Saturday 17 April 2010

Larking about

Discussion around our dinner table not so long ago turned to body clocks and states of daily wakefulness, with one diner saying that the time of day at which you were born is the time of day at which you’ll feel most awake.

An entertaining theory, but I’m not convinced – even though I was born around 9.30am and tend to be most alert around this time, perhaps a little earlier. Early morning is when ideas for new embroidery designs or sewing techniques pop most freely into my mind, and then my creativity levels start to flag around lunchtime. It’s not unusual for me to wake up with an idea or image of a finished item already in my head, make a cup of tea and head straight for the “studio” to get it down on paper. And then I’m in the needlework groove for the next few hours and everything else gets put on hold, all the annoying daily routine stuff. This is on the weekends, at any rate. A day job tends to put a damper on these sorts of things.

Wakefulness is more a product of your DNA and melatonin levels. My husband is a night owl in the extreme, which has led to minor investigation into the double helix and sleep patterns. And his birth time and “most alert time” aren’t even close.

During the latest of my sojourns into attempting to understand molecular biology – which entail rather more googling and random web surfing than any kind of scientific research – I came across an entertaining excerpt from a book called The Body Clock Guide to Better Health by Michael Smolensky and Lynne Lamberg. The authors split people into larks, hummingbirds and owls, depending on their state of wakefulness during certain hours of the day. Basically, larks are morning people, owls are night people and hummingbirds are inbetweeners.

Based on this theory, I’d say I’m a hummingbird leaning quite heavily towards larkishness. And clearly my other half is an owl, through and through. This works rather well for us on a practical level as we share a creative space – I get it in the mornings and he uses it at night.

So what I’m wondering is whether the majority of stitchers are larks, hummingbirds or night owls. Do you wake up craving the feel of a needle between your fingers or do you stitch into the wee hours? Or are you one of the lucky stitchers who can pick up a needle any time of day or night and get the same amount of pleasure out of needlework, no matter what the hour? Lark, hummingbird, owl – which are you?

4 comments:

Elizabeth Braun said...

What an interesting discussion! I think I also tend towards lark-ishness, but that's a general thing, not just with needlework. Having said that, I'm OK a more or less any time, up to 11pm, as long as I'm generally well and well rested.

I'm glad to say that I also don't agree with your acquaintance who says you're at your best at your birth time, as I was born at 03:10!!

Glapha Cox said...

That was interesting. I would have to say that I am a hummingbird. Mornings are when I get a few have-to's done. They can't be on my mind for stitching. Then I use stitching to relax and distract myself from anxiety or depression. I stitch in the afternoon and early evenings. I think I was born in the wee hours of the morning and I am definitely not an owl.

Unknown said...

Well one thing for sure my body clock does not go by my birth time, grin. Born at 9:30PM and by them I am dragging my tail, I am a morning person. BarbM

Paul & Carla said...

I am a lark. Definitely. However, probably due to habit I don't ordinarily begin any crafts until afternoon and find evening most available for craft work. I think that's only because I am fairly busy during the rest of the day and don't want to sit down with a hook or needle in my hands.