Your best sleep might be one chronotype quiz away

What if your productivity struggles are actually a chronotype mismatch?

Poor sleepers, you’re not broken. You’re probably just out of rhythm because you’re wired differently.

As a short sleeper, my interest in sleep science is personal. I scour the internet for answers like a paid intern desperate to prove their worth. And when I do my “homework” about sleep, two names keep rising to the top: Dr. Matthew Walker and Dr. Michael Breus.

For the sake of one idea, let’s skip the running list of tips on how to sleep better. Let’s talk about why one of them isn't working for you.

That oft-repeated advice—“Stick to a sleep schedule. Go to bed and wake up at the same time every day, even on weekends”—was a game-changer for me. But not before finding the right timing.

Because here’s the thing: Fact is king. Nuance is queen.

Say you stick to a sleep schedule, but it feels like someone is forcing a left-handed person to write with their right. You know this because you either couldn't fall asleep or you woke up exhausted.

Turns out, you’re fighting your DNA.

Your chronotype—your internal clock—is largely genetic. It’s the blueprint for when your body naturally wants to sleep and wake. And yet, we live in a world built for early birds. Roughly 70% of us are trapped in schedules that clash with our biology.

The science is both fascinating and infuriating.

Night owls aren’t lazy. They’re wired to release melatonin 2–3 hours later than early risers. Their prefrontal cortex—the part of the brain responsible for decision-making and focus—literally doesn’t function well before 10 a.m. (anecdotal rather than empirically fixed). Still, society calls them undisciplined and pushes them into chronic sleep deprivation.

This isn’t just about feeling groggy. Chronotype misalignment is linked to higher rates of depression, anxiety, diabetes, and heart disease. We’re not talking inconvenience. We’re talking serious health risks from living out of sync with your biology.

I tried sleeping as early as 9 p.m., hoping to wake before the world stirred and catch that rare quiet at dawn. You know, the kind that feeds you creative impulses like a miracle. I also tried staying up too late, chasing the same stillness. Guess what? It only shortened my sleep even more.

So I stopped trying to become both the earliest bird and a night owl and started optimizing for being a Lion, honoring my natural 11:00 p.m. bedtime. The result? I get about 6.5 hours and wake up more refreshed.

And that’s all you should aim for: restorative sleep. You'll get there once you figure out the right habits — and the right timing.

Swipe through to learn a little bit more about this missing piece in your productivity puzzle.

P.S. I discovered I was a Lion by taking Dr. Breus’ Chronotype Quiz → thesleepdoctor.com
Or try the one recommended by Dr. Walker → chronotype-self-test.info