Quick: pick one word you'd use to describe an early riser. Now one word to describe a night owl.

I'll bet one word was nicer than the other word. I'll also bet that unless you think catching up on email or housework at midnight is normal, the early bird caught the nice word.

Admitting that you set your alarm past standard wake-up times automatically puts you in a one-down position when dealing with early morning types. Early birds take pride in waking up before the crack of dawn every day, body already in a full yoga pose, pores open and ready to receive the day's goodness. Your only viable response is to slink away, muttering that you did some leg stretches last night while watching an infommercial.

Us late night types have had a bad reputation for years. Back in pre-electricity days, a light burning in your neighbor's window at 2:00 a.m. could only mean bad news. Along comes Hitler, a known night owl. Fast forward to today, when staying up late every night has been anecdotally linked to addictions to online porn or video games.

Oh, and then there's Juan Arreola. In 2007, Mr. Arreola murdered his girlfriend's young son. His excuse to the judge? “I'm not a morning person.” Bravo for him: not only did he set a record for courtroom stupidity, he singlehandedly guaranteed that an aversion to getting up early would be equated to evil.

We've got some heavy baggage, night owls.

But take heart: some research shows that we've also got a competitive edge.

In a recent study conducted at the University of Liege in Belgium, early risers and night owls were allowed to maintain their usual schedules while undergoing testing of reaction times and attention span. The results? Ten hours after waking up, early birds tended to fade, whereas night people kept going strong.

Other research suggest we have higher incomes. We also become physically stronger as the day unfolds, unlike our early bird friends, who hit a plateau during the day.

I recently had an early riser smugly inform me that by the time I roll out of bed she's already run 5 miles and has made a significant dent in her workload. Good for her, but if we did a comparison of what each of us accomplishes during a day my list would be about as long as hers. Getting stuff done early in the morning doesn't mean that she does more than me in a day; she just gets it done earlier.

Why are we in the circadian doghouse? The short answer is that we violate social norms. Depending on your demographic circumstances, there's a good chance that many people you know prefer to get up earlier than you do. You don't fit that pattern, hence, you're violating the norm. You're not one of them. The villagers probably aren't going to storm your house in a torch-lit parade of fury, but expect a few raised eyebrows if you confess that you're still asleep when most of them are well into their daily duties.

As for Hitler and Arreola, they may be high-profile poster children for the evils of staying up late but they're only one side of the story. Charles Darwin and Winston Churchill are just a couple of documented night owls who did more good than harm (depending on your leanings, of course). Night owls aren't morally superior or inferior; we just happen to tick to a different type of internal clock.