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My mom often talks about her neighbor, who is in her 80s, and from what I understand her daily routine for years consisted of recording countless hours of daytime TV shows all day long, then staying up well past midnight watching them all, then sleeping until 11:00 AM or later.
Last I heard, this woman's doctor finally told her to cut it out, as it was affecting her overall health.
What harmful effects could it have on her health? I've never told any doctor how late I stay up...
maybe I should.
When I was a small child, I would wake before dawn and sit by the window, marveling at the world going from darkness to grey light to the first rays of sun. I found out that 6 a.m., a television channel came back to life with Early Bird Cartoons. The house was quiet, which was not normal in a seven-kid family. I savored that time of day.
Then came Junior High, and we went on split session at the Jr-Sr high school while they constructed an addition on the school. School for me in 7th and 8th grade ran from 12:20 to 4:50. It sounds like one of those "back when I was a girl..." stories, but in the winter months we walked home in the dark. And that changed my habits for a long time. I didn't have to get up until 10 a.m. and I didn't go sleep until after midnight. In high school we went back to normal house when the construction was completed, but I was now all off-balance. My homeroom teacher was out for surgery for weeks before I found out because I didn't get to school in time for homeroom.
Of course after high school, as a late teenager old enough to go to bars and then into my twenties, I learned the joys of staying out until last call at 3 a.m. followed by a trip to an all-night diner and not going to bed until 4:30 or 5 a.m., but that was weekends.
I worked most of my life with a long commute to the city, getting up at 5:30 or 6 to be in the office at 8 or 8:30 and not getting home until 6 or 7. I was definitely one of those sleep-deprived people who tried to catch up on weekends. It wasn't poor management, it was just life. In order to live somewhere safe with good schools (meaning paying for private) close to Manhattan in NJ, you have to be rich, and I wasn't).
Anyway, upon retirement, I discovered that I naturally require about 7 to 7-1/2 hours of sleep, and getting enough sleep for the first time in nearly 40 years was a noticeable life change. I do find that on days when I haven't done a lot of activity, 6 or so seems sufficient.
But I did rediscover my childhood love of dawn. I'd rather get up early and let the night owls have the darkness. To me, early morning is the best part of the day.
I get what the OP is saying, though. It seems sometimes as though EVERYONE loves to proclaim themselves a Night Owl, and often it comes across as some sort of statement that they are special and different somehow from everyone else--but apparently they are not. It appears to me that half the population's circadian rhythms keep them up at night, or even if not all night, they don't go to bed until the wee hours and then sleep until late morning.
When I was pregnant, I constantly thought my baby was dead inside me because I rarely felt it (I didn't know she was a girl until her birth, lol) move. I heard other women talk about kicks in the ribs and whatnot that never happened to me. Then when I went to bed at night, I'd finally feel a little movement.
When my daughter was born, she stayed up all night. That book about what to expect the first year said that she would at a certain point sleep through the night, even maybe up to 12 hours, and they lied. She never slept more than seven hours at a shot, and she was three years old before she slept through the night. Her toddlers years are a blurry fog in my memory, because even if I woke up to hear her playing with her toys in the living room at 1:30, I still had to get up at 6 and go to work!
Anyway, daughter is now 32 and just had a sleep study done because she feels as if she's going to doze off at work. Her natural sleep rhythm right now is from 2 a.m. to 10 a.m. When I visited her last month, I woke up at 4 a.m. to use the bathroom, and there she was sitting in her bed at her laptop, doing work. This mama lark hatched a baby owl.
It's real. Some people come to life at night, others love to greet the dawn, and still others are somewhere in between.
Not to make too much of a deal of this but personality types of early birds and night owls tend to differ. I think we've even seen a little of that in this thread.
Some psychologists suggest that the differentiation has its roots in our ancestry when some tribal members guarded during the day and others were inclined to watch over the night.
What harmful effects could it have on her health? I've never told any doctor how late I stay up...
maybe I should.
Pretty sure as long as you get 7-8 hours out of 24 (or whatever is the usual for you), you're good. I imagine doctors expect that if there were a problem getting it, the patient would tell them. It sounds like it's just a problem for the OP; not the person him- or herself. It reminds me of the "How do we get our seniors to use technology?" thread.
I was always an early bird for most of my life. But as I've gotten older, it's gotten harder to just "fall asleep" at the same time I used to. It's like my body has shifted its rhyme. With retirement I no longer have to follow a schedule, so I just go to bed when my body is ready.
Me, too. For me it was natural to be up early and to go to sleep early. Had lot's of early-in-the-day energy and eventually wore out. It was great getting to work early, getting all my work done before the others arrived, and then coasting through the workday. But the long drive home was a dog.
And when traveling, could never sleep on a plane, so took many overnight flights and hit the ground running upon early-morning arrival. That also helped with the time-shifting.
But. Now I am different. Part of it may be that I am retired and there is no penalty for staying up late. And part of it is that despite my age I still have plenty of energy. Sometimes I get up early and stay up late. Sometimes the reverse. And it no longer matters.
Someone who feels compelled to stay up late for no apparent reason, night after night?
I was way more familiar with it in my teens and 20s, when going to bed before 11pm seemed to be a crime.
But now in our 40s and 50s I wonder what the compulsion is. FOMO? Sleep cycle issues?
Interested in thoughts.
? More than likely, aging has deteriorated their sleep. Then too, working sucks up all your free time and that takes a toll so sleep suffers. People have other interests than work sleep. I don’t think people are trying to be immature.
When I was a small child, I would wake before dawn and sit by the window, marveling at the world going from darkness to grey light to the first rays of sun. I found out that 6 a.m., a television channel came back to life with Early Bird Cartoons. The house was quiet, which was not normal in a seven-kid family. I savored that time of day.
Maybe off-topic but in October 1988 I had an office emergency. I was up punching out papers until around 5:30 a.m. I walked the six blocks to my apartment. The first hints of sunrise were appearing and the traffic was already pouring out of the Queens Midtown Tunnel. I was up at 8:00 a.m. to present my papers to a District Court Judge, inaptly named Judge Leisure.
I'm a self-professed night owl. I went to bed last night around 2:00 am, was up & around having coffee by 9:30. Going to bed early would be around 1:00 am for me. I've had jobs which required me to be on the road by 5:00 and they made me miserable. I'm retired now and much happier going to bed in the wee hours.
I blame Johnny Carson and David Letterman.
I'm a self-professed night owl. I went to bed last night around 2:00 am, was up & around having coffee by 9:30. Going to bed early would be around 1:00 am for me. I've had jobs which required me to be on the road by 5:00 and they made me miserable. I'm retired now and much happier going to bed in the wee hours.
I blame Johnny Carson and David Letterman.
You might have a side point there. I grew up in the eastern time zone in Vermont. Midwinter on dreary days, it might be a little brighter during school hours, but it was getting dark out if there was any reason to stay late at school. A treat was night skiing. (For those thinking of moving to Vermont, I just read that they again had a winter where there was no sun visible at all for seventy days.) The nightly news was at 6 PM and main entertainment programs started at 7 PM, news at 11 was over at 11:30 PM, leading into Jack Paar or Carson and then Tom Snyder or Letterman, taking you well past midnight. The good stuff where you had to think was only on late, and there were no VCRs. Many a night I stayed up until the anthem and test Indian played.
Going to the central time zone was a shock for me. News at 5PM? The day isn't even over yet! "Late" news at 10 PM? Huh? In theatres, the second evening show of a longer film often started at 10 PM. That isn't late.
In Vermont, the first evening show never started before 7 PM to allow people to have time to get home from work and have supper and maybe a little news before going out. In Alabama, that first evening show might be at 6:15 or 6:30 PM, especially in rural areas.
I like the late night because it seems all of the other people in the world sort of....go away.
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