Night Owl

It seems that every time I get on a productive sleep schedule (of at least waking up by 9am - which to some of you is sleeping in), I backslide into my Night Owl routine (staying up 'til 2-3am and waking at 12-1pm). I googled Night Owl, which took me to Wikipedia and I stumbled upon the term DSPS - Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome, which

"is a circadian rhythm sleep disorder, a chronic disorder of the timing of sleep, peak period of alertness, the core body temperature rhythm, hormonal and other daily rhythms, compared to the normal population and relative to societal requirements.... patients can sleep well and have a normal need for sleep. Therefore, they find it very difficult to wake up in time for a typical school or work day. If, however, they are allowed to follow their own schedules, e.g. sleeping from 4 a.m. to noon, they sleep soundly, awaken spontaneously, and do not experience excessive daytime sleepiness.

Not to sound hypochondriacal, but that totally sounds like me and my husband! Finally, a reason! A legit medical explanation to give to friends and family!

I find that I am more alert, productive, and creative at night, which is when I tend to have most of my inspired writing for my fantasy novels, or when I get the most ideas. It's also the time, say at 2:45am when my husband and I plop into our cozy bed with our snuggle-buddy cat, that he and I talk the most - we'll be up 'til 5am sometimes, just chatting or having deep conversations (my favorite). 

And now that I look back on it, my sleeping schedule has always been like this... Sure, teenagers are usually known for sleeping in, but now I'm an adult and I've never been able to hold a regular morning schedule. My parents would give me so much flack for sleeping in when I was a teenager, viewing it as lazy, even though I was awake for the same number of hours in a day, just not at the same time as them. It was so frustrating!

Honestly, I would love to be more of a morning person...I really would. But - now - I'm just going to stop beating myself up over my Biological Clock's screwy gears. This might sound like quitting or admitting defeat to some of you, but I would rather stop stressing over it and instead turn this into something positive. I accept it. I accept myself (some times this is difficult for all of us). I (like all of us) just have to know my limitations - for example, I would be setting myself up for failure and doing myself a disservice if I enrolled in a class that started at 8am (I know this from personal experience).

So guess what, it's 1:30am and what am I doing? I'm writing! So here's to all you Night Owls! All of you who run the late night services that we may need, like gas stations or Emergency Rooms...thank goodness we're not all the same!

Variety is the Spice of Life!

Cheers,

~*Nicole