an evening person is just getting in.

Can you switch from being an evening person to a morning person? No, that’s not easy. As an evening person, you can make some lifestyle changes that make it a little easier to fall asleep and wake up on time, but you will never really become a morning person. Is that a problem? That depends on whether you maintain a fixed rhythm as an evening person, because an irregular rhythm is not very healthy. Recent research shows that a regular sleep-wake rhythm is a stronger predictor of life expectancy than sleep duration.

The rhythm of sleeping and waking is regulated by the biological clock in your brain; an area of 100,000 brain cells just above where the optic nerves enter your brain. The cells in the biological clock can produce a rhythm of about 24 hours and tell the body what time it is: that it is time to go to sleep and that it is time to get up. They also generate all kinds of rhythms in your blood pressure, heart rate, and hormone levels to prepare you for falling asleep and waking up. The rhythm of the biological clock is not exactly 24 hours: in morning people, it runs slightly faster, let’s say 23.8 hours, while in evening types it runs slightly slower, let’s say 25 hours. As a result, an evening type does not receive the signal until late that it is time to go to bed or get up. However, you can move the clock a bit as light falling on your eyes in the morning speeds up the clock and evening light makes it slower.

So, an evening types’ biological clock runs slower than that of a morning type. You can adjust your biological clock by being in light and dark at the right time. It is important to maintain a regular sleep-wake rhythm and see as much daylight as possible – at least two hours – each day. For evening types, it is especially important to open the curtains immediately after waking up, eat breakfast in the light, and avoid light in the evening.

Probably. Our stress system is attuned to acute, temporary threats such as a hungry sabre-toothed tiger that prehistoric man had to flee from or fight. Today’s stresses, such as the pressure to achieve, are more prolonged and constant: we are almost always ‘switched on’. As a result, our stress system does not recover as well and we experience more stress-related symptoms.

We often read in the news that we are increasingly experiencing stress. Stress is your body’s response to a threat from the environment. Previously, in prehistoric times, that threat consisted of acute danger, such as the aforementioned hungry sabre-toothed tiger. Nowadays, our stress system is still the same as that of prehistoric man.

In a stressful situation, you first produce adrenaline. This stress hormone triggers the well-known fight-or-flight response: your heart rate rises and your breathing speeds up. Next, cortisol is released. This hormone makes more energy available to the brain and muscle cells, for example, and increases the blood pressure. At the same time, it temporarily inhibits digestion and the immune system, giving you more energy to deal with the threat. When the threat disappears and you relax again, the stress system recovers on its own and the release of stress hormones drops. So stress is not bad – in fact, it is necessary for survival.

These days, however, we don’t need to be afraid of sabre-toothed tigers. The stress that many people experience now is of a very different nature: pressure to achieve, work pressure, or study stress. Even this kind of stress is not always bad: a little stress before an important presentation or an exam can help you to perform better as it increases your focus and energy. But if stress is prolonged, it can get unpleasant. In this case, the stress system no longer gets a chance to recover, which can lead to complaints such as sleep problems, memory problems, reduced immunity, and cardiovascular disease. These are increasingly common – not only comparing prehistoric times with today, but also comparing the 1990s with the 2010s, American researchers found. Perhaps this is because we are constantly exposed to stimuli. You can check your work email anywhere, and otherwise the news websites remind you of all the problems in the world, or social media pressures you to ‘be your best self’. If you get stressed by this, it is difficult to calm down again – the ‘threat’ does not go away and your stress system cannot recover. This is probably why we are more stressed than we used to be, because our bodies cope better with a short, acute threat than with the long-term, constant stress of today.

Would you like to read more? Sapolsky, R. M. (2005). Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers. Henry Holt & Company: New York, NY, USA.

Yes, it’s possible! Dying is not only a biological but also a social process. After a death, the bond you have with a loved one does not suddenly disappear. These relationships change, fade, or intensify, depending on the time and place. Some people talk to the deceased or propose a toast to them on their birthday at their grave. Or they might write letters to keep them updated on everything going on in their life.

What exactly does it mean to ‘be dead’? In the social sciences, a distinction is made between biological death and social death. Biological death takes place when the brain functions are irreversibly, permanently, and completely lost, meaning there is no way back. Social death occurs when a person’s identity fades, for instance when a person is no longer remembered. This can happen after a death, but also during a person’s life, for example due to extreme loneliness, exclusion, or illnesses such as Alzheimer’s.

Often, social death occurs gradually after someone has died biologically. The relationship you have with a loved one does not suddenly disappear, but persists and develops. People talk to their deceased loved ones, for example at a memorial, or experience their presence through material reminders in the home such as photographs and clothing.

The relationships that people have with their deceased are dynamic and change over time. This does not just mean that people may experience more or less intense bonds at different times, depending on their grieving process, but also that the deceased continues to develop socially. For example, you often see birthday cards on graves in the Netherlands that show the deceased getting older, even after death, as someone who died at the age of 47 may be congratulated on their 50th birthday. The deceased are also informed about new members of the family through cards announcing a birth. And then there are the drinks that, as the glasses and bottles on graves testify, are drunk with the dead.

In summary: in social terms, dying is a gradual process and the living maintain relationships with the dead. These relationships change, fade, or intensify, depending on the time and place.

Contrary to what many people think, drugs are not legal in the Netherlands. However, we are tolerant of soft drugs, such as cannabis. The government tolerates the possession of five cannabis plants and five grams of soft drugs, and cannabis cafés (coffee shops) are allowed to sell small quantities under strict conditions.

The tolerance in the Netherlands towards soft drugs is called the policy of tolerance. Under this policy, certain offences under the Opium Act are not actively prosecuted, such as possession of a user quantity of drugs. This includes five grams of soft drugs, five cannabis plants, half a gram of hard drugs, or one pill. One of the best-known parts of the policy of tolerance is the sale of small amounts of cannabis in coffee shops. Coffee shops are allowed to sell a maximum of five grams of cannabis per person per day to people over the age of 18. They are also allowed to stock a maximum of 500 grams of cannabis. This policy of tolerance was introduced in the 1970s to separate the markets of hard and soft drugs and thus reduce the health risks of drug use, reduce crime, and prevent public nuisance.

But there is a strange side to this policy of tolerance. Sales in coffee shops are tolerated, but growing cannabis is prohibited. This means that coffee shop owners are currently forced to supply their shop illegally. For years, a debate has been going on in the Netherlands about whether cannabis cultivation should be legalized. Proponents say that legalization protects health because it makes it easier to monitor quality. In addition, crime is reduced because coffee shop owners no longer need to deal with criminals. Opponents, on the other hand, say legalization poses health risks and leads to an increase in drug use.

In 2020, the government launched an experiment called ‘the closed coffee shop chain’. This is an experiment in 11 municipalities with the aim to investigate whether it is possible to control cannabis growth and supply to coffee shops. Legislation has been amended for this purpose, so that production, distribution, and sale within the 11 municipalities are no longer subject to prosecution. The experiment had a long preparation phase, but the first regulated cannabis has been on sale in coffee shops in Breda and Tilburg since the end of 2023. The other participating municipalities will follow during 2024.

Although the Netherlands was long known for its liberal soft drug policy, other countries have since overtaken us. For example, cannabis cultivation has been legalized in some states in America, as well as in Canada and Uruguay. Our neighbours to the east have also taken an important step towards a more liberal cannabis policy, and from 1 April 2024, adults in Germany are allowed to possess 50 grams of cannabis and grow three plants for their own use.