Even younger Americans are becoming early birds, and it's for good reasons

America, it appears, is becoming a country of early birds. More than 2 million Americans between the ages of 18 and 34 went to bed at 10:06 pm on average in January this year, compared with 10:18 pm in January 2023, according to a report in Wall Street Journal.

"All of a sudden, it’s so much cooler and way more accepted to sleep early, and everyone has just adapted," Emma Kraft, a 19-year-old junior at the University of California, Berkeley, told the WSJ.

People of all ages are also starting to eat out in the early evening hours. They are reportedly watching movies and theatre shows earlier than ever before and calling it a night before midnight. 

Restaurants across the nation are starting to close early as a response to this shift. “I’m a night owl, so shutting down the restaurant at 9 feels so weird to me, but if there’s two or three tables in the restaurant and a lot of us are just standing around, we lose money,” Chris Chernock, the beverage director of the LA restaurant Asterid told The Wall Street Journal.

These changes are being attributed to the flexibility that workers have since the pandemic began. Other reasons may also be the improved services and choices. Customers have noticed the restaurants are fully stocked during the initial hours, which gives them aple choices that they might not have later in the night. The servers are also relatively less occupied, not in a hurry and provide better services.

Other contributing factors include the collective consumer focus on sober living, wellness and healthy eating.

"It’s a society that’s really pushed us to this is when you go out to eat, and this is how you live your life. and people are finally starting to make decisions on their own instead of going with that,” said Angie Wisdom, a certified life and business coach.

“People are doing it for many reasons, whether it’s the health, it’s also a convenience thing, if I’m already out, and I’m going to have dinner with colleagues or I’m going to run errands and do my shopping," via NewsNation.

With more and more people understanding the early dining is directly related to healthy living, many are trying to drink and eat early so that the liver and the stomach get more time to process the food and alcohol. 

Reports say that even in Las Vegas where people are known to party all night long, off the strip restaurants are closing earlier because of the decreased footfall post 8:30 pm. In New York, Broadways shows are also starting earlier. The Friday Show, which started at 8 pm, has now been shifted to 7 pm. 

With younger generation becoming more and more health conscious, these changes hardly come as a surprise. According to another Yelp study, fine dining customers are eating earlier than they were pre 2020. At least 10% of all diners were already seated between 2 pm and 5pm in 2023, doubling from 5% for the same time slot in 2019, the study revealed. Even uber trips to restaurants have risen during non-peak hours increasing and post 8 dinner traffic gone down.