{"id":6892,"date":"2022-03-22T07:33:08","date_gmt":"2022-03-22T11:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.silvercentury.org\/?p=6892"},"modified":"2022-03-22T07:33:08","modified_gmt":"2022-03-22T11:33:08","slug":"confessions-of-a-night-owl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/78.142.243.82\/~silvercentury\/2022\/03\/confessions-of-a-night-owl\/","title":{"rendered":"Confessions of a Night Owl"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sometimes after midnight, as I start for bed,<\/span> I look out my bedroom window and feel a pang of loneliness. I live in a retirement community, and in the many windows of the apartment building across the way, only a few lights are still on. <\/span><\/p>\n

Older people are famous for collapsing into bed early in the evening and getting up early in the morning. Somehow, I missed the memo, and I\u2019m still an unreconstructed night owl. <\/span><\/p>\n

All human beings fall somewhere on the spectrum from night owl to morning lark. Owls, like me, stay up late and sleep late in the morning whenever possible. Larks go to sleep and wake up much earlier. Our genes largely determine which we are\u2014it\u2019s not a choice we make\u2014and sleep scientists note that most people are somewhere near the middle of the spectrum, with outliers at the extremes. <\/span><\/p>\n

However, there are changes over a lifetime. As most parents know, children tend to be irrepressible larks, but soon enough they turn into teenage owls, extremely reluctant to get up in the morning, and they often stay that way through their early 20s. After that, most people gradually become larks again, growing even more larkish once they\u2019re in their 60s. <\/span><\/p>\n

As owls go, I was pretty extreme when I was in my 20s. I stayed up until about 3:00 in the morning on weeknights and got up the next day at 7:00. On weekends, I slept until early afternoon\u2014and then wondered why I had insomnia almost every Sunday night. I learned years later that by waking and sleeping at irregular hours, I had confused many of my body\u2019s internal rhythms. It didn\u2019t know what it was supposed to do when. Should it trigger the release of melatonin\u2014the hormone that makes us drowsy\u2014in the middle of the evening or the middle of the night? And when should it switch off the melatonin and hit me with hormones that would help me wake up? <\/span><\/p>\n

The arrival of children in my 30s did for me what holding a job had not: it forced me to live more like a lark. I didn\u2019t have any choice since my kids woke with the sun when they were small. Even after they turned into teenage owls, I had to get up early to send them off to school. And thanks to my lark of a husband, I seldom slept late on weekends. <\/span><\/p>\n

According to research, owls constitute 20 to 30 percent of the population. Compared to larks, we\u2019re more prone to serious illnesses such as depression, diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease, and we don\u2019t live as long. (I\u2019m 87\u2014too late to worry about that.) Some experts believe owls have more health problems because we\u2019re forced to adjust to a world that suits larks but is out of sync with our own inner rhythms. <\/span><\/p>\n

Owls also face a stigma. Can\u2019t get up in the morning? We must be lazy. In the workplace, nobody understands when we don\u2019t function well early in the day. We\u2019re chronically short on sleep because we\u2019re forced to wake up when larks do and then can\u2019t get to sleep at night as early as larks because our bodies aren\u2019t ready for sleep. <\/span><\/p>\n

When owls and larks marry, there are apt to be problems. My husband and I seldom had breakfast together because he got up cheerful and full of energy, which irritated me, and I was sluggish, which disappointed him. <\/span><\/p>\n

You\u2019d think retiring would solve many of the problems owls have, and it can. But sleep problems are common in later life for both larks and owls. I know larks who struggle to keep their eyes open past 9:00 at night and then wake up in the wee hours, unable to get back to sleep. They\u2019re not happy. Nor are owls like me when we don\u2019t get enough sleep because we\u2019re forced to get up at a larkish hour by a medical appointment or social engagement.<\/span><\/p>\n

Insomnia is also common in later life, and I struggled with it after my husband died in 2008. It took me a while to recognize the problem. Whenever I couldn\u2019t sleep at night, I tried to make up for it by sleeping late the following morning. As I had in my 20s, I was confusing my body by keeping irregular hours. <\/span><\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t sure what to do. If owls aren\u2019t as healthy as larks because we spend our lives conforming to a wake\/sleep cycle better suited to larks, would it make matters worse if I tried to live like a lark\u2014like my neighbors? In the end, I compromised. These days, I sleep until about 9:00 in the morning and fall into bed at about 1:00 a.m. I still have occasional nights when I can\u2019t sleep, but otherwise this is working. <\/span><\/p>\n

I also try to schedule medical appointments and everything else for the afternoon. When I had to have my pacemaker battery replaced in 2020, I convinced the surgeon <\/span>not <\/span><\/i>to operate first thing in the morning, when my body was at a low ebb. <\/span><\/p>\n

There is a downside. In my retirement community, a lot goes on in the mornings that I miss. Also, as an owl, I\u2019m sometimes the brunt of jokes. But friends appreciate the fact that I\u2019m awake and available at midnight\u2014the best time to go online and get a dinner reservation at everyone\u2019s favorite restaurant.<\/span><\/p>\n

Overall, I\u2019m happy that I\u2019ve finally escaped most of the demands of a world designed for larks\u2014even though I\u2019m somewhat out of sync with most of the people I know. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometimes after midnight, as I start for bed, I look out my bedroom window and feel a pang of loneliness. I live in a retirement community, and in the many windows of the apartment building across the way, only a…<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more Confessions of a Night Owl<\/span> ›<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n

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