Ideal Sleep Schedule

[notdavidlynch]

So, after some experimentation and deliberation, I've decided that my ideal hours to sleep are roughly Noon to 8pm.

Granted, ideal sleeping hours may be idiosyncratic to geography (and living situations), so I should qualify this with the fact that I currently live in sunny, Southern California (and live with Southern Californians).

Why? A host of variables.

I suppose that I naturally gravitate to being nocturnal. This could be for many reasons. It's not as hot at night, there's no sunlight (I'm fair-skinned), and there are less people around (I live in a co-op, so if I keep those hours then I get to avoid others when they're most active in the house).

Less heat, less sunlight, less people, less noise (overall) - all that's groovy, but why those hours in particular?

I still need to be awake during some daylight hours, just to do normal human being business. In my experience, I've determined that the morning hours are best for this.

It's generally cooler before noon. Less people are awake because some people don't wake up early. Seems to be less overall sunlight (don't know why - perhaps fog). Restaurants are serving breakfast food.

Also, if I wake up at 8pm, I can still participate in choice late night activities if I want to.. Not parties, not bars, but late night movies! (In the morning for me) It's great.

So basically, if I sleep from Noon to 8pm, then I get to avoid the hottest, shittiest, most active part of the day for most people, and I don't really experience any drawbacks.

So, what are your ideal hours?

[MoneyJungle]

Superego: 2200 - 0500 I will never be able to pull this off but I fantasize about it a lot. I love early mornings but I rarely experience thek after sleeping. This is the asshole constantly suggesting I pull all nighters to reset to a respectable schedule.

Ego; 0130 - 0930 This seems to be what I do if left to my own devices. I get a lot of night and a little morning. Restaurant hours for tame cooks.

Id: 0400 - 1230 Last call and then some. I don't think I've slept for eight hours since my twenties but reckless abandon could make it happen.

[Sloth]

So basically, if I sleep from Noon to 8pm, then I get to avoid the hottest, shittiest, most active part of the day for most people, and I don't really experience any drawbacks.

So, what are your ideal hours?

I've read that introverts tend to be more nocturnal than extroverts for those reasons.

When my schedule permits it, I'll naturally sleep the hours of 6am - 1:30pm (and pretty much wake up at exactly 1:30 every day). I've been sleeping like this for the last month, I don't know if it's ideal for my life but it's ideal according to my body. It's actually been very difficult changing these hours to anything else for more than a day or two. It seems to just slip right back into the 6 - 1:30 cycle.

It's been weird, but it also feels really amazing.

[Madrigal]

My perfect world would be a world in which I could go to sleep at sunrise and wake up past noon every day. The reality is that I am currently going to sleep around 6am, waking up at 9 am, and taking 4-hour naps after work in the evening. At this rate it will start showing on my skin soon.

[jigglypuff]

11:30 pm to 7:30 am. i've always had problems with sleep, but i like to be awake when the world is. if i have work to go to, i def prefer it in the morning, and i like free evenings for going out to dinner or the movies or running errands when everything's still open, whatever typical stuff people do to de-stress and maintain their lives. it's most convenient.

i wake up at 7:30 every day on the dot now, regardless of when i sleep... good morning.

[Faust]

1am-9am, this way I'm not completely out of commission for a late night out in the town.

[Roger Mexico]

I rarely go to bed before midnight. Ideally I'd like to be going to bed around 10 PM on non-weekend nights, but this has basically never been realistic for me since I was about 13 years old.

Often even midnight is a substantial struggle against my bad habits and negative impulses.

Part of the problem is that introversion and ADD combine to make about 10 PM to 4 AM the peak-productivity part of my natural circadian rhythm. (I basically have two mental states regarding interruptions--"it doesn't really matter if I put this work off until later" and "don't you dare fucking talk to me.") Progress on any hefty project requiring lots of heavy concentration tends to be slow and stunted until I hit this period, which sucks. I've never had nor wanted a job which would make this my official schedule--now, as a single parent, it's completely out of the question, but even outside of that I think I'm already as alienated from the world of normal people as I could be without it being severely unhealthy.

Not that just living in a permanent state of sleep deprivation (as I honestly do most of the time) isn't unhealthy in its own right. I wonder what I can do about this.

[starla]

1am-9am. This has slowly been shifting earlier over the years. In college I was rarely out of bed before 2pm. Getting up early has always been a struggle for me, but I've gotten much more stoic about it recently. However, I have a feeling it's only improved because I'm so well rested these days due to lack of employment. I imagine once I'm overworked, overstressed, and exhausted again, I'll go back to grouchily hitting snooze until I'm late every day.

[lethe]

Natural body-wise it's 3-4am to 11ish. I sleep best in three hour chunks, so 3, 6,or 9. Usually with one day out of every week or 10 days were I don't sleep at all.
I have always been this way and all the sleep hygiene, training, and melatonin in the world can't change it. Attempts to change the schedule more likely than not start a bout of insomnia. At best I can force it to another schedule for a short while with a lot of effort and drugs, but it will always return. Having to wake up early was a hideous part of life growing up and makes me feel physically ill. I will actually vomit from waking up too early.

I kind of like the schedule, actually. I have my quiet private time late at night when I know everyone is asleep and won't need anything. I can relax knowing there is nothing I have to do. I think that would be lacking in the morning. Also when the sun is up you can feel time moving, but night is a mystical timelessness. Where I live is convenient at well, almost everything is available at all hours.

[Perdix]

7am-11am