Remember back in high school when you were lucky if your parents let you stay up until 10 p.m.? Then you went to college and things got a little bit more lenient; shout out to the six hundred other young adults that live in the same building as me with no rules. Or maybe staying up late was never something you really asked for or something you acted on out of rebellion…maybe it’s always been natural for you to be awake up until the quiet hours of the early morning. Being a night-owl might come as naturally to you as your hair color or your cold brew vs. frappe preference. If so, you are most certainly not blind to the fact that sometimes being a night-owl can be useful, and sometimes it can be a pain in the butt. Here’s why:
It is the most peaceful time of the day (night?).
Everyone around you is sleeping, the traffic outside your window subsidies, and even most of the dogs in your neighborhood stop barking for at least a few hours. The middle of the night has the potential to be one of the most tranquil moments in your day.
Nightlife isn’t real.
Unless you live in Vegas, LA, or New York City, if you spend your night fully conscious, you’ll be spending your night alone. This works for people that prefer intellectual thought over social interaction, but for those who can’t stand going more than two hours without having a conversation, plan on being very lonely. Also, if you’re going to realize that you’re in dire need of 4 tacos and a burrito around 3 a.m., good luck finding somewhere that’s open twenty-four hours.
You have the potential to get TONS of stuff done.
On the real, if you really are a night-owl you will find that you are most productive in the middle of the night when it feels like you have the world to yourself. Whether it’s cleaning the kitchen, writing an essay, binge watching a Netflix series, exercising, online shopping, catching up on work, finishing an entire adult coloring book, or baking a surplus of cookies, you will feel ten times more efficient while doing it.
Always tired.
You think you’re going to get away without being tired the next day, until about 4 a.m. when you realize that you’re out of time and you're going to have to live through tomorrow on little to no sleep…and likely have the same sleeping habits the next night as well. It has also been scientifically proven that one in four people that show no signs of depression will develop the disease if they lead an exhausted life. Seventy-five percent of people with a history of depression will relapse if they lead an exhausted life. Being a night-owl definitely isn’t the healthier option.
Beat the heat AND the traffic.
If you’re going to be up all night, getting home from work or school in a timely manner likely isn’t up very high on your priority list. If you’re already awake at five a.m. (because you didn’t go to sleep in the first place) might as well head to work early right? Nothing says good morning like no traffic on the 405. If you’re a cold junky like I am that lives somewhere where it’s already summer in February *cough* Phoenix *cough*, the night time can be an awesome place to escape the deadly heat waves. Yeah it’s dark, yeah you have to be quiet, there’s loopholes around everything though…like flashlights and moving out of your parents’ house.
Shout out to all of the people that feel this on a serious level that will share this to their Facebook wall at 2 a.m…I see you, I see you.
