Among my women friends who are night owls, one is especially adept at taking financial risks and profiting from them. The rest of us who like staying up late, though, are notably hesitant about anything risky regarding money. The difference, reflected in several studies, may be due to the “stress hormone” cortisol.
Women who are night owls tend to be risk takers and unmarried, according to researchers at the University of Chicago. Female night owls have higher levels of cortisol than other women, closer to the levels of most men. And, according to Dutch researchers, slightly elevated cortisol in women is related to improved decision-making performance, as measured by the Iowa Gambling Task; whereas in men, the greater the elevation, the poorer the performance.
Cortisol rises in moments of high physical stress as well as in situations of uncertainty, releasing glucose and fatty acids into the blood to prepare the body for fight or flight. Cortisol levels in night-owl women are chronically elevated, and may be more so in night-owl women who are already stressed, either from past or more immediate causes.
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Those people with higher cortisol levels have high metabolism, high energy and arousability, according to Dario Maestripieri, professor of Comparative Human Development at the University of Chicago. There is some evidence, he said, that high-achieving, successful people have high cortisol levels.