Night owls and early birds
Night owls and early birds
A sleep scientist/professor named Matt Walker has a podcast about, you guessed it, sleep. He talks about this and how it’s very unfair to people who are biologically programmed to get tired later.
He goes on to describe scientific proof of the effect this has on their sleep and the impact to their health. It’s sad really, but his hope is to raise awareness and acceptance of the night owl’s schedule.
Yeah but the world needs data analysts and programmers.
It's not only about being tired enough to fall asleep early. If I stick to a 10pm-6am sleep schedule I feel exhausted during the day, and by early afternoon I'll be falling asleep. It's like being jetlagged permanently; my body simply doesn't want to keep to that schedule. It's not just an "oh, you need to stick to the schedule long enough to adapt and get into a proper routine" situation either - it's something I struggled with for years while I was in school and university, despite getting enough sleep.
It's amazing how much better and more energetic I feel - physically and mentally - now I'm able to keep to a sleep schedule that suits me. Obviously exercising is a good thing, but early/delayed sleep phase syndrome are real things.
I once had to do 12.5 hr shift work.
Going from 7 am to 7:30 pm wasn’t too bad compared to the nightmare that was 5 am to 5:30 pm, which meant I had to get up by no later than 4 am.
Same amount of time but the phase shift just completely messed everything up because my body just refused to comply that early in the morning.
Not OP but mine is 00:00 - 06:00.
I can’t fall asleep at 22:00. But my ideal schedule if I work permitted it would be 02:00 - 10:00. When I’ve kept this schedule before it’s literally night and day how better I feel.
I could go to sleep however early you like but I’d still be wrecked at 06:00.
Typically around 04:00-12:00 for me. Fortunately, I have a job that fits nicely around that, so I'm in a pretty good place overall, but when I do have to try to shift to more "normal" schedules it really wreaks havoc on my energy levels and mental clarity.
I've tried all sorts in an attempt to make a "normal" schedule work for me, like sleep monitoring, therapy, sleeping pills, and just being really over-the-top about my sleep hygiene (like not allowing screen usage for X hours before bed, no drinking or eating X hours before bed, etc). I can sort of make a "normal" schedule stick but I never feel good for it. And it takes constant work because my body naturally wants to gradually drift back towards a 4am sleep time, and I find going to sleep earlier than previous nights very difficult so once it starts slipping it usually takes an all-nighter to get it back to where I want it.
Like I said, I've generally got things pretty good right now with my job and lifestyle working around my sleep schedule. But it'd certainly be a lot easier if society didn't think I was lazy and was able to accommodate me (and other people with less "normal" sleep schedules) a little more.
I think part of the unpopular reception is that those of us that suffer intractable sleep issues are told this constantly by people who just don’t understand it or are just out to shit on people they think are lazy.
From my parents convinced that I was useless and lazy, to co-workers who are sure I’m just too stupid to be able to sleep well, to partners I’ve had in the past… Always explaining to me how I’m doing something wrong, and surely if you just try to sleep you can. No. No I can’t. No matter what I do, even sleep aids are only effective for a week or two at the most.
It’s insulting to constantly hear people tell me that I just need to do this, or that and I’ll be able to sleep. Yes, I see it says many of us, but decades of being shit on for something we can’t control takes a toll.
I’ve struggled for 30 years to sleep ‘acceptable’ hours. At best, I can wake up early if I have to, and I do a lot because my child’s school starts way too damn early on the weeks she’s with me, and I’m on-call every other week when she’s not. That means I get 3-4 hours sleep most week nights. I’m too old for this shit, but I have no choice and no options. We know that not sleeping enough can have severe effects on physical and mental health, but if you aren’t on a ‘normal’ schedule that goes out the window.
I’m a night owl and a morning person who works on a farm/cattle ranch. I had a 27 hour shift for the first time last month and I was kind of ecstatic about it. I felt proud when I got home and crashed. I also have a lot of willpower though so it’s easy for me to push through work stuff with very few freaks.
I guess this is my way of saying that everyone is different.
You can’t see that the more people cycle or the more bus lanes we have also means less cars.
Try framing it like this. Every time you see a cyclist remember that’s one less car. Or a bus could be 20-50 less cars on the road.
Buses, that makes sense. But never in the history of bike lanes has replacing a car lane with a bike lane meant as many cyclists using that lane as cars did before. Replacing car lanes with bike lanes in no way helps efficiently move people.
It’s better for the environment, so I support it, but let’s be real here.
Have you ever been to London? Because we have many many cycle lanes and it does help the flow of traffic.
Ever heard of Amsterdam?
I’m happy to be shown some examples to the contrary though.
Did they add a bike lane? Or did they replace a car lane?
I can 100% guarantee that any place that has removed a car lane and replaced it with a bike lane has people moving less efficiently. The math is inescapable.
You can’t guarantee anything of the sort, but fyi many of the routes are from road lanes, it’s London after all not much room for lateral space, but many places have put them at the side of the roads.
No way in hell.
I’d be very interested to see the study itself from that first link.
Well, never is a bit of a strong word here. Copenhagen and Amsterdam have something to say about that. Now I’m not a fuckcars person, but I do see the value for those places. I am also aware that it works there because of multiple factors that do not necessarily translate well to other places, not just plopping a bike lane and hoping people won’t just use it for parking their cars. Oslo, for instance does not have the same infrastructure for bikes as Copenhagen does, presumably because they get worse winters?
I’ll say this, though, I was extremely surprised to see a traffic jam on the bike lane and no jam on the car lane.
Excellent use of your empathy there.
If I have to do it so should everybody mentality.
If some humans can handle lactose and others can’t. Some suffer from migraines whilst others don’t etc. you don’t think it’s possible that we also have different circadian rhythms.
Perhaps you could exercise some critical thought. Maybe go read any of the various studies on sleep and make an informed decision rather than a knee jerk reaction.
Also, positive intent. Just assume people are being truthful for the most part. Life is easier if you’re not looking to shit on people.
No. Trust is lost.
If Apple can exercise positive intent as a core tenant of their business then so could yours.
Assuming everyone is out to get you is how you end up bitter.
I guess I can’t reason you out of a mindset that you didn’t arrive at through reason in the first place.
With that said have a nice day and try to be better!
Tu eres aburrida.
So if I set my alarm earlier than I will turn it off and wait for my emergency alarm to go off.
I should got into bed earlier: well it might work but I am just not tired then. If I go to bed at 10 or 11 pm I will just stay awake for hours in my bed.
Luckily I have wfh and don’t have to attend meetings before 10 am. Sometimes I get out of bed 10 minutes before 10 and I still feel tired.
Night shifts are the only night owl specific concession and society as a whole of very much does not run like that. Flexible work schedules are the outlier by a wide margin.
Still glad to see it improving