Is anybody here nocturnal?

[blahman8000]

I feel most active and motivated at night. I've been this way since I was around 12 years old. I'm 24 now and nothing has changed. In fact, it scares me to wonder that maybe the fact that I have such a small stature is because I didn't sleep in regular patterns when I was growing up. Maybe that's the case, maybe it's not. I did sleep but it was all over the place. It's rather depressing to think about, really.

It's 2:05 AM here now and I feel like my day just began. I'm all alone so I feel a bit more alive. I've also been drinking but when I drink during the day, I just end up going to bed. Now I get to be all by myself. I crave that.

I think I'll feel this way for the rest of my life, and it's hardly functional. I'm a loner, and I am not ashamed of that. But it has very much interfered with my life. I used to be the "life of the party" and I pretended to belong, and I was often a leader and the comedian of social situations. But it's not me and so of course it didn't last. Now I stay alone. That's me.

Sunlight makes me want to curl up in my bed sheets, be alone, and sleep. When it's night time and nobody is awake, I feel much better. It's not like I don't desire any social interaction. Sometimes I do. But I also crave solitude. I honestly have good social skills, I like to connect with people, and I can often make people laugh. But I'm a nocturnal loner at heart.

Please, if you respond, don't suggest any diagnoses you might think apply to me, because I cannot handle that. It will end up stuck in my mind for months.

 

[Sheffsam]

...When it's night time and nobody is awake, I feel much better. It's not like I don't desire any social interaction. Sometimes I do. But I also crave solitude. I honestly have good social skills, I like to connect with people, and I can often make people laugh. But I'm a nocturnal loner at heart.

Wow, I really thought this was just me. It's not that I don't like daytime or sunlight both, but there's something amazingly peaceful about the world in the early hours, when it's empty of people all around. Looking outside, or walking to the early shops for cigs and seeing dawn never gets old for me. One of the most sapping things for me when I used to work was that I never got to see this time of day unless I was on night shifts, which I've rarely had the chance to do.

The hardest thing for me about being this way is the guilt of not living on a 'normal' sleep pattern. It leads me to try and force myself back to a night time sleep pattern and this in turn leads to me feeling tired and shitty, and getting crazy insomnia. I did some 80-odd hours awake a few weeks ago, and then still ended up waking at 8-9pm.

 

[RR279]

I typically go to bed around 7AM and wake up around 4-5PM.

I dropped out of HS at 16, any within a few weeks the time I was normally getting up to get to school became the time I was normally getting ready to go to bed. My parents thought I was damned nuts when I was making late night food as they were getting ready for work, which is pretty understandable I guess.

I too am a 'loner', so being up alone all night seems to just 'fit'. In all honesty though I would like to have a schedule of going to bed a few hours earlier so it would at least be somewhat normal.

 

[snafu]

I can function much better at night than day... Doing things seems more lively and natural

 

[S.M.F.G]

I'm on enough benzo to make an elephant sleep yet alot of the time i dont get there till early morning, Have to go for a sleep study soon there is a possibility i have some kind of sleep disorder, its not uncommon. Out of curiosioty have you ever done any amps, speed, meth any uppers? these can fuck with ur sleep patterns bigtime. But yes id rather night than day, But mailnly for the reason that theres less people out @ nighttime.

 

[MikeOekiM]

i go to bed at 6am wake up anywhere from 12pm-6pm

 

[Tude]

I am! I work night shift and love it! I'm not a loner, btw. Just like nights.

 

[wooger]

I'm the exact same, in all honesty I have never really had a normal consistent sleep pattern. Even when I was 'functioning' i.e. doing what I was supposed to do to fufill my commitments I would always do so at night, if I had lectures the next day I would go to them, and then nap in between and then get stuff done at night. There is something about it which is very calming.

In short, I'm a total night owl .

 

[blahman8000]

Thanks for your replies, everyone. It's nice to have people who understand.

Out of curiosioty have you ever done any amps, speed, meth any uppers? these can fuck with ur sleep patterns bigtime.

For about a year, I was huge into amphetamines. It became pretty ridiculous and I ended up in the hospital. But honestly, my sleep pattern was fucked long before I tampered with that stuff. I think I'm just naturally like this, or I became like this over the course of growing up and now it's set in stone.

 

[effie]

I have pondered this a lot.. when left to my own devices, with no routine as such, I become nocturnal too. It seems incredibly common.. but it makes no evolutional sense, as far as I can tell! I really don't know the answer why, but it is very, very common. Subconscious escape from the realities of daytime? Living indoors away from sunlight upsetting our circadian rhythms? Who knows.. but you are most definitely not alone!!

 

[Nodding]

I wouldn't say I was nocturnal, if I don't have to be up for anything I'll go to bed around 2am (sometimes closer to 3:30am, but generally 2) and get up about 11-12 the next day.
On the days I have to get up at 8am for Uni I do struggle (I'm almost always 20-30 minutes late on a 9am start). But even when I do make it in for 9am I find I can't concentrate at all.
My brain starts to wake up at midday getting gradually better until about 10pm. From 10pm-2am I am at my peak, then after about 2:30 I start to slow down due to tiredness.

All in all a fairly normal sleeping pattern I think (something I am so grateful for, I still remember my insomniac past and shudder).