Is problem solving easier in the AM ?????
Recently I heard the results of a new study claiming there is now proof that we, as humans, are more intelligent in the morning … so I decided to research it. Of course that brought up reams of info to the contrary (heavily backed up with “proof”, also) so there seems to be no end to the controversy.
However, I have my own research to fall back on. For many years
I have worked on a nightly crossword puzzle. I am hoping that it will stave off Alzheimer’s or, at the very least, help to keep me half-way alert in my old age !
Anyway, I often find (especially with the NY Times puzzles) that I can get most, but not all, of the answers. It’s frustrating but I’ve learned not to let it become a big deal. I simply put the puzzle aside and hope I can finish it in the morning.
What amazes me is that usually I can ! Those troublesome clues seem crystal clear to me in the early hours of a new day. I will fill in the answers and wonder why in heaven’s name I couldn’t bring them up the night before !
So it certainly does seem (for me anyway) that I am more intelligent in the morning; but, what about you? Let’s have our own little independent “blogger poll” and see what it reveals.
posted by Ginnie at 2:27 PM
9 Comments:
Ginnie, I enjoy playing word games on my ipad both in the morning and evening, but find I am usually better in the morning because at night I am falling asleep after having spent time reading first.
I haven't tracked it. I tend to be a slow-starter though, so it probably wouldn't be true for me. Traditionally, I am a bit of a night owl although that may be changing.
I seem to write better in the evening and am not an early morning person (anymore!). I sleep until around 6:30 AM now. I can remember that early morning classes made me exhausted while those in the afternoon were better. Maybe I am just on a different schedule.
I don't know about morning versus evening, but I do puzzles on a daily basis (I have books of them) and I can often get more words on the second and third pass through the book than I could at the first. Maybe we are just fresher in the morning and able to think better before the demands of the day intrude.
I have known for sometime my best "thinking" time is in the AM. I often have some problem or other and then "sleep on it." Sure enough a solution presents itself in the morning.
PS You are smarter than me. The NYTimes crosswords are hard to do.
Dianne
I think we function better in the morning, at least those of us who are morning people. There are fewer distractions in our mind, that we accumulate through the day.
I wonder of we function better after a brief nap. I do like my naps.
You asked about my birthday it was February 23, 1943. My mother always say after I was born Spring has arrived. I like to think this was metaphorical as was as experiential. In those days a woman stayed two weeks in the hospital so when my mother brought me home in was early March, Spring in Toronto.
Yes, I think I do better in the morning, too. I keep a book of Sudoku in the bathroom for lengthy visits, crossword puzzles by my chair for commercials!
I don't know why, but I get tired mentally and physically about 3 PM, but I am not a napper. I am usually in bed and asleep by 10. I do love my mornings!
I think it depends on an individual's body clock. I am worthless in the morning...slow to rise, slow to gear up.
At midnight, I am firing on all cylinders.
Years ago I remember a study that concluded that when you "sleep on a problem" your brain is really working on it. That would explain why you can get those crossword puzzle answers that elude you in the evening the next morning.
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