Tweet dreams for early risers

Like most reasonably sensible people, I tend to stay away from making sweeping generalisations, unless I am referring to fans of Southampton FC or men who wear socks with sandals.

But sometimes the labels prove to be as accurate as Harry Kane’s right foot, especially when they are backed up by science as has recently happened with the sleeping habits of the United Kingdom. Boffins at Bristol University believe they have managed to prove once and for all that we are indeed a nation of larks.

It might be hard to believe for anyone who lives in a house with a small person but apparently we are happier at the start of the day than we are at the end.

Experts in artificial intelligence and medicine believe they have all the proof they need after spending four years trawling through Twitter and analysing 800m tweets. The very thought of anybody immersing themselves in any social media platform for that length of time, let alone Twitter, is mind boggling.

During that period they pored over 7bn words from people living in 54 UK cities and, by using a series of indicators, they established that we are at our most logical at 6am and tend to be more emotional during the evening.

In my experience, most people will feel compelled to take to social media at night when there is something either in the news or on the telly that has stirred them into life.

Some will be appalled that academics choose to study a nation’s mood by what people post on social media but what we bash out on our phones is the modern day version of cave paintings and we should accept that these insights are invaluable.

Personally I am not convinced by the study’s findings because I am just as useless first thing in the morning as I am last thing at night.

But, if it is true, that we are at our sharpest before the milkman has been, then there could be real food for thought for bosses everywhere.