Night Owl Syndrome

I'm a night owl.

But I haven't always been this way.  I remember when I was little I would get anxiety at night because I never wanted to be the last one awake.  I don't know why it made me nervous.  I just hated the thought of my parents being asleep if I was still laying in my bed, wide awake.  Sometimes my mom would play the piano late at night and that was soothing and comforting.  Kind of like a parent reading a bedtime story.

I also couldn't handle sleeping over at other people's houses.  Like if I got a Birthday party invitation and at the bottom was that exciting line, "It's a sleepover!  Bring a pillow and sleeping bag!"... my heart would sink and I'd feel sick to my stomach.  I remember sleeping over at my best friend's house in 3rd grade and having to call my parents in the middle of the night because I wanted to come home.  What a weirdo.

But somehow I got out of that phase!  Now I LOVE staying up late, and I LOVE sleepovers!  My roommate has told me many times, "I think you're the only 30 year old I know that still has sleepovers."  Haha.  But how fun is it to go visit a friend or have someone come into town, and you just hang out all evening and THEN get to have a sleepover too!  That means extra snacks, more talking, more guitar playing, more time for movies, and often times a big feasty breakfast in the morning.  I love the excitement of sleepovers.

     (1998 logo, haha)

My college roommates will confirm the fact that I am a night person, not a morning person.  My freshman year at BYU, I lived in the dorms and it was one big never-ending sleepover.  I would recommend the dorms to anyone!  Late night games of hide-n-seek, vending machine snacks at your finger tips, late night hours in the piano practice rooms, chatting with roommates and friends all piled on the mini dorm beds, running up and down the halls... oh yes.  I loved it.  My friend and I made "bed-time" charts once to try to help us get to bed earlier.  Each night we put a shimmery star next to the time we went to bed, and if we made it a whole 2 weeks going to bed before mid-night, we got a prize.  My average bedtime was 4:00am back then.  Yikes!

When I was on my mission, my biggest weakness was... getting to bed on time!  I just loved night time because it seemed like the only time I could just sit and relax, write in my journal, eat snacks, etc.  I was constantly trying to jump into bed by 10:30pm... but coming from years of late night habits... 10:30 to me was like play time!  On a brighter note, I woke up EVERY morning at 6:30am without fail.  THAT was a miracle.  I struggle to even wake up at 9:00am these days, so the mission mornings were amazing. :)  And it was funny because most of my companions were just dead by the end of the day and could hardly open their eyes and communicate, and I'm sitting in the corner like, "la la la la... wanna snack?"  But don't you worry-- I was a good missionary and really did strive to live by the rules.  I just had my token weakness.

I have a work schedule that allows me to sleep in and exercise in the morning.  But then I don't get home until after 8pm... so guess what that means?  Late night play time!  Dinner time is pushed back to 9pm, then I'm ready to play games or watch a movie or something by 10pm.  And when mid-night rolls around, I want to stay up longer.  Eat more snacks.  Do mindless computer things.  Watch another movie.  Do a puzzle.  Read.  Play the guitar.  Sometimes even clean the kitchen or do the dishes.  Anything to keep the day from ending.  It doesn't seem fair that most people get home from work/school by 5pm and have the whole evening to relax or do things they want to do. (Yes, I know, blah blah, I get to start later in the morning).  My "evening" begins at 8 or 9pm and my night owl syndrome kicks in with power.

The good thing is I'm not a late night TV watcher.  I'm actually a super NON-fan of just sitting and watching dumb shows.  It's like I get irritable and restless and would much rather put in a movie or TV series on dvd.  I can control my time much better that way, like when the movie ends... boom, I have to go to bed.  Or, I'll just watch 2 episodes on the dvd and then I have to go to bed.  It's better that way. :)

Right now I'm trying to find a balance between staying up late because I love it... and waking up early enough to go running like I'm supposed to.  Sometimes I hit the snooze button too many times and miss my window of opportunity to exercise before work.  And then I'm mad.  That's when I say to myself, "Okay, tonight you're going to bed by midnight so you can wake up early!"  And then suddenly it's after midnight again and I'm tired and I don't feel like waking up early.  

It's tough being a night owl.  :)