The
Mastery of Sleep
Hybrid chronotypes exist
 Table of Contents

Table of Contents 2
Hybrid Chronotypes Exist 3
Every Chronotype Can Have Sleep Issues 4
You Might Be In a Transition Between Chronotypes 5
How To Clarify Your Chronotype 6
Don’t think your chronotype is right? You took the chronotype quiz, and the
results aren’t sitting right. 3You’re not seeing yourself line up neatly with what
your chronotype says.

Don’t worry. You’re not alone. Chronobiology is complex and dynamic. So are
chronotypes. We don’t all fit perfectly and exactly into neat boxes. Each
chronotype comprises a range of attributes, affinities, behaviors and
preferences. Within each of the four chronotypes there exists a continuum.
Not all Lions wake bright-eyed at 5 a.m., and not all Wolves still have energy to
burn at midnight. Some Bears are more relaxed and easygoing than others.
And one Dolphin can need measurably more sleep than another. For each of
the three main expressions of bio type—sleep/wake preferences, sleep drive,
and personality—there are degrees of difference at the individual level.

Hybrid Chronotypes Exist

Hybrid chronotypes exist—especially for BEARS.
If your chronotype doesn’t quite align with your personality, habits and lifestyle
—or if you see something of yourself in another chronotype as well as your
own—you may be a hybrid of a couple different chronotypes. This can be
especially common among Bears. Roughly 50 percent of the adult population
are Bears. It’s a large group, with a wide range of preferences, drives, and
personality traits.

Bears who fall at the edges of the continuum are quite likely to share
characteristics with other chronotypes. There are Early Bears and Late Bears,
who share traits with morning-centric Lions and night-centric Wolves. Both
Lions and Wolves have lower sleep drives than a typical Bear—so for Early and
Late Bears, both groups may need less sleep than their fellow bio types.

Early Bears may have a blend of any of the Lion personality traits — their
get-up-and-go, ambition, focus, and conscientiousness.
The same is true for Late Bears and the traits of Wolves, including creativity,
an openness to risk taking, a love of the new and different.

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It’s possible for either Early Bears or Late Bears to overlap with the light-
sleeping Dolphin bio type.

A tendency to sleep restlessly, to experience symptoms of insomnia on a

recurring basis is one sign of a possible Bear-Dolphin hybrid bio type. These
folks may also share some of the high-strung, brainy personality characteristics
that Dolphins have.

Every Chronotype Can Have Sleep Issues

Every chronotype can have sleep issues (including insomnia) that affect
behavior and performance.

Dolphins experience restless, short sleep patterns that overlap with the
symptoms of insomnia: trouble falling asleep, difficulty staying asleep, waking
very early or waking feeling un-rested and un-refreshed by sleep. But any
chronotype faces the possibility of these sleep issues, and changes to sleep
patterns that may make it harder to distinguish their fundamental chronotype.


Lions and Bears are good sleepers, broadly speaking, but a Lion who often
wakes at 3:30 in the morning, or a Bear who falls asleep early but wakes often
throughout the night both face insomnia-like symptoms put them in direct,
fatiguing conflict with society’s sleep-wake clock like Dolphins also are. Same is
true for the Wolf who can’t fall asleep before 1 or 2 a.m.

And remember, for every chronotype, sleep and performance are influenced by
biological and genetic factors as well as circumstantial and environmental ones.

A Lion who consumes caffeine after dinner may not fall asleep before 11 p.m.,
but still wake at 5:30—and feel significantly less Lion-esque in the morning as a
result.

Bears who are dedicated daily exercisers may find themselves adhering to
something closer to a Lion-like bedtime and wake time.

Wolves who can make their daily schedules align with their bio type (for
example, by starting and ending work later in the day, or not having to regularly

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get up at dawn to care for a small child), may get all the sleep they need—and
may have less of the typical Wolf’s impulsivity and emotional ups and downs as
a result.

You Might Be In a Transition Between

Chronotypes

It’s possible you’re in a transition between chronotypes.

Chronotypes are the expression of our individual genetic and biological identity.
We sleep, feel, and perform best when we align our daily lives with our
chronotype’s preferences and drives. We can’t change our chronotypes. But
chronotypes do change at certain points in our lifespan. As children, we’re
mostly Lions, and in adolescence, nearly all of us are Wolves. By about age 21,
we begin to settle in to the chronotype that will stay with us through decades of
adulthood, until about age 65. At that point, sleep patterns and sleep drives
may change, with more older adults becoming Lions or Dolphins.

It’s not always easy to identify with your chronotype.

Learning about your chronotype can take you quickly to a pretty personal place,
and sometimes it gets uncomfortable. We don’t always have a simple time
seeing ourselves as we actually are. It’s not uncommon for people, upon
learning their chronotype, to wish they were another type. For example, a lot of
people want to be Lions. But Lions have struggles and weaknesses alongside
their strengths, just as all chronotypes do. There are advantages and
disadvantages that come with every bio type. And chronotypes are just that: a
biological reality, not a statement about character, or potential.

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 How To Clarify Your Chronotype

If you’re not sure about your chronotype, there are a number of things you can
do to clarify.

1. Take a look at your parents

Chronotype is part of our genetic identity. We inherit our genes from our
parents. Most people have at least one parent who shares their chronotype.

If you’re a Wolf who’s not sure about that designation, take a look at Mom and
Dad. Did either of your parents start packing school lunches at 11 at night—
probably the same parent who had a hard time getting you to school on time
before 8 a.m.?

Bears, you’re in a broad type, with a lot of internal difference. There’s a good
chance, though, that one or both of your parents had the middle-of-the-road
sleep patterns—not too early, not too late—that characterize Bears.

Lion Moms and Dads are pretty easy to spot. They are there to greet the
sunrise types, who have their most abundant energy at the start of the day.

Dolphin parents are hard to miss, too. They’re routinely light on sleep, whether
from staying up late or getting up early—or both. Their lack of ability to sleep
soundly for a full night might be something they talked about regularly. When
taking into account your parents’ sleep-wake habits and preferences,
remember that as we age, more people move into Lion and Dolphin
chronotypes. For a best comparison, look at your parents in middle age.

2. Rate your energy level

This is a good exercise for anyone who isn’t convinced their chronotype match-
up is right. It’s especially useful for Bears who feel uncertain about that match,
and who may be Early Bears or Late Bears. It’s a way to make a basic

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assessment of your chronotype, without the potentially distracting detail of a
full chronotype profile, is to measure your energy level. It’s simple.

Using a scale of 1-5, rate your energy level on a typical morning. Using the same
1-5 scale, rate your energy level on a typical evening. Do your best to be honest
and realistic. Don’t use your most exhausted day, and don’t overestimate your
energy. Got your two numbers? Now, subtract your evening energy rating from
your morning energy rating. Depending on your numbers, you can have a
positive or a negative number (or zero, of course). Here’s how energy ratings
match up to chronotypes:

Wolf: -4, -3, -2

Bear: -1,0, 1
Lion: 2, 3, 4

3. Learn about your ‘adjacent’ chronotype

For people who straddle the line between chronotypes—most often, that’s
going to be Bears, who are sharing characteristics with Lions or Wolves—it
makes sense to deeply familiarize yourself with the profile and timing
preferences of that second chronotype. That’s how you’ll customize your
approach to living in sync with your individual bio time. Here’s an example. For
a Bear who’s really a Late Bear, with evening preferences, going for a run at
7:30 a.m. isn’t optimal—and you’re not likely to stick to that exercise routine.
Borrow from the Wolf’s playbook and schedule a run for after work, when your
athletic performance rhythm is more likely to be at a peak for the day.

The point of understanding your chronotype is to use that information for its
maximum benefit for your health, your performance, your relationships. Embrace
your hybrid chronotype, and put the most useful, relevant information to work for
you.

4. Use the 80% test

Because of the degree of individual biological differences that exist within

chronotypes, and because of the influence of external factors on how we sleep
and feel, it’s not always realistic to expect a perfect match. I encourage my
patients to gauge whether the chronotype they’ve assessed to match is an 80%

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fit. That signals a great majority of patterns, preferences and characteristics are
in alignment with your sleep and waking life. As you continue to pay greater
attention to your sleep and your daily performance, you may see that
percentage climb, as my patients often do.

Another way to feel more confident about the right-fit of your chronotype? Ask
people close to you for feedback. Others who know us well can sometimes see
us more clearly than we see ourselves, and provide a welcome reality check.

5. Take your temperature

This takes a little bit of time, but it’s a way to take a simple biological
measurement of your chronotype. To do this accurately, you’ll need a digital
thermometer, and an evening when you can commit to taking your
temperature hourly over a period of several hours. Core body temperature
fluctuates throughout the day, driven by circadian rhythms. With the exception
of Dolphins, all other chronotypes experience a drop in core body temperature
in the evenings. (For Dolphins, core body temperature actually rises at night.)
Different bio types experience this drop in body temperature at different times.
It’s a small change, often of only a few tenths of a degree (which is why you’ll
need the digital thermometer).

Starting at 5 p.m. and continuing hourly until bedtime, take your temperature.
The timing of the slight downward shift provides important information about
your chronotype.

Lions will see a lower temperature around 7 p.m.

Bears will see their temperature drop around 9 p.m.
Wolves will see their temperature dip around 10 p.m.