Are you a morning person?

[jjkrkwood]

YES, early start, early finish for me..... But if I have a sexual incentive, I can be an anytime person.

[alrajee]

During the weekends, I'm in bed at 3am the earliest and would get up around noon.

 

Monday to Friday, I'm asleep from midnight to 7am.

[samhexum]

[cany10011]

Pets have ‘inner clock’ just like humans

 

If sometimes you wonder if your dog is angry with you for staying out late, you might be right. New evidence suggests that animals have a clear sense of time, using previously undiscovered neurons that seem to switch on to count off minutes as they wait.

 

The discovery was made by a team fromNorthwestern University while studying the medial entorhinal cortex of mice. Located in the mid-temporal lobe, it’s the part of the brain associated with memory and navigation. And since it encodes spatial information in episodic memories, lead study author Daniel Dombeck theorized that it could function as a sort of “inner clock” as well.

 

“There are many similarities between the brains of mice, cats, dogs and humans,” Dombeck told Fox News. “We all have a medial entorhinal cortex (the region we found that may act as an inner clock), so it’s logical to think that this brain region serves a similar function in all of these different species.”

 

To test his theory, Dombeck and his team put a mouse on a physical treadmill in a virtual reality environment. The mouse would run (on the treadmill) down a hallway to a door. After six seconds, the “door” would open and the mouse would get a (non–virtual reality) treat. They would repeat this a few times before making the door invisible. Dombeck was surprised to find that the mouse would still run and stop at the invisible door, waiting for six seconds for it to “open” so it could eat. Since the mouse didn’t know whether the door was open or closed and waited exactly six seconds, the team concluded that it had to have used its inner clock.

 

The researchers also monitored the mouse’s brain activity, finding that the mouse’s neurons would fire as it ran. When it stopped at the door, those neurons would turn off before a new set began firing. These newly discovered neurons only fired when the mouse stopped, keeping track of the time the mouse was resting.

 

Dombeck believes that dogs and cats more than likely have the same neurons that encode time.

 

“There’s evidence that humans and monkeys can estimate time intervals using some form of an ‘inner clock’ and now with our work we know that mice also can explicitly represent time intervals in their brains and can perform timing tasks,” he explained. “Therefore, it’s logical to think that animals in between mice and humans in the hierarchy chain, like our pets (dogs and cats), can also use their brains to estimate time intervals.”

 

The team’s research could have an impact on humans. The entorhinal cortex is one of the first regions of the brain affected by neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, and researchers could study how these diseases affect the new time–encoding neurons.

 

“When doing basic research like we are, it’s always difficult to know where or how your findings will make an impact, but it’s really results from basic research like ours that eventually lead to better treatments or understanding of diseases, and sometimes even provide insights into how things like designing better computer software (by mimicking brain function),” Dombeck said. “Since the medial temporal lobe (the larger brain region that includes the medial entorhinal cortex) is one of the first regions affected by Alzheimer’s disease, and since the timekeeping properties of this part of the brain were previously unknown, it’s not unreasonable to think that clinicians could soon be asking patients to estimate different amounts of elapsed time as part of the battery of tests to look for early signs of dementia.”

 

The study can be found in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

 

 

My cats wake me up every morning at 5:30 exactly to be fed. They both jump on my pillow or lick my face if I ignore them too much. So, by force, I am a morning person even on weekends. The only good thing is working from home, i am at my office usually by 8:30 after coffee, news, etc... and put in a few productive hours before noon and take the rest of the day enjoying myself.

[+ JEC]

Totally a morning person, usually up at 5am and in bed 930 latest. I might shift an hour or so later on weekends.

[+ WilliamM]

Totally not a morning ? person

[+ Lucky]

Very much a morning person.

[JustScott]

Depends on your definition of a Morning Person. The older I get the more I’m becoming an “early to bed, early to rise” guy (asleep by 10pm, up by 6am), but definitely not fit to be around until 8am or 9am.

[jjkrkwood]

That ALL depends.......

 

[rvwnsd]

Pets have ‘inner clock’ just like humans

 

If sometimes you wonder if your dog is angry with you for staying out late, you might be right. New evidence suggests that animals have a clear sense of time, using previously undiscovered neurons that seem to switch on to count off minutes as they wait.

 

The discovery was made by a team fromNorthwestern University while studying the medial entorhinal cortex of mice. Located in the mid-temporal lobe, it’s the part of the brain associated with memory and navigation. And since it encodes spatial information in episodic memories, lead study author Daniel Dombeck theorized that it could function as a sort of “inner clock” as well.

 

“There are many similarities between the brains of mice, cats, dogs and humans,” Dombeck told Fox News. “We all have a medial entorhinal cortex (the region we found that may act as an inner clock), so it’s logical to think that this brain region serves a similar function in all of these different species.”

 

To test his theory, Dombeck and his team put a mouse on a physical treadmill in a virtual reality environment. The mouse would run (on the treadmill) down a hallway to a door. After six seconds, the “door” would open and the mouse would get a (non–virtual reality) treat. They would repeat this a few times before making the door invisible. Dombeck was surprised to find that the mouse would still run and stop at the invisible door, waiting for six seconds for it to “open” so it could eat. Since the mouse didn’t know whether the door was open or closed and waited exactly six seconds, the team concluded that it had to have used its inner clock.

 

The researchers also monitored the mouse’s brain activity, finding that the mouse’s neurons would fire as it ran. When it stopped at the door, those neurons would turn off before a new set began firing. These newly discovered neurons only fired when the mouse stopped, keeping track of the time the mouse was resting.

 

Dombeck believes that dogs and cats more than likely have the same neurons that encode time.

 

“There’s evidence that humans and monkeys can estimate time intervals using some form of an ‘inner clock’ and now with our work we know that mice also can explicitly represent time intervals in their brains and can perform timing tasks,” he explained. “Therefore, it’s logical to think that animals in between mice and humans in the hierarchy chain, like our pets (dogs and cats), can also use their brains to estimate time intervals.”

 

The team’s research could have an impact on humans. The entorhinal cortex is one of the first regions of the brain affected by neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, and researchers could study how these diseases affect the new time–encoding neurons.

 

“When doing basic research like we are, it’s always difficult to know where or how your findings will make an impact, but it’s really results from basic research like ours that eventually lead to better treatments or understanding of diseases, and sometimes even provide insights into how things like designing better computer software (by mimicking brain function),” Dombeck said. “Since the medial temporal lobe (the larger brain region that includes the medial entorhinal cortex) is one of the first regions affected by Alzheimer’s disease, and since the timekeeping properties of this part of the brain were previously unknown, it’s not unreasonable to think that clinicians could soon be asking patients to estimate different amounts of elapsed time as part of the battery of tests to look for early signs of dementia.”

 

The study can be found in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

My cats wake me up every morning at 5:30 exactly to be fed. They both jump on my pillow or lick my face if I ignore them too much. So, by force, I am a morning person even on weekends. The only good thing is working from home, i am at my office usually by 8:30 after coffee, news, etc... and put in a few productive hours before noon and take the rest of the day enjoying myself.

Thankfully, neither of my cats are morning kitties. When I wake up they are curled up next to or on top of me. When I move, they either stay put or grudgingly move.

 

These two certainly found the right person!

[Rod Hagen]

When I was still getting the daily newspaper, I always felt a surge of aged-youthful pride when I'd get home from a sex party or The Zone sex club or a late night escort appointment and my morning paper was on the steps.

 

Conversely, I also routinely got up to go snowboarding or climbing or mountain biking BEFORE my paper arrived.

 

So, I love LATE NIGHTS and Early Mornings.

 

There is nothing like coffee on the patio of a lakehouse as the sun is coming up, except maybe a glass of wine on the balcony of a hotel or beach house as the sun is going down.

[Rod Hagen]

My entire adult life I have been an avid morning person. Monday through Friday I'm up at 4:30 a.m. and at the gym working out by 5. On the weekends I may sleep as late as 5:30 or 6:00. The flip side of this is that my level of coherency begins to diminish rapidly from 6 p.m. I'm usually in bed my 9 and if someone calls around that time it would be a miracle if, the next day, I remembered anything we discussed.

 

If I remember right, routinely didn't (don't?) you meet with friends at Starbucks early mornings? Very nice routine.

[Mjonis]

When I was young (ha) I could get up at like 5:30 a.m. and watch cartoons and yearned to stay up late.

 

Now it's the opposite. I do not like mornings. I like to sleep in. I typically go to bed (or try to) around 11:30 p.m. and like to sleep in until 9:30. A lot depends on how hot/cool it is and if the sun is pouring in. On a nice cloudy/cool day I'd love to just lay in bed. But still have to work and bring home the bacon.

[HoleTrainer]

I'm usually up or awake at 6am. Lay around in bed til 7 if I'm having an especially lazy morning. Extended alone time in the morning is my jam. I love to drink tea, listen to music, clean my house, update my ads/profiles, schedule appointments, research something new, read a book, listen to a podcast, or plan a trip in the early morning hours. They are my most productive hours, and I love to spend them with myself and organizing my affairs. I'm not usually great at being social with other people super early in the mornings, but I can arrange to turn it on early with advance notice since I'm always awake early anyway. My ideal meeting times are like 10am-6pm. After 6pm I generally wanna eat dinner and go to bed by like 9pm. Again, I can arrange to keep myself turned on and ready to stretch holes until later in the evening with advance notice. But when guys text me at 9:30pm asking me if I'll come over at 11... no, sorry hon. No can do. Daddy needs his sleep!!

[Guest]

In the indelible words of the late Senator Ted Stevens: