Recently I came across a post online and decided to test whether moon signs are associated with night-owls or morning-birds. Meaning, those who prefer to stay up late and make the most of the nighttime hours, versus those who prefer to wake up early in the morning and get an early start to their day. There are, of course, people who are neither or even both! My guess is that Libra moons, being more balanced in their routine, and Gemini moons have dual preferences, might not have a preference for one or the other.

So why look at the moon sign?

The Moon, in astrology, represents our emotional side. It describes how we instinctively react to different situations, and it also indicates what we need to feel fulfilled and content in our everyday lives, which can extend to our preferred routines.

This analysis explores a small dataset of 245 collected from two separate Reddit posts: What’s your sun (or big three if you want) and are you morning lark or a night owl? and What’s your moon sign? Are you a morning person or a night owl? The dataset I used consists of the Moon sign and self-identified preference for morning versus night. Side note: At the time I collected and analyzed the data, there weren’t as many responses as there are now.  

Key Findings

Overall, people in this dataset were much more inclined to be night-owls, with 54% self-identifying as a night person, 25% identifying as a morning person, and 21% saying they are neither nor both.

The Night Owls

Unsurprisingly, the majority of the Moon signs had a preference for night, which is what we expected for this dataset (if we assume each Moon sign has a preference for the night like we see in the pie chart ) However, certain Moon signs had a much higher preference than expected (54% was expected percentage given the distribution of the whole dataset):

In first place is Leo, with 73% of Leo Moons identifying as night owls.

Second place is Virgo, with 67% of Virgo Moons identifying as night owls.

Third place is Scorpio, with 64% of Scorpio Moons identifying as night owls.

Maybe the extroverted Leo Moons prefer the night for the nightlife or getting work done, and the more introverted Leo Moons, plus Virgo and Scorpio Moons prefer the night when it’s most quiet so they’re guaranteed to have time to by themselves at home.

The Morning Birds

The analysis revealed that two signs have a strong preference for the morning, both of which have more than double the expected percentage (of 25% for morning preference):

Capricorn Moons tend to be morning people with 68% of them preferring early mornings to late nights.

Aries Moons also tend to be morning people with 59% preferring early mornings.

When I consider the archetype of these two signs, I think of the common themes of being goal-oriented, ambitious, and getting stuff done. I guess Aries has a reputation for wanting to rush into things or being first to do something, which is somewhat in line with getting an early start to the day. Capricorn, though I’m not as sure, perhaps getting up early allows them to be more productive and accomplish more? It seems like having a morning routine is pretty important to both of these Moon signs. 

Most Likely to Be Ambivalent

Lastly, certain Moon signs displayed a balance of both or neither when it comes to late nights or early mornings. These signs appear to be more flexible than others when it comes to their routine:

As I expected Gemini scored the highest percentage-wise among the Moon signs for not having a preference at 38% (compared to the expected 21%) which is quite high given that this option wasn’t prompted in the original questions. Although 47% of Gemini Moons still prefer the night, just at a lower than expected rate.

Not surprisingly, Libra came second with their ambivalence among the signs, with 32% expressing no particular preference. As with the Gemini Moons, more Libra Moons (57% of them) still had a nighttime preference.

Summary of Findings

Although this was only a quick analysis, the findings from this small dataset implies that the Moon Sign can somewhat predict the likelihood of being a night-owl or morning bird for some zodiac signs (but not all). Based on this dataset…

Aries and Capricorn Moons are more likely to be morning birds than night-owls.

Leo, Virgo and Scorpio Moons are more likely to be night-owls than morning birds.

Gemini and Libra Moons are slightly more likely be night owls, but often have no preference compared to other Moon signs.

However, a more in-depth analysis, with a larger dataset and inclusion of statistical significance tests are needed to verify this finding.