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Consider the following facts: (1) Antisocial behaviour is on the increase in recent years in the early hours, (2) Eight o'clock classes at JPTE English Department are gradually disappearing and being replaced by late afternoon lectures or seminars. Could these two facts be connected? Until recently most people would have made fun of the question itself. Now, it seems, we have to think again, taking into account the results of my recently completed survey, which dramatically demonstrated the effects of getting up early on university students' behaviour and intellectual performance.

A central issue behind antisocial behaviour due to getting up early concerns the importance of the amount of sleep each individual needs to be able to cope with the challenge of a new day. Established scientific opinion tends to claim that the vast majority of us need eight hours of sleep every day. But over the past few decades the life rythm of city dwellers and especially intellectuals developed to be so complex and accelerated that a 24-hour day is hardly enough to fulfill all one's needs. One widely popular solution to the problem is to reduce daily sleep to a minimum level. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that a person lacking his biologically required rest is highly irritateable when woken up by the unwelcome sharp sound of the alarm clock in the morning.

Students lacking in concentration seem to have difficulty following the lessons at university. A certain amount of time is needed to regain ones senses after sleep and become wide awake, which is in direct ratio to the amount of relaxing night rest. The less one sleeps the more difficult it is to wake up in the morning and the narrower the concentration span becomes. So although alarming, it is not particularly surprising, that since students have been given the possibility to decide on their own schedules, they tend to prefer the mid-morning and early or even late afternoon classes to early morning ones. As a result of this phenomenon, late afternoon and evening classes followed by lengthy weekday parties are likely to further restrict the time devoted to sleeping. Concerning the intellectual performance of notorious early birds, my theory, namely that an early rise would result in lower quality work, was only partly confirmed by my investigations. However an early rise is often closely associated with a reduced amount of sleep, its side-effects can easily be avoided by early bed-going, which would mean fresh brain and intensive intellectual performance despite early hours, assumed some of my interviewees, whose frequent references to health and weight consciousness suggest that early morning excercises, such as jogging or swimming may contribute to being able to succesfuly overcome the physically natural state of morning dumbness.

Can early classes be the possible causes of poor performance in case of certain courses? A conclusion can only be drawn after thorough consideration, but in my opinion it is an excuse widely resorted to by students not exceptionally keen on high quality performance in class.

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The early bird catches the worm, says the English proverb whose Hungarian synonime adds a different sence to the English one's meaning. The Hungarian version translating it word by word sounds like this: "The one who rises early happens to find gold." When I was a child I often let my thoughts dwell on the problem: what sort of gold can the early riser find. Is it a kind of treasure or real golden coins or the rising Sun' s gold? As I grew older I realized it must be a symbolic saying. The gold must mean some advantage for the early risers.

First of all examine the reasons why people do not like getting up early. Separate the late risers into two groups. The first one is the group of those who get up late just because they find it comfortable and do it whitout any reasonable cause. Call them lazies later on. The second group is the group of those who stay bed late for acceptable reasons: heaving their duties until late at night, night workers, long day workers, who can hardly afford to have a rest and leave the bed later only on their days off or perhaps artists whose way of life is different. They would earn a separate category so do university students but there can be lazies among them as well. People belonging to the second group have their good reasons for using their daily hours for sleeping otherwise they are not capable of working efficiently.

Those who prefer early rising really deserve the "treasures" they find. They can enjoy the sunrise and join in the different processes of the day at the beginning but the lazies happen to find themselves in the middle of a bustle. Old timers especially in the countryside were said to rise with the hens and go to bed with them. For the modern man it may sound rediculous. The changes of darkness and lightness, mornings and evenings, dawns and nightfalls are all the same for him. He ends up his day whenever he finds himself at the end of his overtime then rushes home, skips supper and flings himself onto bed and next day everything starts from the beginning. Perhaps he gets up early but it is not the kind of early rising that I could accept beneficial.

Every adult needs 6-9 hours sleep a day. Certain people are satisfied with less, they are enviable, others need more. If one finds his need he can arrange his own schedule finding the best and earliest hour for getting up. After the essential amount of sleep he will find himself fresh and ready to face the day. The lazies deprive themselves of the chance to get into the day as it starts and to get to the natural flow of it.

Certainly I do not want to say I never admired and enjoyed the moments doing nothing just idling away my time but simply belonging to the lazies’ group does not help to form and keep a strong personality. They are more or less lazies in other fields of life. Simply they are wasting their time they could use for more important things. The wise take full advantage of their time.