this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2023
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I agree with what you're saying about light and timings. I don't have any reason to disagree with that and I dare say it might even be more productive to rise earlier etc
But I know I'm not the only one who struggles to conform to a morning schedule. Is it hard wired into me? I don't know. But I know a night schedule is what I always gravitate to.
So realistically my choice is either a comfortable night schedule, or a messed up morning one where I accrue a sleep debt and pay it off at the end of the week. I think everyone would agree that's suboptimal.
I also want to address the conflation of night owls with "messed up" sleep. 8 hours every night is not a messed up schedule, definitely not compared with 5 hours every night.
Oh, I completely agree with you. People are naturally night owls, morning birds, and everything in between. There's actually quite a lot of research into what exactly makes someone a morning bird or a night owl, and you'd be surprised to know that it's not entirely psychological! It's known that genetics is a factor, but we're still not entirely sure of all the possible reasons why someone might be a morning bird vs. a night owl.
That being said, one of the big reasons why people are staying later nowadays is because of the light tricking our bodies into thinking that it's still daytime, so it is definitely something to consider if you feel like you might be going to sleep a little too late.
And I completely agree that a lot of institutions were set up to cater to morning birds, and it makes it really difficult for night owls to get by. I empathize completely that night owls kind of have to choose between their own health (by disrupting their natural circadian rhythms) and not being able to get anything done.
The one glimmer of hope is that circadian rhythms is actually a shockingly new field of research, having only really been around for about 20 years. Sure, people knew about the cycle of waking up/going to bed for thousands of years, but researchers only really began to look at what's really going on on a cellular and molecular level recently. And hopefully, the more we know about it, the more we can change the idea that institutions have to cater to morning birds
Im just like that. Had to get to wake up at 6 am to get to uni. Couldn't even eat until 11 without getting extreme bowel cramps that would get me "throne bound".
I can't focus well before 10-11 am whether I am working or not. It's like you woke a regular person up at 2-4 and told them to get dressed, eat something and go to work.
I did it though. Consistently for months in a row for uni or work. Constantly reacting weird to stuff because smh my feelings were always imbalanced, constantly feeling hazy. Every time, without fail, when the summer break came, as soon as I didn't have to force my body awake at 6, it would default to going to bed at 4 am and waking up at 12-13. I'd suddenly have infinite patience, stable emotions, focus like a machine! I was genuinely another person.
Fast forward to now where I can distribute my workload however I please and suddenly I not only work faster and more accurate, but more hours. Had I stayed at a "get up at 6" job, I'd have been called a lazy absent-minded uninvolved guy my whole life. Now I am easily top 5 most reliable in my office and people appreciate it.