By Alexandra Thompson Senior Health Reporter For Mailonline
Published: 13:22 BST, 11 June 2019 | Updated: 13:23 BST, 11 June 2019
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You've probably heard of the term 'night owls', who stay alert until the early hours, or 'morning larks', who spring out of bed.
But now a study suggests there are two more patterns of shut eye, with some people being 'afternooners' and others 'nappers'.
Scientists discovered that while some people's energy levels peak in the mornings or evenings, others feel most 'alive' between noon and evening.
And some need a snooze between 11am and 3pm, according to a team of Russian researchers investigating sleep.
The study was led by the Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow.
Scientists discovered that while some people's energy levels peak in the mornings or evenings, others feel most 'alive' between noon and evening
Researchers analysed six questionnaires completed by 1,305 volunteers. Most of them were women or young.
The questionnaires asked about the participants' preferences for mornings versus evenings, as well as their body clocks and sleep quality.
They were also asked how tired they expected themselves to be at random points of the day, which varied from 'extremely sleepy' to 'extremely alert'.
Based on the questionnaire results, the participants were sorted into four groups.
'One can unmistakably recognise the division of study participants into morning, evening, and two further types,' the researchers wrote.
While some studies suggest certain people are hyper-alert all day, this research did not find that.
It did, however, identify people as being either morning, afternoon, evening or nap-type people.
'As many as
