There’s one habit that seems lazy on the surface, but research shows it may actually be a subtle sign of a high IQ.
If you’re like me, hitting the snooze button on your alarm clock is like a tiny fairy gently kissing your eyelids and putting you back down to rest just a wee bit more before you get to go on and start your day.
For some people, hitting that precious button is a godsend every morning, right before you realize that you’re going to have to hear your alarm two or three times more, that is. But you may have a little bit more going on for yourself than just getting extra sleep if you press that snooze button like it’s going out of style. You might actually be smarter than most people.
Apparently, being able to listen to your body’s request for more sleep and throw off the mantle of strictly enforced schedules that other people put on you might mean that you’re actually more intuitive and, by extension, more creative, says a 2009 study. Researchers analyzed a large sample of young Americans in several middle and high schools to determine if there was a link between their IQs and the time they went to bed every night.
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The results showed that those with a higher childhood IQ go to bed later than those with a lower childhood IQ, meaning they also tend to wake up later in the morning. Satoshi Kanazawa, an evolutionary psychologist and writer, wrote for Psychology Today, “Net of a large number of social and demographic factors, more intelligent children grow up to be more nocturnal as adults than less intelligent children.”
Yes, if you’re more inclined to pay attention to your body’s needs, weigh them against your schedule, and choose sleep, then you’re more in tune with what’s going on with you. Or you’re just lazy… but for the sake of argument, it’s important to note that lazier people tend to be smarter, too. After all, they have to rest and save all their energy for how smart they have to be.
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Kanazawa’s study is one of many that have discovered the brain power of people who prefer staying up late. Imperial College of London published research in 2024 that used data from the U.K. Biobank to find out how different aspects of sleep affected overall cognitive ability.
By examining information from over 26,000 people, researchers discovered that a person’s chronotype, or their preferences for morning or evening activity, was associated with their scores on cognitive tests. Adults who were naturally more active at night were found to perform better on these tests than those who were more morning-oriented. Even those considered intermediate types, who enjoyed both morning and evening, scored higher than the “morning larks.”
However, preferred bedtimes aren’t the sole determining factor of intelligence, and many other elements likely come into play. Lead study author Dr. Raha West explained, “It’s important to note that this doesn’t mean all morning people have worse cognitive performance. The findings reflect an overall trend where the majority might lean towards better cognition in the evening types.”
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Whether you snooze because you stayed up late binge-watching Netflix, you incredibly smart night owl, or because you’re just a bit tired in the morning and want to give yourself a few more Zzz’s, science says you’re actually smarter than those who just jump out of bed at the first trilling of their screeching-devil alarm clocks.
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This is great news: It turns out that if you’re an anxious, disorderly, stays-up-late-at-night person who presses snooze at least once (or more) in the morning, you’re basically a borderline creative genius.
So next time someone smugly tries to tell you that it’s “the early bird that gets the worm,” just press your snooze button, pull your eye mask back down, and rest easy knowing that the early bird is stressing himself out for absolutely no reason because you might just be smarter, healthier, and, yeah, definitely happier than someone who’s foolish enough to wake up early to chase worms.
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Merethe Najjar is a professional writer, editor, and award-winning fiction author. Her articles have been featured in The Aviator Magazine, Infinite Press, Yahoo, BRIDES, and more.
