Are you a lark or an owl?

Do you wake up early in the morning, refreshed and bouncing with energy, ready to meet the day? Or would you rather stay up late into the night, then sleep in the next day?

"Larks," or morning people, prefer to go to bed early and get up early, whereas "owls," or night people, prefer to stay up later and sleep later.

Most of us are programmed by our circadian rhythms to sleep at night and be awake in the daytime. The circadian rhythm is a roughly-24-hour cycle in the biochemical, physiological or behavioral processes of living beings. The term "circadian" comes from the Latin circa, "around", and diem or dies, "day", meaning literally "approximately one day."

I took this quiz and came up as "very much a night person." Trouble is, my current schedule requires me to get up at 6 a.m. in order to be at work at 7:30 a.m. Maybe this explains why I am perpetually tired at work! My natural rhythm and my work schedule are at complete odds with each other!

This article from the BBC says the answer to why some of us are larks and others are owls may lie in our genes. Researchers found a link between people's preferene for mornings or evenings and a gene called Period 3. If you have a long form of this gene, you're more likely to prefer early mornings. If you have the short form, you're probably an evening person.

I'm betting I have the short form of Period 3. That would explain a lot.

This site from the Medical College of Wisconsin has some interesting information about the body's biological clock and how light affects our brain.

If you're a lark, you probably don't have too much trouble with a normal daytime work schedule. If you're an owl, however, it can be more difficult.

There are ways to train yourself to be a morning person, such as putting your alarm clock across the room, getting up at the same time every day and turning on bright lights as soon as you get up.

Or, if you're like me and your natural rhythm and work schedule are at odds, you can just resign yourself to not going to bed as early as you should and being tired the next day. Naps work great for making up the difference in sleep! If you can escape to your car and take a brief power nap at lunch, it will go a long way toward helping you feel more alert in the afternoon.

Take the quiz above and see if you're a lark or an owl. Let me know what your results are. How do you deal with the differences between your natural circadian rhythm and your lifestyle?

Wet socks for better sleep? Not for me!

The field of sleep study is filled with a lot of pseudo-science.

Take this insomnia solution I saw recently.

It calls for putting on a pair of cotton socks dunked in cold water and wrung out lightly. Then, put on a pair of dry woolen socks over the wet socks, wrap your feet in a towel and go to bed.

Supposedly, you'll sleep like a baby.

The cure was published in a book called Health20 by integrative physician Alexa Fleckenstein and Roanne Weisman, but a Bavarian priest introduced the concept more than 100 years ago.

I suffer from a few insomnia problems, mainly with sleep onset, and sometimes I get pretty desperate to get myself to fall asleep. However, I'm not up for trying this one. This might work for some people, but I don’t think I could fall asleep with wet, squishy feet.

I have found the theory behind the remedy to be sound, though. Studies show cold feet and insomnia are linked, which I have found to be true. If my feet are cold, the rest of me is cold, too. Thus, if I warm my feet up, it helps me fall asleep.

Most nights, I sleep wearing a simple pair of slipper socks, especially in the winter. My husband quite enjoys making fun of me for this – the slipper socks are not very attractive. I retort that the alternative is for me to toss and turn all night (which he also complains about) or put my icy-cold feet on him.

What is the fool-proof remedy for a good night’s sleep? I don’t think there is one, at least not a 100 percent approach. But rather than rely on wet socks, it's far better to practice good sleep hygiene.

Sleep hygiene is the practice of following simple guidelines to ensure more restful, effective sleep. Some of them are:
— going to bed and getting up at the same time every day
— exercising early in the evening
— avoiding caffeine and nicotine if they affect your sleep
— avoiding alcohol in the evening
— avoiding the TV and computer screen an hour or more before bedtime. Or better yet, — don't have either one in your bedroom
— keeping the bedroom quiet, cool and dark
— using the bed only for sleep and sex

All of those may not work for every person, but they make more sense to me than wrapping your feet in wet socks.