I've often wondered if the east coast orientation of the United States affects overall sleep patterns in the US. I know it does for me- I live on the west coast and am regularly getting up for 5a conference calls with east coast clients, despite being a profound night owl descended from multiple generations of night owls. While I like my job, the schedule is physically painful for me. I often dream that if the political and financial centers of the US were on the west then east coasters would constantly be working till 7 or 8p at night, with early birds dropping like flies since they won't get back to their house get in bed before 10p.

It really is tough being a night owl. No one makes fun of the person works from 6-3p, but you might get fired in a lot of places you tried to set your working schedule to 11p-8p. And what we do to our middle and high schoolers is just wrong. I remember to catch the bus I had to be outside by 645a, which meant waking up at 615a. Your average teenager's body doesn't want to wake up before 8 or 9a!

BTW- If you're an early bird who thinks all of us night owls are lazy, please read Internal Time (http://www.amazon.com/Internal-Time-Chronotypes-Social-Youre...) and then cut us some slack. If you are night owl you might want to pick it up to make you feel better :)