Most of us fall into one of four chronotypes: lions, bears, wolves, and dolphins. We all know people who are bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in the morning, and they tend to be your lions and bears. Wolves and dolphins, on the other hand, tend to have more energy later in the day. Understanding your chronotype and its needs can help you structure your day in a way that works for your body. It can help inform what time you wake up, go to bed, work out, eat, and take meetings. Here’s a quick overview of the four types: As board-certified sleep specialist and co-author of Energize! Michael J. Breus, Ph.D., tells mbg, wolves are the people who need to drag themselves out of bed in the morning and don’t start feeling tired until around midnight. “Wolves are creative, impulsive, and emotionally intense,” he says, adding that they love to seek out new experiences and take risks. They have a medium sleep drive, which gives them peaks of productivity in the late morning and again in the late evening. Unfortunately for wolves, they may find their preference for nighttime isn’t conducive to the demands of work or school. “Things like work and school get going too early, and social fun ends too soon [for this type],” Breus explains, noting that wolves are highly susceptible to social jet lag and insufficient sleep. In addition to that, the cortisol-testosterone ratio for wolves reaches its ideal point for resistance training in the late evening from 6 to 7 p.m., and if you happen to be a yogi and a wolf, Breus says you can do yoga three hours after waking and again before dinner or to relax before bed. At 1 p.m., it’s time for a balanced lunch, and come 4 p.m., Breus recommends a snack that’s around 250 calories, with 25% protein and 75% carbs, to help you power through the rest of the afternoon. Dinner is best served at 8 p.m. for you. Be sure to include some healthy carbs on your plate to help you to wind down and prevent getting hungry again before bed. Of course, you’ll also want to consider your sexual partner’s chronotype since a bear, for example, will probably prefer earlier than that, while another wolf would be ready to romp as late as 11 p.m. “Getting that much sleep can be tough for wolves because their biological rhythm is so at odds with society’s timetable for daily life,” he notes. The formula contains highly absorbable and gentle magnesium bisglycinate paired with PharmaGABA®, a neurotransmitter shown in clinical trials to enhance natural sleep quality, as well as jujube, a fruit used in traditional Chinese medicine for calming.* Wolves can take 2 capsules one to two hours before bedtime to fall asleep faster and wake up more energized.*
