The early bird may catch the worm, but the night owl never misses a beat.
Sharp and focused, awake and alert, yet ass-backwards, people who are night owls live life on an opposite schedule. A nocturnal lifestyle is natural for them.
As a student of Temple University, originally established as a night school (hence the history of the Temple Owls), I found that night owls like myself thrive in busy cities with a lively nightlife like Philly.
We feel our best late at night, rather than early in the morning. We hit our peak of creativity and liveliness when the moon is at its highest point, rather than the sun. It's as if our earth rotates on a different axis.
College students, people who work late-hours and overnight shifts, and those who suffer from sleep disorders, are all used to conforming to nocturnal sleep patterns.
So, whether you're suffering from sleep disorders, cramming for college tests, working all night, or it's just in your DNA, being a night owl has it's up's and down's. It can sometimes be a wild lifestyle.
Here are a few things night owls know all too well:
1. You are just going to bed when people are getting up for work in the morning.
Talk about walk of shame. They don't phase night owls though, because when you're used to getting up late, all the hours begin to blend together.
2. Insomnia haunts you.
Just when you try to be a "normal" person and go to bed at a reasonable time, your mind and body won't allow it. What is normal anyway?
3. Your sleep/work schedule is all f'd up.
You're used to a messed up schedule when you work crazy hours, stay up all night, or just can't fall asleep. It becomes second nature to go to bed late, or not sleep at all, and then feel like crap the next day. You find a way to get used to it.
4. Your eating schedule is also all f'd up.
Breakfast is not really a thing, dinner is late at night, and a midnight snack is one of the most important meals of the day when you're a night owl. It can be a very unhealthy lifestyle, but there are ways to manage it. Try to eat as soon as you wake up to burn off the most throughout the day, and limit your late-night snack to the healthy stuff.
5. You are absolutely, positively NOT a morning person.
Mornings suck. Overnight is way more fun.
6. You have to set like 100 alarms.
Because if you don't, you will damn-well sleep right through them and wake up in a panic because you're late for life.
7. You have to hit snooze like 100 times.
It's amazing how quickly the time feels like it's going by when you're snoozing. One minute you're getting up at 5 a.m. to go to the bathroom, then the next thing you know, it's 8:45 and you have to be to work in 15 minutes. As night owls, we deal with this all the time because even when we have to get up early for something important, we can't fall asleep the night before, so we just have to suffer through and hope the snooze saves us.
8. You are super grumpy in the AM.
Did I mention night owls are NOT morning people?
9. It takes a while for you to snap out of it and wake up.
When your adrenaline is pumping all night into the early-morning hours, it doesn't finally settle into your REM sleepcycle until close to the time you have to get right back up. So once you finally fall deep into that comfortable state of deep sleep, you are forcing your body to interrupt it. It's hard to shake that off and wake up.
10. Naps give you life.
Napping. is. everything. Night owls thrive off power naps, caffeine, and more power naps.
11. People think you procrastinate, but you are the sharpest late at night.
There has been various research conducted linking creativity and intellegence with night owl lifestyles. Evolutionary psychologist and scientific fundamentalist, Satoshi Kanazawa, even believes that "night owls are more intelligent than morning larks."
Don't doubt a night owl who soars through the night with eyes that are always watching and learning. They acquire the most wisdom along their journey.
