Why are you nocturnal?

[Jill]

I've tried to analyze why it is that I am completely nocturnal (I am on EST) and what I have come up with is this, and I'll do it list style like John. Today's reply comes to you in five parts:

1. Quiet, dead peaceful quiet. My house was so loud growing up, people screaming at each other all of the time, that I could never get anything done during the day, I wouldn't start actually doing anything until after my parents went to bed and then I could actually start working on home work or what ever project I was doing. During the summer when my parents woke up that was my cue to go to bed.

2. The heat. I grew up in the Caribbean so during the day it was really hot and really humid. At the night the temperatures had cooled off to a more bearable condition.

3. I am self conscious. I prefer not to have people around when ever I am working on anything. I can't type with people behind my shoulder, I can't do any sort of project or be creative at all.

4. I really am nocturnal. I have to have light to sleep, if I do sleep at night then I have to have a light on. I think I just need things to stare at to fall asleep. If you turn off the light my brain goes Oh Hai! and with an absence of things to idly stare at starts thinking. And then three hours later I'll give up on the trying to save electricity thing and turn a light back on so I can fall asleep.

5. It might just be nature. Instead of all of the reasons that Iisted (nurture) it might just be that we are people are naturally more creative at night, nocturnal people seem to be the creative nerd types. If you'll allow me to be a hippie for a moment - plants, animals and character are ripened by the sun, but minds and creativity are ripened by the moon.

Actually wait, nevermind, that sounds effing ridiculous. Scratch that last bit. Well, I'll leave it there for everyone to laugh at but, Trelawney isn't a good look for me.

So why are you nocturnal? Does anyone else have any ideas?

[Alley O'Malley]

Insomnia...not fun. Rather annoying actually. Meh I'll live

[CD]

Hmmm,  I like the list as it is, and the list style, so I'll try and add to it myself....

1. Growing up, I was addicted to reading (still am), and the family/life/school routine meant that book time was after dinner and before bed time.  So I'd be reading until Mum made me turn off the light. Then, I'd turn on the lamp and keep going. Until I finished the book, usually.
2. Noise is a big factor, especially since I've grown up, been to university and moved to noisier suburbs. Working and studying means you have to be up at 3am, even if you're not nocturnal. And the habit stuck.
3. I have emotional problems and am easily distracted (although some of the medical issues have been sorted out with that).  This means, for me at least, that I do things when I can / when my body has actually woken up. And that seems to be hours after I wake up, at night time. So I'm in the groove at 11pm, and by the time I'm well into it, it's almost dawn. Habit stuck.
4. I'm excessively creative, and my ideas and trains of thought seem to control me. I could go down a rabbit hole for days and not notice. I forget to eat, drink, and sometimes sleep.  It's borderline mania, but not strictly speaking, bipolar disorder. More of a personality thing.
5. Generally speaking, even without all that, I'm a night owl.  The periods in my life where I have successfully and habitually woken up in the morning and gone to sleep before midnight, I've always preferred to do things in the evening.  I don't like rushing. I like meandering after I wake up, and physically struggle to rush, sometimes finding it impossible.  I like to sit for about 2 or 3 hours with my 'morning' coffee, catch up on emails or whatever, and eventually I realise it's tomorrow and I should have done a thousand things. It keeps me sane, but the electricity bill is horrendous.

[Charlotte Waller]

I just stay awake for as long as I can because I get my writing muse in the middle of the night. There's something about being the only one up that's peaceful and you know you can get things done. Also, I just can't be bothered to go to bed.

[Aoife hayes]

I don't know really. I've always had a hard time sleeping since I was a child. My brain doesn't seem to want to shut down. And I don't need to sleep as much as most people, it seems. So what happens is my sleeping pattern starts to become later and later and eventually I'm sleeping in until mid-afternoon - in the summer, at least.

[Emilie]

I've been able to do a lot of things later in the night than in the day. And the internet is quite addicting.

[Anna Nichols]

I just don't see much point to going to bed early when I don't have to... there is SO many other things I could be doing!!!! Why sleep? I regret it during school but usually I just appreciate the time I spend at night working or doing this stuff =P 

[Michael]

My melatonin secretion doesn't start until ~1:00am. apart from that, Nighttime is far quieter and cooler than daytime. Its darker, daylight is far too bright, even on cloudy days I wear sunglasses to reduce the brightness (I seem to be sensitive to light, as it hurts my eyes.).

[Cameron Ch.]

I'm nocturnal because I work graveyards at a hotel, though I was never terribly inclined to follow a solar pattern to begin with (when I had an unstructured sleeping schedule, I'd fall asleep slightly before/at the crack of dawn and wake up in the mid-afternoon). So I guess it's a question of chicken and egg.

[William Hagstedt]

I think I'm nocturnal because I don't need much sleep ( I know it's not good for me, since I have not finished developing ), I just need approximately 6 hours of sleep per day, or less. But the only real reason that I stay up is because I can sit at my computer and be so relaxed. Also I prefer the dark. And there is a thing I find very weird about me, I sweat extremely much. Wether it is about physical work or just being in the sunlight I start to sweat alot. I kinda like it though 'cause it gives me a reason to be in the shade (or inside)

[Logan Gregory Redden]

Usually I stay up late because my brain doesn't like to shut down at night.  When I try to go to bed my thoughts start to race faster than they do at any other time.  Basically, I start to scrutinize every aspect of my life whenever I try to sleep which keeps me from actually sleeping.