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."
Anybody here? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Anybody here? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Anybody here? (Score:5, Funny)
She finds comfort in the company of others who, like her, live counter to the conventional rhythm of a sunny-day world
Like most people in Britain then . . .
Re: (Score:2)
Look, all you guys gotta do is kill the last male Bundy. If you're not up to it, then quitcher bitchen!
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (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: (Score:2)
I think jokes about the UK rain are often based on a comparison of a London winter with a mediterranean summer.
London is bone dry compared with places on the west of the island.
Jerusalem: 23.20
London: 22.91
I'm back in Jerusalem in a few weeks, can't wait, it's felt freezing this weekend despite the sun being out, and it being 6 degrees. Having said that, last time I was in Israel it snowed.
Re:Anybody here? (Score:5, Informative)
The issue is not so much the amount of rain that falls. It's the number of days with rain or with lotsa clouds. I've lived in the Provence, which is reputedly dry, and in Brittany (the small one, west of France). Both get about as much rain, but
- the Provence gets it over a few days, pretty much always at the same time (spring, autumn, and a few thunderstrom is summer), with a clear build-up of clouds where you can see it's gonna rain tomorrow, gets hammered by a great big rain, and then goes for weeks without rain.
- Brittany gets its rain any day, any season. Any day can start off sunny with no clouds, and rain by midday. It often will be a pitiful drizzle, that counts for little water, except is f***ing wet and takes the fun out of doing anything outdoors.
Yearly statistics (http://www.worldweather.org/010/c00032.htm)
Number of rain days in London: 139, total rain = 600 mm, number of pure sunny days = N/A
Number of rain days in Marseilles: 55, total rain = 554mm, number of pure sunny days = N/A
So yeah, Marseilles gets as much rain as London. No, it is not, and does not feel, any way near as rainy.
Re: (Score:2)
Yep. It's the constant tiny amounts of rain that make London (and most of the UK) depressing. Other places that on paper get far more rain (in terms of total in mm/inches) can also be a lot more sunny.
I live in Australia and it's the same situation with Sydney vs. Melbourne. The running joke/stereotype in Sydney is that Melbourne weather is awful and wet. Actually, Melbourne gets about 600mm per year, compared to Sydney's 1200mm. So Sydney is ~twice~ as wet. But it also has far more sunny days ... the rain
Re: (Score:2)
drizzle is the spawn of the devil
Re: (Score:2)
Wait, what was the depressing part again?
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Maybe, but what's really bad is there are parts of the US that seem to close down by 2300 GMT too.
Re: (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 count
Re: (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,
Re: (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 conven
Re: (Score:2)
What else do you need?
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't use facebook. I am up late a lot nd a bit of an insomniac
Still I have classes in the am.
need to gotol bed, but duno if I will
Re:Anybody here? (Score:5, Insightful)
I would guess a lot of slashdotters fall in to this category or at least at some point have. But the difference is that I enjoy the quiet and alone time during night and hence would stay away from sites like Facebook. You get insane amount of work done during night time - there's no people chitchatting all the time nor can you really go out somewhere so you don't get lazy. It does however lead to weird sleeping patterns, but as long as you don't need to go anywhere in the morning it doesn't really matter anymore.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
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:Anybody here? (Score:5, Funny)
I'm in Australia you insensitive clod!
Re:Anybody here? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Anybody here? (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Not only not the only one ... And I'm in a different timezone. It's 4:33 A.M down here (Argentina).
I was precisely thinking about that fact (that I need to be up at 8 A.M tomorrow). But I can't help it. I can't go to bed before 5 A.M.
Now, one thing is staying on slashdot. It's pathetic but in it's own cool, geek way. Staying 'till 4 A.M in facebook is just truly pathetic. Well, being at facebut at any time of the day must be pathetic.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
So what about if you have one tab open to /. and another tab open to facebook? Is that pathetic yet geeky-cool or just plain pathetic?
Re: (Score:2)
It's certainly an appropriate time for this story to post. Glad to know I'm not alone.
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: (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: (Score:2)
She better change her email pw (Score:2, Funny)
So? (Score:5, Insightful)
This is News? (Score:2)
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.
Re: (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"
"insomnia" is probably the wrong word (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Calling it a disease is wrong. Saying it can be cured is like trying to bleach a black man white or beating a gay man with officially approved porn.
Re:Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome is the right word (Score:4, Funny)
Calling it a disease is wrong. Saying it can be cured is like trying to bleach a black man white or beating a gay man with officially approved porn.
So it's possible then.
Re: (Score:2)
Sounds like me. I sleep from morning to afternoon and I get a "concentration boost" between around 23:00-01:00, I can only assume "normal" people get that around noon. Even when I force myself to live normal hours I still find myself "waking" around 23:00 even if I've been slogging through the day dog tired. It's been this way for as long as I can remember, my mother used to call me the family night watchman. I've tried to adapt my life as you have, working a job as sysadmin that allows me to work shifts wh
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
With respect to new drugs: why fight your body? Seriously. I've also found that as an *alert* night type person you can easily make a killing.
It limits your career options for one and also tends to interfere with normal family life (being on 2 different schedules) which might become more problematic as the kids grow older.
It's never been a problem with my work, except... (Score:2)
I have worked at two companies that did that. Typically I'd come staggering in at 10:05 looking like I just crawled out of bed, because I really did just crawl out of bed.
If I ever made my 10:00 AM meetings on time, it was usually because I had been up all night working. I would then go home to sleep after the meeting.
I've been a coder for twenty-two years now. Other than those two compa
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, I've always been a night owl and for the past few years I'd been working a noon-8pm shift. Even with that not so terribly late shift there was a lot of opportunities to socialize that I'd been missing out on. It will be a challenge for me, especially at first, but for my next job I'd really prefer something more standard.
Re:Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome is the right word (Score:5, Informative)
Sleeping drugs won't fix it, they will help short term but you will build up resistance to the point your natural cycle again takes precedence.
I've had this all my life (a 3am-11am sleep window) and it can be altered by staying up an hour or two later a day until you hit where you want to be and then sticking to it, but those weeks of work are undone if you stay up late just once, and your body reverts to its natural cycle of 3am sleep (or whatever yours is).
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.
Re: (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: (Score:2)
I have lots of friends who have DSPS as well.
Sweet! Now I've got an official four letter acronym for my syndrome. I truly have arrived~
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I know people who naturally sleep normal hours when not working but who choose to do shift work. Once they adapt they can work the hours required for the job. So why can't person with Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome adjust themselves the same way?
We are missing the required mechanism (Score:2)
The condition is widely thought to be genetic, but the precise gene has not yet been isolated.
It's undergoing clinical trials in the US (Score:2)
Re:"insomnia" is probably the wrong word (Score:5, Funny)
I haven't been getting enough sleep lately (Score:2)
Just this weekend I decided that I must ensure I get enough sleep every night. I'm part way back to normal, but when I got home from work Friday afternoon, I was totally wrecked. It's going to take a few more days before I'm back to normal.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I'm also a night owl, can't go to sleep before midnight. Easily go on until 2-3 am.
This goes quite well until you get a child to take care of. Little children tend to wake up early, like 7-8 am. That's quite horrible as it messes up my sleep schedule, and I just can't seem at adjust to anything earlier. Partly due to my work, it's easy to continue work all evening for me.
Re: (Score:2)
Especially useful when you need to work with colleagues who are in the opposite of the world and who work 9-5.
Anything else? (Score:5, Funny)
She was a stripper, is there anything else I need to know? I probably won't hear anything else after the word stripper, anyway....
I'll be here all night.
anyone know of an evolutionary purpose to owl-ism (Score:2)
Assuming that everything genetic can be explained as having an evolutionary purpose, does anyone know of an evolutionary purpose to a large group of people having a different schedule than everyone else?
I assume that the owls are meant to be sentinels for the tribe, watching late at night making sure that no one's on their way to attack. But perhaps there are more reasons I haven't thought of yet.
Re:anyone know of an evolutionary purpose to owl-i (Score:4, Insightful)
Assuming that everything genetic can be explained as having an evolutionary purpose, does anyone know of an evolutionary purpose to a large group of people having a different schedule than everyone else?
Maybe they are suppose to be the stronger of the genetic pool and replace the weaker day walkers?
Re: (Score:2)
In that case our eyes should be better.
Human eyes are not bad, but also not very good at night. With a full moon we can see quite well but otherwise not. When it is overcast, or no moon, we're lost.
Many animals that hunt at night have eyes adapted to night vision, we don't.
Now it is also known that higher-educated people (typically higher IQ) tend to start work later than lower-educated people. Construction workers are happy to start at 7 am, but at the university the researchers start at 9 am earliest,
Re: (Score:2)
Now it is also known that higher-educated people (typically higher IQ) tend to start work later than lower-educated people. Construction workers are happy to start at 7 am, but at the university the researchers start at 9 am earliest, they hate getting up so early. And I have never heard about a reasonable explanation why that could be.
I think its an over generalisation. I wake up naturally at 7. I am often at work by 8. I leave at 5 and slide into tegretol induced unconsciousness between 22 and 23. Some people I work with arrive for the day at about 12, and leave around 8 but they get up at the same time as me. Its just that when I wake up I have to get to work while they are having breakfast (what's that?) pottering around the house and taking the dog for a walk.
Re: (Score:2)
"Assuming that everything genetic can be explained as having an evolutionary purpose"
- A patently false assumption - humans have had no evolutionary purpose for an appendix for millions of years - but our DNA hasn't gotten rid of it - even though, prior to modern medicine it was in fact a detriment (it can get infections and kill you - dead people don't breed). Evolution is the PRIMARY driver of genetic factors but by no means the sole one. Often a genetic factor will survive or develop which is good for on
Re: (Score:2)
humans have had no evolutionary purpose for an appendix for millions of years - but our DNA hasn't gotten rid of it
Logic fail. Our appendix has been useless, but there is no evolutionary pressure to actively remove it (apart from a handful cases of appendicitis, it essentially causes no harm at all), so it stays in it's redundant state.
Re: (Score:2)
Logic fail yourself amigo. A handful of people who die from appendicitis before breeding > Zero people who get any benefit from having an appendix.
It's a small evolutionary pressure indeed, but it's non-zero. Well it used to be, since we invented appendectomy's the evolutionary pressure in humans have effectively become zero since we can entirely prevent the negative aspect from impact on the likelihood of breeding.
Re: (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: (Score:3, Insightful)
IANAD, but your example of the appendix is not a clear cut case. How most of the human body actually functions on a microbial level is not understood. The appendix could serve a function that is perhaps redundant, but helpful.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermiform_appendix#Possible_secondary_functions [wikipedia.org]
Re:anyone know of an evolutionary purpose to owl-i (Score:4, Informative)
Okay, I'll concede that it may have unknown benefits - we know that there is no measurable negative side effects to removing it (and a massive positive in that it can save your life if you have appendicitus) but we don't know for sure that it may not have some unknown secondary effect that remains useful.
One thing that becomes clear if you actually study what we know about evolution though is that a great deal of things are used for different purposes to what originally let the mutation survive - evolutions is an unpredictable (emergent) process that can and will take any available path (if only because animals will use any advantage they can to survive - those that don't fell out of the chain right at the start).
I read an article a while ago about a piece of research that found that genetically the human crab lice which most slashdotters never need to fear getting are descended from the lice species that gorillas carry all over their bodies - only, there is a major catch. Human and Gorilla lines split up some 9 million years ago - but crablice only split up from gorilla lines some 5 million years ago. the best theory as to why suddenly 4 million years later the lice would split off into a species that attacks humans - and then only in one area, is that humans didn't evolve pubic hair before that point. The bare downy fur we got is not suitable for lice - and so we were basically immune to them - until hair that is quite ideal for lice infections returned to us - in a localized growth. Chances are those early infections came from sleeping in abandoned gorilla nests - and soon, we had our own species that spread primarily through sex.
Which raises the very interesting question - if we didn't have pubic hair once we started thinning our fur, and getting them made us a target for a parasite we had previously become immune to - why would we get it later on ? Most likely explanation is that it serves another purpose which is a much more definite advantage. Doctors still argue about what the advantages and disadvantages of pubic hair are though (most viable theory to me is that it acts as a friction absorber preventing chafing of the pubic area during sex, thus allowing more frequent sex).
The article ended with the suggestion that this means the current fashion for shaved pubic areas may have a bona-fide health-benefit by making us significantly less likely get crab-lice infections - if indeed friction control is the primary purpose of having them in the first place, our other major evolutionary power (known as "the ability to create technology") provides a wonderful alternative in the form of KY-jelly :P
Anyway - enough semi-serious science and sex jokes (alliteration FTW) my point originally was simply that evolution isn't intelligent and it's not easy to predict, it doesn't have to make sense or make an easy-to-tell story. Unlike creationism ... it has to describe what HAPPENED, there is no natural law that bends natural history to fit our sense of narrative. We can identify likely advantages or disadvantages that a given gene may have had at a given time - but we can't ever say "we evolved X because of Y" - because the real world just isn't that simple.
Re:anyone know of an evolutionary purpose to owl-i (Score:2)
There are "ultra-larks", too (delayed sleep phase and advanced sleep phase syndromes).
If, in a group of 30-50, there were a couple of people up and (naturally) awake 'til 3-4 AM, and a couple who woke up naturally at about the time those went to sleep, then invading humans, and, in earlier times, other predators, would have less chance of catching the whole band napping.
Pure supposition, of course.
Could be nothing more than simple SNPs. If it were to confer some hunting advantage over a better prey than ot
Re: (Score:2)
On the other hand good chance that it is a trait that is not a disadvantage. There are quite some oddities found in animals that seem to have no function, but are also not in the way of normal functioning. Thus the trait remains in the gene pool.
Or you could move to a city that never sleeps. (Score:2, Insightful)
Soldier's rhythm (Score:3, Funny)
The article makes an interesting point: her husband "keeping up a soldier's rhythm". I suffered from exactly the same problem during childhood and adolescence, until the Dutch Marines made the error of accepting me in their ranks. It totally cured me. ( Being daily kicked and yelled out of your bunk at 5 am is a sort of a horse's medicine, but Gawd - did it work !! )
Re:Soldier's rhythm (Score:4, Funny)
Actually, that was a complaint about his habit of chanting those military "marching songs" while they're having sex. "I don't know, but I've been told... In, Out. In, Out..."
Or so I imagine.
Re: (Score:2)
So you imaging because you've never been in the military, or because you've never had sex ;-)
Poor girl (Score:5, Funny)
This is obviously a desperate cry for help from Lily - she's never been able to escape the shadow of her more famous sister, Carmina.
sliding window (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
I have found that I can either go to sleep at the same time every night, or go to sleep when I feel tired. The latter results in something like you describe. My sensation is that there are cycles of alertness and tiredness (which I guess is a good adaptation--your body should encourage you to get rest without constantly sabotaging your functionality) and you have to hit on the right point of the cycle in order to fall asleep peaceably.
I generally "reset" by going a day entirely without sleep or with only
Re: (Score:2)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circadian_rhythm [wikipedia.org]
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.
you brush your teeth with your roommate? (Score:2, Funny)
> "It was kind of a strange sensation brushing my teeth with my roommate at midnight; She was going to bed, i just got up."
Have you never heard of a toothbrush?
Re: (Score:2)
"in the company of; alongside, along side of; close to; near to:"
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
"move with a sibilant sound"; "gush or squirt out"; "a breathy sound like that of an object passing at high speed"
Re: (Score:2)
Oh, I understood the joke, it just wasn't very funny.
Re: (Score:2)
I've met many people with clocks like yours. I prefer to stay awake for ~18 hours, but 6 hours sleep isn't enough for me. (9 is about perfect) Usually I compromise on 17/7. It's an unfortunate necessity to match a work schedule.
Don't worry though - in 2 centuries, when we're in space, you'll be the norm. Everyone will look back and think how crazy we were to synchronize ourselves to the sun, rather than what our bodies demand.
Re: (Score:2)
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..
Maybe you were born on a different planet. One which rotates once every 30 hours.
Pah! (Score:3, Funny)
Nice timing... (Score:2)
Argh, blinding object in the sky (Score:5, Funny)
"These lumivores reject the safety of darkness and appear to seek out light. Sickening ! [angryflower.com]"
Bob the Angry Flower is the world's best comic (Score:2)
why insomnia? delayed sleep phase, more likely (Score:2)
I had a sleep study done (lots of wires and other sensors, on infrared camera).
The doctor told me that I should not get up before 11AM.
The genes that regulate your sleep phase are known, and there are alleles that not only shift some of us later, but also there is advanced sleep phase disorder.
There is currently no cure (it would take a retrovirus, most likely), but some people can deal with the day better if they get DAILY (no skips), strong, early, solar-spectrum light.
Because we are constantly stressing
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Insomniacs? WTF idiot journalist (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
There is one site even better than Facebook. (Score:2)
4chan predates Facebook by four months, and has a lot more active chatter during the night hours than Facebook.
Segmented sleep. (Score:2)
I'm an earlybird, and a nightowl. In the middle of the day I tend to get really sleepy. I often wondered wether the eight hours model really fits everyone. Two sets of four hours would suit me way better. I finally did some research, and found that page pretty much by accident - the only other article that links there on Wikipedia is "Siesta".
There is an interesting drug to treat daytime sleepiness, Modafinil [wikipedia.org]. There could be added effects from it - weight loss & mood
During the night, I study... (Score:2)
Facebook has peak activity during working hours, where people try to multitask and "network". For me it's often a relief in between stuck moments to help to put my thoughts for a minute off the task that's blocking or I'm not progressing in to come back "reset", while keeping current with my network (most of my "facebook friends" are professional relations)
At night, I end up reading and studying, sometimes until 3am. Nothing specific, just following curiousity: facebook is dead around that time, my friends
New parents (Score:2)
There are others up late for non-insomniatic reasons. Here's a vote for "new parents"*, cast while feeding the little bugaloo at 4:40am (after 1:30am, after going to bed 'round 11:00pm, night after night for 3 months so far). Oh yeah I could/would/should sleep right now no problem, save for "[nudge] honey, the baby's hungry."
* - yes, some /.ers are proof geeks can ... 'nuff said.
I find that (Score:2)
Getting up at 4am is a great cure for insomnia.
insomnia is not a joke (Score:5, Informative)
insomnia is a mark of depression or anxiety or a number of physical problems
if you are an insomniac, you have a problem that will eat into your ability to carry on with your jobs or your relationships
additionally, your health will suffer: many normal physical processes are tied into circadian rhythms, such as cholesterol production, and fat burning
insomnia is not a mark of subculture pride, it is a danger warning
treat your insomnia, it is not in any way cool
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.