Why Do So Many Highly Gifted People Start Their Day With This Surprising Morning Habit?

When Morning Isn’t Just Morning

For people with high intellectual potential—those with an IQ of 130 or higher—the start of the day has a special flavour. Their minds, constantly spinning, shape the way they approach even the faintest light of dawn. And there’s one morning habit that seems to call to them, one they tend to adopt spontaneously and quite naturally (no need for an alarm clock, apparently!).

What Science Tells Us About Gifted Sleep

Scientific research has shed light on some particular characteristics linked to the sleep patterns of highly gifted individuals. Consider, for example, a 2003 study conducted with the participation of Dr. Revol, head of child neuropsychiatry at the Neurological Hospital of the University Hospital (CHU) of Lyon in France—he’s also a specialist in gifted children, in case you’re wondering. The study compared 196 gifted children with 226 « control » children, all between 8 and 11 years old. The results? Some standout differences in how they sleep:

• Gifted children experienced more sleep cycles on average: 6.4 cycles per night compared to 4.2 for others.
• Those cycles were shorter, lasting about 70 minutes versus 90 minutes for the non-gifted group.
• The « paradoxical » phase of sleep—otherwise known as REM, when the brain is particularly active—arrived earlier in the night for gifted kids.
• As they move toward waking up, their sleep becomes predominantly light or REM.

So, while most of us are still clinging to those precious REM cycles (and maybe a teddy bear), their brains are busy doing overtime.

Why Do They Wake Up Early… and What Do They Do?

According to psychologist Arielle Adda, who specializes in gifted children and is the author of the upcoming book “From Gifted Child to Gifted Adult: Building Your Personality” (scheduled for release in February 2025), there’s a logical reason for these quirks:

“Gifted individuals process information faster than average. And it’s during REM sleep that the brain sorts, organizes, and stores all this data,”

she told Figaro Étudiant. Another trait she notes? Gifted people often have very vivid, dense dreams—another sign of an intensely active brain all night long.

But this ever-active mind doesn’t necessarily make mornings easy. Adda describes the daily reality:

“Many parents tell me that their children wake up very early, sometimes as early as 5 a.m. They start to fidget, move around in bed, or get up.”

But just to keep things in perspective: waking up early isn’t automatically a sign of genius! Still, Adda highlights that it’s a habit many gifted kids develop. So, what do these little Einsteins do with all these extra morning hours? If there’s a book nearby, they’ll gladly grab it, she confirms:

“Gifted children have a natural attraction to reading,”

she explains. Some parents, in fact, end up removing books from their children’s bedrooms—since this early-morning reading can make it hard for them to fall back asleep. As Adda politely reminds us all:

“They’re still children, they need their sleep.”

The Takeaway: A Morning Habit That Speaks Volumes

For highly gifted individuals, especially kids, those first moments of the day set the stage. Their energetic minds drive them to get up early and reach for a book—perhaps with more enthusiasm than for breakfast. While this makes for an enviably productive morning, it’s worth remembering that even the brightest minds need a full night’s rest (and maybe, just maybe, parents need a little peace and quiet too).