Are You a Night Owl?

[GAP]

I am admittedly a Night Owl who enjoys staying up all night but if I don't get proper sleep, I think it might cause complications. Does anyone have advice for a Night Owl like me and how to keep my weight off?

[Nuclear Lunchbox]

Make sure you're getting an amount of sleep appropriate for your age group. If the only way for you to do that is to not stay up all night, don't stay up all night. Problem solved.

[Ornette]

I've probably averaged 4 or so hours of sleep a night for as long as I can remember, probably since middle school. It's a bit more complicated because I have a job now that I have to actually wake up for instead of doing my work whenever I want, but it's still not a problem; it's a matter of falling asleep at 4am instead of 6 or 7am. I'm not sure how your weight has anything to do with the sleep schedule though I'll admit I have no expertise in either field.

Everyone tells me I need to get more sleep, and they're probably right, but I'm just not tired.

[Ari]

I'm also a bit of a night owl and not at all a morning person.

As to sleep and weight, a lack of sleep leads to weight gain.

Having the lights off helps a lot to sleep. Even if you are still looking at a screen or using a reading light, not having lights on for the hour before you usually sleep can really help.

Also, set a loud alarm that is in a location such as across the room, or at least something you can't stop completely until you're fully awake.

If you usually sleep with the lights on, don't. It just gets you really exhausted.

Just sharing what works for me :)

[drinian]

Daily exercise will make it a lot easier to sleep at night. Even switching from sitting for eight hours a day to standing while working for 2-3 hours a day will help.

Here's my experience as someone who needs eight to nine hours of sleep a night, but has hobbies that aren't conducive to that.

Without a doubt, exposure to light for the last couple of hours before the time you want to go to sleep is a major determining factor. Melatonin supplements, in moderation, can help convince you of this fact but aren't a perfect substitute for actually dimming the lights.

The brightest lights are TVs, computers, phones, and tablets, and they will mess you up the most. There's programs for some operating systems that will adjust your monitor's brightness and color calibration to simulate sunset over the space of a few hours.

I phrased this as "the time you want to go to sleep," and one of the most important things to do is not let yourself skip out on this. Electronic devices can be very hard to put down.

There was a recent study that concluded cognitive-behavioral therapy can cure 80% of insomnia. Often it's just about learning better sleep hygiene and sticking to it.

Of course, there are other conditions that can cause insomnia, so it's important to be self-aware and not worry too much if this isn't enough to work right away. Changing your sleep cycle is like going through jet lag; it can be very difficult.

[Sailor Star Dust]

From my teenage years until my mid-20s, I used to be something of a night owl (e.g. Sometimes pull all-nighters playing video games, etc), though I also had various anxiety/insomnia issues back then. Had to use blue lightbox in the mornings and everything.

These days (and hitting 30 this Fall), if I don't get in bed by midnight the latest, I feel exhausted.

Second everything that drinian posted. f.lux is a good, free, program.

[drinian]

Oh, and if you're sleeping right, you should be able to avoid caffeine, which is good for your health and your wallet. And you'll probably have to start laying off the chocolate as well as caffeinated after 4 PM as well.

SSD and I can attest -- it's fun turning thirty!

[Falcon_of_the_Sun]

I make a point of sleeping enough and regularly, especially since I started to exercise 2 to 4 times a week in 2010.
Through the years I have grown a major distaste for anything that expects me to stay up past midnight (if not 11 pm) other than specific social situations with my closest friends.
I work as a freelancer and I go from very busy periods (some 70-80 hours Monday to Friday, including travelling) to periods of limited work from home office. The latter gives me a lot of flexibility, but I've learned not to abuse it.
I can't see myself staying up for games, movies or anything really. If I'm keen on something, I'll do it first thing the next day straight after breakfast. It's actually great to dedicate early work hours to leisure activities.

I don't think screens affect me, but I am using Flux anyway.

ps: I have known people working insane jobs who basically said you get accustomed to sleep 4-5 hours a night through your working week, after a while. I wouldn't swear on the health repercussions, but what Ornette says doesn't seem completely unlikely. Now that I think about it a high school friend of mine insisted she only needed 4 hours of sleep per night and couldn't really sleep any more than that.

Also, does anyone have experience of those apps that are meant to wake you up at the best possible moment within a certain interval, based on the fact that you move a bit during the lightest phases of sleep?

[Chainsaw Owl]

Actually I'm a Chainsaw Owl.

No but seriously, from middle school through highschool I averaged three hours of sleep and made up for the rest in class. It's amazing I got good grades. To this day I'll stay up til dawn at the drop of the hat if my schedule allows, but working fulltime makes that a distinct impossibility six nights a week.

Still, nowadays I'm absolutely fine as long as I get my five hours. Four hours if I have a cup of coffee in the morning. Three hours with an energy shot and a few minutes of Eye of the Tiger playing at max volume. This is far from healthy though.

But when I absolutely have to sleep, I just close my eyes and think about something that interests me, but isn't engaging enough to lead to deeper thoughts. Robots fighting to the death usually does the trick within about twenty minutes.

[Guy Nacks]

No but seriously, from middle school through highschool I averaged three hours of sleep and made up for the rest in class.

Cheezus Christ.

When I was in HS, I was averaging between 5 or 6 hrs. From college until now it's been around 6.5 hrs to 7.

Definitely way more a night owl than an early bird though. When I would be on break from college, I'd tend to stay up until 4 A.M most nights. But when I do wake up early, I feel like the day is just so much longer in comparison.

[Mr. Tines]

I used to be as a student, barely getting up in time for lectures, hating 9:00 starts, and on a free-wheeling over 24 hour cycle during the vacations. Getting a job fixed that, but my settling down time has slipped slowly from about 22:30 to about 00:00 over the years.

f.lux is a good, free, program.

It's seriously awesome. I have it cranked down to a very low colour temperature at night, and with my laptop on my chest, I can just noodle about on the internet and fall asleep around midnight. Then in the next brief surfacing, shut the lid and put it aside to hibernate, while I roll over and do likewise. This gives me 4 good sleep cycles before the alarm goes at 06:30

[r1cepurin]

I, too have this problem, but I tend to fix is over time. I just can't keep a consecutive sleep.

I also want to lose weight, but usually when I exercise, I get home and I'm so tired and end up sleeping during the day from fatigue. It was way worse when I was working, since I was let out at noon. I guess as general advice, I'd say try to discipline yourself to go to bed at an appropriate time. Doing activities and continuing to do them until suppertime helps with this. And yes, this applies to me, too.

[MAGI_01]

I tend to be a bit of a night owl but since I started working the full day shift at work (9-4 tues-fri and 8-3 on mondays), I'm usually dead tired by midnight during the week. Before I would stay up to 2-3 in the morning every night, but that's now mainly on Saturdays. I need at least 6 hours of sleep each night I've found, but usually shoot for 7.

[Sachi]

When I have no schedule I tend to sleep in later and later, and stay up later and later. There will be times where I wake up at 3pm to stay up until 6am; more than likely, during this time, I will fall into a depression of sorts, due to the weird sleep schedule and having a lack of things to do. Other times I'll sleep for 4 hours at a time and stay up for only 8 or so hours, which is worse for my mood.

So, I try to keep myself busy. Since starting my current job I'be become more of a morning person, waking up around 10am on my days off. I find that an early start keeps my spirits up and I can get a lot more done. I also tend to get really tired by 11pm, so I think for the time being my night owl days are over, especially with classes starting up next week.

[Blue Monday]

Definitely a night owl here. Six hours or so sleep is my sweet spot. Weeknights I usually head to bed at 1AM and wake at 7. Friday and Saturday nights I'm up to 3 maybe, and will sleep 'til about 9.

I can't sleep in any more these days, it just feels like a waste of time. Not that I'm ever actually really doing anything when I'm up and about anyway.

Personally I find tiredness or lethargy is tied to periods of inactivity or lack of exercise.

[Trajan]

I'm a mild case. I stay up till 1:00 AM a lot of the time, and occasionally until 2:00. I had it under control until this past fall when it got out of hand and affected my work and quality of life. I'm slowly getting better at it the past few weeks though.

[The Eva Monkey]

I AM TONIGHT

My wife's iMac (with Final Cut) failed, so I signed up for a Creative Cloud trial to see how well Premiere would run on my laptop. Turns out it runs a lot better than I was expecting, so I've been working on a video for my Otakon Eva panel, and exporting a timelapse I shot.

[NemZ]

I tend to drift nocturnal, yeah, though if it goes too late I eventually cycle around to being a morning person for a few days before getting back to being a night owl. I'm in the middle of that now... today I woke up at midnight.

[StarShaper7]

^ Same here. Woke up at 2 am. Ranged from 11 to 1am in the days prior.

[Sachi]

I closed tonight, for the first time in a while. I just got home, and it is now 1am. Gonna be up for at least another two hours. Good thing I have tomorrow off. My brother, who is in town visiting, and I are going to be watching Orange is the New Black all night.