Morning Lark or Night Owl?

[FyrePowers]

How did you figure out whether you are a lark or owl? Are you able to live a schedule that is compatible? If not, do you feel as though your productivity is suffering?

After waking up between 11 AM and 12 PM (again!) despite alarms set for earlier, I'm willing to accept: I just may not be cut out for morning life before 10 AM. I had a job in my late teens where I had to be up before 4 AM - I was the worst for that. I had a job after college where I had to be at work at 6:30 AM. It took me a few months to even consistently get to work on time.

Since I have more control of my schedule, I find myself having a hard time getting up earlier than 10 or 11 AM, when I will naturally wake up. I will sleep through alarms I set earlier than that. I start to get tired around 11 PM and am usually asleep by 2 AM. My sleep cycle seems to mostly exist in a grey area of the day that is neither "lark" or "owl", with shifts towards being an owl.

My challenge is trying to make a schedule that works with when I naturally wake up/go to bed, because the times that I want to work heavily overlaps with evening social hours with my friends and family who are larks or have lark schedules. I feel like I suffer from a "social jetlag" trying to squash myself into more of a lark schedule so I can spend time with family and friends, and it hurts my sense of productivity. I have been trying to learn to say "I'm working on X right now and can't hang out at the moment" instead of "yes" all the time. It makes me a little sad not to see my friends and family as much, but overall it stresses me out more to not have work done, and I appreciate what time I do have with them more.

If you aren't sure what chronotype you may fall under and want a fun quiz to help you, I recommend: https://www.realsimple.com/work-life/life-strategies/time-management/early-bird-night-owl .

 

[Deleted member 37064]

I'm up at 0400, and usually in bed between 2330 and midnight. Some nights are interrupted sleep due to pagers gong off, others no sleep at all. Sometimes, I'll sleep in for an hour to try and get a bit of sleep if I can.

Thankfully, I'm on who can sleep most anywhere and is sound asleep within a couple minutes of my head hitting the pillow.

 

[AudriTwo]

EVERYTHING OWL

 

[Mila_]

I am an owl and although I have read many times that this internal clock is a built-in predisposition and the word "genetics" gets tossed around a lot, I have never seen a shred of proof to confirm it.

This is only my personal opinion but I believe being a night owl is more about having a disorganized lifestyle than an innate trait. When I do go to bed at a decent hour (before 11 pm) my sleep is more restful, I wake up much more energized than when I sleep during the day. If I do stay awake until the wee hours of the morning it is simply because I am enjoying what I am doing and I see sleep as an inconvenience.

 

[Lollie Berrymilk]

I was a lark before meeting my girlfriend, then she turned me into an owl because she never seems to go to bed and I'm an insomniac so was easily influenced. But now I'm on some medication that knocks me out really quickly and makes me sleep for about 12 hours! It's amazing. I have to remember to take it early or I'll lose half the day. It doesn't really interfere with my layabout depressed lifestyle, especially since most people are on camsites during the day in my timezone.

 

[SaffronBurke]

I'm a vampire:

Only sleepy around dawn
Hisses and covers my eyes when I see the sun
I don't burst into flames in sunlight., but watch me do my magic trick and sunburn in just 15 minutes!

 

[dilligaf0]

If you're a night owl late enough into the night (aka morning), does that make you a morning lark too?

Asking for a friend.

 

[Mara_Jayne]

I have a lot of trouble falling asleep and hate waking early in the morning.. and on days that allow me to I'll sleep well into the day even if it involves over sleeping. Mostly I have a very conflicting schedule. Camming is my work which keeps me up well into the night especially with me needing a good amount of time to actually fall asleep and my non camming part of my life requires me to be up by 6 am.. so I average 4-5 hours a night with sometimes an hour or so nap at some point during the day.

And I wonder why I'm tired all the time lol

 

[SaffronBurke]

This is only my personal opinion but I believe being a night owl is more about having a disorganized lifestyle than an innate trait.

I could just be one of the rare exceptions, but I've always been naturally nocturnal, even as a toddler. Getting to sleep early enough to wake up on time for school was always a struggle, and getting me out of bed after the meager couple hours of sleep I managed to get, was a fight - my mother had to resort to throwing cups of ice water on me frequently in high school. My sisters would jump on my bed, yell in my face, pull off my covers, I was still so tired that I'd roll over and go back to sleep. Even now, with a job where I don't have to wake up until 11am, I still sleep through my alarms fairly frequently. The only impediment to getting good sleep during the day is light coming in through the blinds, but once I got a dark curtain for my room, I can sleep from dawn to mid afternoon like my body wants and wake up refreshed.

 

[Dbstorm_]

All the things I enjoy either feel better or are generally done at nighttime. Best band you've ever seen, best cam experience, best sex IRL, these are all usually after-midnight events. There is a certain mystery about late nights that we are tought from childhood. It's dark and scary and not safe. You aren't allowed to stay up to see those ungodly hours until you're much older. When you're a kid, after midnight is a twilight zone that only exists for sleeping and/or nightmares. Once a year Santa comes, but he is magic so he can operate during those hours. I love the night.

 

[ThePrincessLuxy]

I am an owl and although I have read many times that this internal clock is a built-in predisposition and the word "genetics" gets tossed around a lot, I have never seen a shred of proof to confirm it.

This is only my personal opinion but I believe being a night owl is more about having a disorganized lifestyle than an innate trait. When I do go to bed at a decent hour (before 11 pm) my sleep is more restful, I wake up much more energized than when I sleep during the day. If I do stay awake until the wee hours of the morning it is simply because I am enjoying what I am doing and I see sleep as an inconvenience.

I do think genetics does play a small role in it- but evolution trumps all of that. I have read that genetically people lean more day or night people, but this does not mean passed 12am ish. Its only ever on average waking about an hour earlier or staying awake about an hour later. So in camgirl world, these true overnight vampire hours we think of when we hear laymans say "night owl" doesn't match up. There is absolutely nothing within our evolution that dictates this generally other than undisciplined or reverse scheduling.

*there are always anomalies but I haven't heard of any new articles. I also can't directly source anything as this was just discussed with professors in college in passing. I take their word for it. I'm not a sleep expert.

 

[Summer Raynes]

I'm an owl, have a compatible lifestyle. I knew this. I feel alive at night, but need to be up during the day because...mom life. I typically don't like being up until about 10 AM on a good day. Last night I was up until 4 AM (why god, why) and up again at 8:30. Feel fan-freaking-tastic on 4.5 hours of sleep and function well off of it.

I don't think I lead an disorganized lifestyle, I'm not one for chaos. There's very little I can control in my life and organized is one of my control freakness (ask my roommate, he'll vouch for that). Sometimes I'm forgetful and ditzy [hiii regs], but thats my usual happy, fun loving, goofy self that LIVES off of 4-6 hours a night.

 

[LunaLamb]

I'd say I'm more of a Mid-day Macaw.

 

[Deleted member 43650]

Interesting topic. This is beginning to become more understood as 'morning larks' and 'night owls' are often so due to internal circadian clocks - it is a biochemical thing that often cannot be changed. The 'night owl' trope is becoming more and more recognized in the 21st Century due to changes in employment culture - the days of the ubiquitous 9-to-5 are departing and more and more people work online, at home, and/or at night...

 

[sexylittlelynx]

As someone who has also struggled to wake up with alarm systems I figured this might be good to pass along.

I started using alarm systems that force me out of bed. I downloaded an app called kiwake and it was the best 3$ I spent. I was getting in trouble at work and such.
The app requires you to leave bed / do activities in order to stop it.

Although I firmly believe it’s best to just know your rhythm and honor it- (damn 9-5) I wanted to share in case anyone else was working toward waking up at a more consistent time.