Is it possible that morning people are more productive than people who prefer later times of day. This article is filled with things that are "biased" towards morning people, but didn't actually provide any evidence that this bias is unfounded.
In my personal case (I know, anecdote blah blah) I can be very productive, happy and more functional if I can consistently sleep for 6-6.5h per night as long as my wake up time is no earlier than 9:30-10:00. I don't even need caffeine at all, and I can still be perfectly fine with the occasional 5-5.5h sleep night.
OTOH, I might have slept 9h every night for days but if I have to be up earlier I will be miserable, my brain will be foggy, I'll have less energy and I tend to injure myself a lot more working out.