Night Owls

[MissTerious]

I have just realised that being a night owl means my circadian rhythm might be the reason that I prefer night to day because I have always been tired during the day and had more energy from evenings through to early morning. My mental abilities too are much sharper at night. My son is the same, and always had been.

I avoid morning appointments because they really are a struggle. It can be a real problem.I also get a better quality of sleep during the day. I actually love darkness too and find it comforting.

Fortunately my husband doesn't need lot of sleep and we are often up and about when others have been tucked up for hours.


Are their any other ABers who are like this?

[Hazlinny]

Lately I have been thinking that I could quite happily turn day into night! Like you, I seem to function better as late afternoon approaches and I also try to avoid morning appointments. I tend to blame the medication which I take in the morning thinking it makes me sleepy with lack of motivation but it's probably just old age!

[wolf63]

I always have a problem staying awake all day, but staying awake all night is easy.

I have always thought it was due to me being Insulin Resistant (now Diabetic) and Bipolar or a combination of the two.

I worked in an office for many, many years and usually had a period each afternoon when I hit the wall with total exhaustion. Even though I worked for the Civil Service, they frown upon people sleeping at their desks. It was a total nightmare.

I can empathise with you, but like me, you are able to sleep when you are tired. I had to give up work for health reasons at the age of 40 (2003) and now I am able to control my life a little better.

I don't know about you but some afternoons I wake up after sleep and actually feel well both physically and mentally. It is a lovely feeling.

[MissTerious]

Hazlinny, I too take medication in the morning which makes me worse, but my brain functions better at night. It always has. I love the peace, quietness and darkness that comes at night.

[Barmaid]

I think my body clock is generally a bit haywire. Some evenings, I can be cracking on with a piece of work and before I know it is 4am. I can then be up at 8 and fresh as a daisy. I do like to work late at night, there are no distractions at all and outside is so silent it is almost deafening. During this heat, the coolness of the night has been a godsend.

Other days, I am done for by 8pm and can easily sleep for 12 hours.

[sunny-dave]

Since retirement, and especially since moving to rural Ireland, we have drifted into a pattern of late rising and late bedtimes - in general we find the hours between 10pm and 2am much more congenial and interesting than 7am to 11am.

This is fine until you have workmen doing your bathroom (as we have at the moment) - being up and washed and dressed by 8:30am every day for the last week or so has been a bit of a trial ...

[MissTerious]

Just thecsameveolf. Working hours were so wrong for me. Also night sleeping for me is not resting. I continuously keep walking with vivid dreams. During the day I get a restful sleep.

[Arksided]

I've always (as long as I can remember) being a nocturnal creature, I really have no idea why... night shifts etc... seem natural... but I have to re-adrees ones body clock to work through the day

[Hazlinny]

If I have not been successful in solving a crossword or quiz question during the day, the answer seems to come to mind when I go to bed. A friend calls this my "bed brain"!

[Arksided]

*re address

[MissTerious]

We have never had regular bedtimes in our house. I know a lot of people who do, kids have set bedtimes regardless of whether they are tired or not and partners go to bed at the same time as each other. We just go to bed when we are tired. I also get a better quality of sleep during the day. I must admit being retired makes it easier Dave, especially when trades people turn up early!

[Canary42]

I think my circadian rhythm was irrevocably damaged during 30 years of 24/7 IT standby (not continuous I hasten to add, usually 1 week in every 3 or 4).

And I must admit that during that time my faculties were often much sharper in the small hours. I now take an afternoon nap most days and go to bed well after midnight.

[MissTerious]

The early morning thread on here often appears whilst I am still up!!

[Buenchico]

I'm very much like you, MissTerious. If, say, I had an important job interview at 9am, I'd stay up all night (so that my body regarded it as a late night activity), rather than go to bed and try to sleep.

I find it very hard to go to bed before 2am (as I know that I wouldn't be able to sleep if I did, anyway) and I've often still been posting on AB when the 'Early Birds' thread appears.

[wolf63]

I can usually only sleep for about two hours at a time. I just get my Kindle out and play games or come on here.

The last time that I slept all night was about 13 years ago - I had the flu. The cats were not impressed at being starved all night and they reminded me of my cruelty for the rest of the day.

[gness]

Same here, MissT. I'm brighter and more alert and creative from evening til the early hours. I only reluctantly accept a morning appointment for anything.
I love the dark but everyone I've lived with, including Dave for all he's a night owl, seems to have/had a thing about "letting the light in". Curtains and blinds fully open to let all the natural light stream in is torture for me.
I need a completely dark bedroom to sleep well. Not a chink of light anywhere even if it means Dave crashing about on his trip to the loo.
Some of that is having pupils that don't constrict properly I guess.

As for those virtuous early risers who tell me that I'm missing the best part of the day.....no, I'm not. Evening and night is my best. :-)

[pastafreak]

I'm a night owl, but admit I prefer not to sleep during the day this time of the year. I too love the silence of night, but darkness sometimes will give me an attack of claustrophobia. I'm a victim of SAD so during the winter months I really want to hibernate...that's when daytime naps come easily to me.

Before I had my daughter, I worked as a graphic artist doing page makeup for a small Brooklyn publisher. We did our own local newspaper and several other publications within NYC. Hours could be very irregular particularly on the day/night a paper went to the printer. So I'd start at 11am...the earliest I can function...and often finish after midnight. The record was an 8am finish. I thrived on that.

Whereas at my recent job for the drop-in I struggled...and suffered when they demanded a 7:30 am start. I was useless by 1pm, couldn't sleep at night, didn't get enough sleep.
Now my day starts at about 9:30 am...coffee not until 11...bed about 1...and I potter on the internet.

[Redhelen72]

I am up at the crack of dawn and in bed by sun down lol

[MissTerious]

An early bird catches the worm Red. Not keen on worms though!! ;O)

[Redhelen72]

Normally means I can spend time in the garden without the worry of putting sun cream on

[MissTerious]

Gness I hate street lights. I just couldnt live anywhere with Street lights.