Insomniacs, the Phantoms of the Internet 234
theodp writes "Ever since she was a toddler, freelance writer Lily Burana has been a Stay Up Late kind of girl. When her kindergarten teacher asked students 'What time do you go to bed?,' young Lily felt compelled to lie rather than rat out her own mother by saying, 'Oh, between midnight and 1 a.m.' She still suffers from insomnia, but has discovered that Facebook is the Promised Land for the awake and alone. She finds comfort in the company of others who, like her, live counter to the conventional rhythm of a sunny-day world."
Time Zones (Score:5, Interesting)
Once forums, IRC channels, and other websites that are driven by user-created content reach a certain size, there is no longer a difference between "daytime" and "night time" because while Americans slumber, Europeans are waking up, and Australians are coming home from work. "Peak" time ceases to mean anything once you're factoring in physical location and have at least two "peak" times. You use the same forum as others, but probably know different mods, OPs, and key players.
It is important that the Internet hang-out be user-driven, because groups who select content to publish tend to originate in geographic proximity, and a single time zone becomes favored.
Facebook isn't a place where it's easy to intrude on a social network in a geographical location outside your own, so I don't understand why the author isn't using a broader term.
Lily Burana (Score:1, Interesting)
Lily Burana is the original name of the tune for "rock-a-bye baby".
Re:"insomnia" is probably the wrong word (Score:1, Interesting)
I've been the same way all of my life, a "Night Owl", awaking around Noon to 2 PM, and never to bed before 4 to 8 in the "morning", I saw some great early morning meteor showers when I was young hiding behind the living room curtains so I didn't get caught being awake at that hour, and for the last 30 years I've been a late night radio programmer, it works.
Bet if you told your doctor about it, they'd make a chemical attempt to "fix" your sleeping patterns to match theirs (it's not right after-all).
Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome is the right word (Score:5, Interesting)
As I write this, I am at work at 11:30 PM. I got to work at 8:00 PM. When my coworkers come in in the morning, I'll be heading home to sleep.
I have been this way for as long as I have had conscious memory. My mother tells me that I have been this way since I was a newborn in the hospital.
Lots of treatments have been proposed with many studies being done, some with thousands of test subjects. Not one single treatment has ever been demonstrated to work in a statistically significant way.
Thus the best advice that the medical community can give us "Night Owls" is to find some way to accomodate it. That's why I took up computer programming in the first place. My degree is in Physics, but I'm afraid that teaching morning classes just doesn't work for me.
I have lots of friends who have DSPS as well. I met most of them by hanging out at Dennys at three in the morning.
sliding window (Score:3, Interesting)
One Step Further (Score:5, Interesting)
conventional rhythm of a sunny-day world
My problem goes a step further. I like to stay awake for 20 hours and then sleep for like 10. I spend the same amount of my life sleeping/awake as a normal person, just in longer chunks. Trouble is, left to my own devices, I effectively "stay up" 4 hours later each night untill I wrap back around. Before I had a job I could actually live like that. It was kind of a strange sensation brushing my teeth with my roommate at midnight; She was going to bed, i just got up.
Re:Time Zones (Score:2, Interesting)
Not only that, but there are OTHER insomniacs in OTHER time zones, meaning interaction can depend more on "when they happen to be awake" and not "what time they're usually up"
Re:Anybody here? (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm rarely in before 10am, often closer to 11. But I've found that answering a few customer emails at 2am helps. The folks in Asia get an answer sooner, so they're happier. I've done it regularly and that my boss has asked when I actually sleep. It's enough that I don't get any grief when I zone out in the afternoon. I'm not sure how many bosses are like that, but there is at least one of 'em.
Re:Time Zones (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:why insomnia? delayed sleep phase, more likely (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Anybody here? (Score:3, Interesting)
I think jokes about the UK rain are often based on a comparison of a London winter with a mediterranean summer.
Some facts from wikipedia.
Annual precipitation from high to low:
Amsterdam: 30.69 inches (never go there, most depressing climate in the world, a year with 30 sunny days is considered exceptionally sunny)
Paris: 25.28
Jerusalem: 23.20
London: 22.91
Marseilles: 22.83
The climate isn't all that bad :)
Re:Anybody here? (Score:3, Interesting)
I have a boss that's not worried that I'm a zombie until lunchtime. I'm more or less in the office by 9.30am most days but not functional until much later. However, he's very happy that I've hosed down a few fires without the company noticing because I was awake well after midnight.
When at Uni and working at a service station Midnight until 6 or 8, I never felt happier. Then I saw Clerks, at the cinema, and realised I had to get my life in order. But seriously, Midnight onwards is my perfect time to work.
Re:Anybody here? (Score:2, Interesting)
the UK closes down at around 2300 GMT
Appart from the wooshing sound refereed by a sibling post I would like to correct you:
The UK closes down around 17:00 GMT. After 5:00pm the only thing you will find open are mainly pubs.
I always found amusing how everything closed so early in the UK. It was most interesting during summer when there is sunlight until about 11:00pm; I always wandered, what do people do from 5 to 11? do they sit in a park bench? (specially if you don't drink alcohol!, I guess that makes me socially unadapted ). Different countries different cultures...
I got a similar culture shock after my first months living in Germany; this time because of all-closed Sundays, either you go to walk/bike to the park (if it is not snowing... something that is getting quite rare), go to Weihnachtsmarkt to drink Glühwein (again... tough luck if you don't drink) or stay at home @TV/Computer/etc.
Re:Anybody here? (Score:3, Interesting)
the UK closes down at around 2300 GMT
Appart from the wooshing sound refereed by a sibling post I would like to correct you:
The UK closes down around 17:00 GMT. After 5:00pm the only thing you will find open are mainly pubs.
Probably closer to about 5:30 pm, but other than that more-or-less true.
The big joke is that there are still a fair number of small, independent shops, many of which:
A: Sell products which appeal to people with a fair bit of disposable income. (ie. people who are almost certainly at work during the week)
B: Can't for the life of them understand why they are losing out to supermarkets (typically open until 20:00 - 22:00) or out of town shopping centres (typically open until 20:00 at least one day per week, frequently more).
Re:Anybody here? (Score:3, Interesting)
The UK isn't alone with this. I'm Australian, but married an American who is now living here with me (in Australia). It took her years to get used to the fact that yes, things are generally closed after business hours (other than supermarkets), and yes, many things are closed on weekends (particularly Sundays).
OTOH I'm always amazed when we spend time in America that even in a smallish town, if I want to buy a plasma TV at 4 in the morning, I usually can! (Walmart and other 24h stores). I can see the convenience of it, but also hate to think of the poor suckers that have to work at those hours, and the general lack of holidays/relaxation time in US society (legal minimum for annual leave in Australia is 4 weeks, whereas in the US a lot of people seem to have only 2 weeks or so, unless they've been with a company for a long time).
Re:Not all night-owls are insomniacs (Score:4, Interesting)
First I helped the client deal with some old emotional traumas. A few weeks later I supplied the Radial Appliance. He uses it every night - if he wakes up at 1am (sometimes the dog wakes him up), he'll move, re-attach the wires, and go right back to sleep.
That's a looong walk you took to arrive at peddling your placebo.
Re:anyone know of an evolutionary purpose to owl-i (Score:3, Interesting)
>or the ability to roll your tongue. :P
Only somebody who has never learned how much a perfectly execute tongueroll kiss can improve your chances of getting laid (not to mention improving oral skills) could possibly think that it does not have an evolutionary advantage... but then again, what did I expect from slashdot ?
Re:Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome is the right word (Score:3, Interesting)
It's really just better to work your life around it than force yourself into unnatural (for you) sleep patterns. I find smoking weed helps if I need to get to sleep & wake early, otherwise staying awake all night is better than trying to sleep early if I absolutely must be alert and active before noon.
If I may, give this [dhamma.org] a try. Much healthier, legal, and you're likely to find yourself either sleeping more easily or needing less sleep. Just a personal suggestion (your results may vary).
Re:sliding window (Score:2, Interesting)
Probably because an Earth day is 24 hours long, but the body's day (when underexposed to outside lighting schedules) is 24 hours 6 minutes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circadian_rhythm [wikipedia.org]
It is important to note that this varies greatly by individual as well. I recall reading studies done with volunteers that were cut off from any time reference. They lived alone for months at a time without any lighting reference, time pieces, TV/radio broadcasts, etc; their only contact with other people was through chat terminals and paper notes. These people tended toward 26-28 hour days, with longer sleeping and waking periods, and corresponding expansion of the other aspects of their circadian rhythms. Interestingly (and if I recall correctly) these people reported feeling less rested even after longer sleep.
The human circadian rhythm is an evolutionary produce of the earths 24ish hour rotation. But it is important to note that although this rhythm takes its cues from the outside world, it is not entirely dependent on the outside world. And of course, as with anything else, individuals do vary.
Any other insomniacs that enjoy it out there? (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm just posting this out of idle curiosity, so please indulge me.
As a 33 year old, I currently sleep between 3-5 hours in a day on average. Today I went to sleep around 5:10 AM, and woke up around 7:59 AM (one minute before the alarm, happens frequently). Though I am somewhat grumpy for the first 10-15 minutes, I quickly 'wake up' and feel refreshed and alert. This is normal for me. Back during college, I would often go 2 or 3 days without sleep, though it's more likely I'd take a nap somewhere between 9-11 am (depending on my schedule). I even work out and take martial arts classes to get regular exercise since my job is pretty sedentary.
Is there anyone else out there like this? Where sleep is this annoying intrusion into your schedule that you only allow when you're physically exhausted? Maybe you can help me figure out why people hear me describe my sleep cycle and say they're sorry, like this gift of another 1/6'th or more of my life to live is terrible compared to those people who voluntarily give up 1/3 of theirs.
Other random items; ... ... just curious to hear if there's anyone else out there like this.
- According to doctors way back when I was 6 or so, I'm 'Hyperactive' - though I guess today it'd be called ADD or ADHD or something
- Only time I feel sleepy/awkward/wrongish is sometime around sunrise and the next 2-3 hours, but it goes away. On cloudy or foggy days, I may not experience this at all. It appears I have to actually see the early morning sunlight to really be negatively affected by it.
Where's the link, then? (Score:0, Interesting)
His words were actually interesting, unlike the crap most of you arrogant Slashdot readers spew forth. Where's the link to his wares, then, asshole?
Everyone on this site is always trying to come across as smarter or sharper than everyone else.
I really need to stop wasting time here.