Sleep Deprivation and INTPs

[Kuu]

I am a night person. Forcibly wake me up in the morning and I will say incoherent stuff, be generally lazy, and absolutely unproductive. At night, my mind races with thoughts more than during the day; I am focused, active, lucid, creative.

Because society does not work this way, I find myself constantly sleep deprived. When on school, several times a month do I stay awake for 2 or more days. Or sleep 4 hours a night for 3 months. This drains me. I long for a true 24-hour city where all kinds of activities are always available.

On vacations I usually revert to a more natural cycle of sleeping around 4 am and waking up around noon. (It's 4 am right now by the way)

Is night vampire / propensity for insomnia the nature of INTPs, or just me? Any early birds out there?

 

[Vrecknidj]

These aren't INTP traits. Even a cursory examination of sociobiology (and/or evolutionary psychology) reveals that at various stages of life, the human metabolism is such that the "normal" sleep/wake cycle doesn't work for some folks (most especially teens). This has everything to do with hormonal changes and the biological imperative of reproductive fitness.

Dave

 

[Radioactive_Springtime]

I know the second I don't have a reason to wake up in the morning I don't go to sleep until the morning.

 

[bealert]

I have always been useless in the morning and have my best clear thought late at night.
So I like to stay up late even though I know i will pay for it....
I have a friend who is like this too. She is INFJ.

 

[manger]

This has been me for as long as I can remember, and it seems to be progressively worse every year. At times I go to bed at 7 or 8, only to wake up at 3 or 4 in the afternoon. My work schedule allows for this now but that's about to change.

The best part about the late hours of the night (early hours of the morning?) is the quiet and solitude.

 

[Thread Killer]

While I am a night owl too and relate to having my mind encumbered with profound thoughts and creativity more so than in the day time, and I don't get as much sleep as I ought, I do think your case is a bit extreme, but I have noticed quite a few people in high school (and even sometimes in college) who do that to themselves.

Rest up man, sleep is fun, too. Dreams can be highly interesting when having gotten at least eight or nine hours in.

 

[Zero]

I end up going to sleep at like 4-7 am. I'm trying to get on a more "normal" schedule. I'm always tired. I kind of hate it.

 

[Kuu]

These aren't INTP traits. Even a cursory examination of sociobiology (and/or evolutionary psychology) reveals that at various stages of life, the human metabolism is such that the "normal" sleep/wake cycle doesn't work for some folks (most especially teens). This has everything to do with hormonal changes and the biological imperative of reproductive fitness.

Dave

Yeah, I knew something about that. Reproductive fitness? How does that fin in?

And even considering what you said, what about older INTPs?

The best part about the late hours of the night (early hours of the morning?) is the quiet and solitude.

I agree. Maybe the IT in us enjoys the nightly solitude, and our minds won't let us sleep?

Rest up man, sleep is fun, too. Dreams can be highly interesting when having gotten at least eight or nine hours in.

I do enjoy sleeping. But I seldom remember any of my dreams, and when I do, it is only very vague things...

 

[Melkor]

I myself, tend to be an early bird.
I can get up quite early, at five or so, any earlier, and I'll need ten minutes to become a human.

 

[Linsejko]

Have actually lived nocturnally for several months, going to bed around 7-8am, waking up at 4-5pmish (with variation). I was homeschooled/self taught (though not quite unschooled, technically, sort of...) for a time, and it looked like that. Basically, it was me just being endlessly fascinated, following one thing after another, until finally the the sun was coming up, and I knew (only by logic/choice) that I should probably go to sleep.

Right now it is 2:50. I have been staying up until 3 usually, lately, but I also was staying up until 6 for several days straight last week. I can't seem to get myself to go to sleep at a consistently early hour; I, also, find my mind lucid at night, my creativity sparked, my thoughts new and imaginative. As a kid, going to bed at 8, and later 9, I would lie in bed for one or two hours before I was able to fall asleep, my mind active, uncontrollably alive.

.L

 

[Olba]

Well, to give you the most recent example from my life, I'll give you my last night. Went to sleep around 2am and rose from the bed at 4pm. That would mean I woke up somewhere around 3pm. That's 13 hours of sleep. And you know what? That's normal for me.

My schedule was, until just today, filled with studying and school, meaning I had to wake up early in the morning. When at home, this usually means I wake up 90 minutes before I leave the house, or 2 hours before the class starts. This is pretty troublesome, since the earliest classes start at 8am, meaning I wake up at 6am.

Well, that's not a problem for someone who goes to sleep around 9-10pm. However, for me, that is a big problem. You see, during the days that I have school, I go to sleep at midnight. Or actually, I try to. Usually it results in me being wake for at least the next hour or two. So in practice, I would only get about four to five hours of sleep per day. And some if it is due to the fear of not waking up. No, I don't mean not waking up at all, but rather oversleeping. It's a terror of mine, being absent from classes for no apparent reason. During this past school year, I had a total of seven classes missed due to oversleeping, which I find to be a lot. And by the way, I missed a total of 7 classes during the whole year.

The best part about the late hours of the night (early hours of the morning?) is the quiet and solitude.

Maybe so. However, I would say that the two go well together in this case. Or rather, one is caused by the other. In this case, solitude is caused by the quiet. After all, walking around in a house where no one else is awake makes it feel as if you were the only person living in it. Or maybe the only person in the whole world? Of course it's going to feel like that, when the only sounds you hear are those of your own footsteps.

 

[loveofreason]

I'm actually an earlybird by nature. Or rather an am. bird. I function best between the hours of midnight and noon.

My mind wakes in full gear. It's overflowing with the thoughts and solutions that sleep brings. I problem solve while I sleep. But I do need to sleep before midnight. I can push myself through the afternoon doldrums and have a minor recovery in the evening, then if I make it through to the early hours of the morning I experience a revival, but that scenario cannot be maintained. I need to sleep sometime during the pm to properly recharge. I am totally in favour of afternoon siestas.

 

[Zero]

I don't know why I'm up at 9am and haven't slept yet.

I usually have weird vivid dreams. Sometimes they're kind of freaky. Sometimes I don't know why I bother waking up.

 

[Jordan~]

I am a night person. Forcibly wake me up in the morning and I will say incoherent stuff, be generally lazy, and absolutely unproductive. At night, my mind races with thoughts more than during the day; I am focused, active, lucid, creative.

I get that all the time! I call it lunacy, since that's what the word used to mean, sort of (being influenced by the moon). Especially the word "lucid" strikes a chord.

 

[Yank]

I usually fall sleep about 1am and stay asleep for 4 or 5 hours at the most. However, I do take 20 minute naps throughout the day, at about 4 hour intervals. I work hard for a while, then I literally lay down on my bed and crash for about 20 minutes before I wake up and do it again. This pattern evolved during my late twenties and I've kept it ever since.

Luckily I work from home so I am able to do this. However, when I am forced to work for 8 or 10 hours straight, I am not at my best; my mind is not sharp and I know it.

 

[Cabbo Pearimo]

Me Sleepy quite well.

 

[Melkor]

Only because your fully out of it.

innit.

 

[Zeinin]

My entire life has been a fight against my natural inclination to sleep till 11:00~2:00 each day. I don't fall asleep until 3:00~5:00

 

[Oziriz]

I used to have the exact same thing, had it since I was like 13... First when I was 15 I went to the doctor and they told me it was just my hormones acting up, but then I went again when I was 21 and apparently it was a thing called DSPS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_sleep_phase_syndrome).

I was prescribed melatonin, which exists naturally in your brain, and tells you when it's time to sleep. I told my doctor I wanted melatonin and not any "real" sleeping aids, it would take longer to get my sleeping patterns back but eventually (after a week or so) it started working, and after 3 months I was getting tired at 11 (which I had "programmed" my brain for, with the help of the melatonin).

I have to tell you it felt good to be so active over a few hours during the night when I was a night owl, but it's a lot better to have that energy and focus spread out over the whole day, you're also A LOT more alert during the day! So, well, check out the Wikipedia artile I linked to above...

 

[Olba]

I used to have the exact same thing, had it since I was like 13... First when I was 15 I went to the doctor and they told me it was just my hormones acting up, but then I went again when I was 21 and apparently it was a thing called DSPS (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_sleep_phase_syndrome).

Oh, DSPD. Ironical as it is, most people have no idea that such a thing exists. For one, when discussing alterations to the regular school schedule (8-16), the fellow students I had there at the time were surprised to hear of DSPD. Even so, they argued against it's existence.

I was prescribed melatonin, which exists naturally in your brain, and tells you when it's time to sleep. I told my doctor I wanted melatonin and not any "real" sleeping aids, it would take longer to get my sleeping patterns back but eventually (after a week or so) it started working, and after 3 months I was getting tired at 11 (which I had "programmed" my brain for, with the help of the melatonin).

I have to tell you it felt good to be so active over a few hours during the night when I was a night owl, but it's a lot better to have that energy and focus spread out over the whole day, you're also A LOT more alert during the day! So, well, check out the Wikipedia artile I linked to above...

You should also know that there is no long term cure for DSPD. And as pointed out by the Wikipedia article, you're lucky for getting a treatment that works for you.

 

[Oziriz]

Olba, I know... As a matter of fact, it's 3 AM right now. The big problem is, if I go past the bed time I've decided on (11 PM) by an hour or so, I'm back to my old self, and if I do this for a week or so I'm in danger of messing up the whole thing again. Today though I've been reading about INTP stuff so I didn't notice it was late and managed to go past my bed time.

 

[Kuu]

@ Olba: That sounds like me. But I solved the oversleeping issue by plugging my laptop to the stereo, transforming it into an all-mighty alarm clock. It wakes up everyone . Since then, I've never missed a class (technically I'm there... my counsciousness... I cannot account for that).

@ Jordan: Lunacy is related to madness... moon influence as you said, derived from latin luna... but lucidity is about brightness/light - as in enlightenment - from the latin lucidus (shiny/bright)... derived from luce (light). It's good to know romance languages . Still, you know what they say about genius and madness...

@ Yank: Like the überman schedule? I've always wanted to try that, never had the opportunity.

@ Oziriz, Olba: I know about DSPS. Maybe I have it, don't know. Anyway, I've used it for years to get my parents to stop whining about me staying awake so late... although they also question its existence...

 

[Olba]

@ Olba: That sounds like me. But I solved the oversleeping issue by plugging my laptop to the stereo, transforming it into an all-mighty alarm clock. It wakes up everyone . Since then, I've never missed a class (technically I'm there... my counsciousness... I cannot account for that).

Well, once I managed to sleep past four separate alarms.

You know, last Christmas I got this 2.1 travel audio system by Maxell. I tried plugging it into my Creative Zen and setting the alarm from there. Well, it works, except when it picks a track like a piano sonata by Mozart.

@ Oziriz, Olba: I know about DSPS. Maybe I have it, don't know. Anyway, I've used it for years to get my parents to stop whining about me staying awake so late... although they also question its existence...

In my case, looking at the definition and criteria for diagnosis, I could get myself attached with DSPD if I just kept a sleep log and went to a doctor.

Just this night, I was awake about half past three in the morning and was woken up by my father at around 9 o'clock.

 

[Aphasia]

I sleep at around 10-11 pm and wake up at 5 am (somehow) and stay sleepy the rest of the morning. I am/was a really light sleeper, so it wasn't uncommon for me to wake up 5 times every night before getting up in the morning. My mother complains that she once slept at 4 and woke up at 7 and functioned well the next day, but try waking yourself up 2 times (average) a night every day FOR 6 YEARS (exclude weekends and holidays, they don't count) (I don't know how I managed). Nowadays, I only wake up once a night every two or three days or so. Visible improvement in studies and attention span :P

Just mentioning: I'm a late morning, late afternoon person. Don't know how this happened, I just am.

 

[Wisp]

I'm a night owl. 8 PM to 1-3 AM are my reigning hours. I may or may not have already posted this. I can't remember. Sorry.

 

[Kumori]

I have insomnia, so periods of sleep come few and far between.

 

[zxc]

Well, to give you the most recent example from my life, I'll give you my last night. Went to sleep around 2am and rose from the bed at 4pm. That would mean I woke up somewhere around 3pm. That's 13 hours of sleep. And you know what? That's normal for me.

My schedule was, until just today, filled with studying and school, meaning I had to wake up early in the morning. When at home, this usually means I wake up 90 minutes before I leave the house, or 2 hours before the class starts. This is pretty troublesome, since the earliest classes start at 8am, meaning I wake up at 6am.

Well, that's not a problem for someone who goes to sleep around 9-10pm. However, for me, that is a big problem. You see, during the days that I have school, I go to sleep at midnight. Or actually, I try to. Usually it results in me being wake for at least the next hour or two. So in practice, I would only get about four to five hours of sleep per day. And some if it is due to the fear of not waking up. No, I don't mean not waking up at all, but rather oversleeping. It's a terror of mine, being absent from classes for no apparent reason. During this past school year, I had a total of seven classes missed due to oversleeping, which I find to be a lot. And by the way, I missed a total of 7 classes during the whole year.

Quote:
The best part about the late hours of the night (early hours of the morning?) is the quiet and solitude.
Maybe so. However, I would say that the two go well together in this case. Or rather, one is caused by the other. In this case, solitude is caused by the quiet. After all, walking around in a house where no one else is awake makes it feel as if you were the only person living in it. Or maybe the only person in the whole world? Of course it's going to feel like that, when the only sounds you hear are those of your own footsteps.

I can relate to that. When I don't have school, I tend to go to sleep between 4am and 8am - I wake up between 11am and 5pm. I love the solitude of the early hours of the day, and the darkness.

When I do have school, I go to bed between 12am and 2am usually. I have to wake up at 7:30am each day. Throughout the schoolday, I feel almost 'slow', though that is never really the case. It's just - when I come home, and change out of my uniform, and hop on the computer and put on some metal music - I feel alive. I can't really describe it - oh well

I used to have trouble getting to sleep, because I would just keep thinking and thinking. I eventually overcame this problem by simply being too tired! Now I've struck a balance of-sorts between the two.

 

[Mavkain]

Basically, it was me just being endlessly fascinated, following one thing after another, until finally the the sun was coming up, and I knew (only by logic/choice) that I should probably go to sleep.

... I can't seem to get myself to go to sleep at a consistently early hour; I, also, find my mind lucid at night, my creativity sparked, my thoughts new and imaginative. As a kid, going to bed at 8, and later 9, I would lie in bed for one or two hours before I was able to fall asleep, my mind active, uncontrollably alive.

.L

I think the lot of us will find that we see allot of ourselves in this. I think the the quiet and solitude of the night makes us more at ease. That and maybe the body cycle is now geared for rest for our brain to process the days information.

 

[Agent Intellect]

I think the lot of us will find that we see allot of ourselves in this. I think the the quiet and solitude of the night makes us more at ease. That and maybe the body cycle is now geared for rest for our brain to process the days information.

definitely true for myself. before i have the job i do now, when i worked during the afternoon and evening, i went to bed at like 9 AM and woke up at like 4 or 5 PM. i get used to a sleep schedule fairly quick though. i've taken several trips all the way across the country to stay with my long distance girlfriend, and i've never experienced jet lag. on the other hand, since i started drinking a lot, i have a big problem getting to sleep on the rare nights that i DON'T drink. i usually overthink myself into a depression spiral as i lie awake. in a way, thats one of the reasons i continue to drink... (and i probably would have never let all that out if i wasn't drunk right now!)

 

[Fedayeen]

Right now since its summer for me I have just been falling asleep when I got tired, which used to be every night at around 3-4 AM. However recently it has been every other day I don't sleep. and when I do sleep I get a good 10-12 hours of sleep.

 

[icywindow]

I'd say for me, it's a similar thing, I read something by Henri Poincare that talked about the way that he worked, and I found that with exception to the later part, I would probably work really well his way.

He woke up in the middle morning, and worked from 10am - 12pm, then did some reading, then worked from 3-5 pm, then spent the rest of his day just doing various bits of reading, what things needed to be done, discussing ideas, and such. 4 hours a day, and one of the most productive mathematicians of the 1800s. Sounds like an INTP to me

In any case, I find my best hours are 10ish to middle day, then in the late afternoon sometime, then usually after it's time for me to go to bed so I end up staying up until 12am, and get about 6-7 hours, which still isn't enough for me to be more than marginally productive. However, if I have a fire lit underneath me, any time is go time, and sometimes crash and burn time

Usually, sleep time is much more important priority than being on time to work, school, or whatever else. At the same time, I agree with many that the early hours of the morning can be the most pleasant time, so long as there are things to think about and do.

 

[hikky]

I used to have terrible problems with sleep. It was more than just getting poor or poorly timed sleep every night, it was only getting poor sleep every other night. I would find myself staying up all night, then not wanting to sleep through the day just because I was tired of doing it all the time, then spending all day half awake until I finally fell asleep at 2-3 am the next night, only to wake up 12 hours later. Even though I still have the same free time that I had then, it just bugs me when I do it now, since I feel more pressure to get things done in life, even if I'm still doing a poor job of it. Just a couple nights ago though, I did have sort of a throwback when I woke up at least 7 or 8 times in the same night. I finally gave up at 4 AM and spent the whole day tired, in the end falling asleep for 4 hours of the afternoon.

 

[Leafknight]

I'm a 46 year old INTP and I've always been nocturnal. My preferred bedtime has crept later and later as I've aged though when I was a kid I always stayed up til 11 to 11:30 PM (which drove my mother crazy til the doctor told her it was just my normal biorhythym).

In my 20's-30's I tended to stay up, when I could, til between 12 and 3 AM.

In mid-life now though, I much prefer to stay up til 6 or 7 AM then sleep most of the day, perhaps 7 AM to 3 PM.

Of course, the Day Person world (forced diurnal evil) forces me to get up at 6 or 7 AM these days...when I SHOULD be going TO bed not getting up FROM it!!

As for ties between INTPness and nocturnal sleep habits, I can only speculate though I do believe our mindset benefits greatly from the quiet solitude which allows our minds to be uncluttered and less distracted by people and noise, etc.

 

[severus]

I like the early night when my mother is tucked away in bed and I am free to do as I please. But now, since my bus to highschool comes at 6:30 in the morning, and I need at LEAST eight hours of sleep (maybe I'm still growing. Please? Just one more inch? (I am 5'0")) ahem
since I need at least eight hours of sleep I go to bed at like 9:30. SAme time as her. No nice quiet evenings with Jon and Stephen.

 

[Decaf]

Oddly enough, I'm quite the morning person. I think it has a lot to do with my military training, but when I hear my alarm, I'm often standing up before my brain engages enough to realize what I'm doing. Then again, when that instinct doesn't take hold, I often sleep much later than I should (showing up to work a half hour late has become an occasional problem).

 

[Apathy]

It is usually around 11:00PM before I've finished whatever chores were needing done that day(ya, I could be done sooner, but I take my time doing them) So after 11 it becomes purely ME time. And I feel I need at least an hour or two of that before I'm ready for bed.

 

[mopo1]

Seems that being a nightowl is not just my problem. Best time to be awake is between 1-3 am in the morning sometimes to 5 am. During this time its as others stated your mind races and the thoughts are unbelievably pure and cohesive maybe solid would be a better word.

If you would have an device able to record thoughts at that time for Intp:s science and philosophy would increase a hundredfold in a short time.

This has probably something to do with generational cycles that humanity has gone through.

People for the most time during history woke up early worked the field went to sleep etc.

The new generation of nerds are being free to be up all night at the computer,however Descartes also died because of sleep deprivation as the swedish heir to the throne wanted him up early in the morning.

So we have history behind us but we are a minority but what a minority

 

[tmtaylor]

I hardly ever sleep a long time I nap when I get home at 4 for a hour or 2 then I am up till 2 or 3 am sleep 2 or 3 hours and start all over again. My mind works best late at night and sometimes don't sleep because I am thinking about mechanical resinance and its potential to generate electricity or freaking atom smashers and worst of all some off the wall humorous thing I am gonna do the next day,

 

[mmortal03]

Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome is probably what you guys have. It was a revelation when I learned that it was what I have. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_sleep_phase_syndrome

 

[Inappropriate Behavior]

Not everyone here is nocturnal but enough to see that it could be a trait some of us share because it is a rare trait to be this way. I'm at a point where I can get away with sleeping when I want. If I want to stay awake for 36 to 48 hours, I do and it happens with some regularity. I can also sleep 12 hours if I want.
I think it is just the way our "special" brains work. It's kind of analogous with creative writing: Sometimes you're hot and sometimes you're not. By that I mean sometimes my brain is has a lot to think about and sometimes I have to take a moment to remember what day of the week it is.

 

[ChaosTheory]

While I usually go to bed by 1 or 2 in the morning, I enjoy my times at night. I'm alone, everyone's sleeping, it's quiet, no distractions. I can just do whatever I want and it's a good feeling.

 

[Freddeh]

I experience a lot of times when i really don't want to sleep because i think it is a waste of my time, especially in weekends.
Right now it's a quarter past 6 in the morning and im looking what i still could possibly make of my early sunday.
Most likely it'll be nothing except sleep till a late sunday, but still even on the last minute i am hoping on a great moment although im a bit drunk while typing this.

 

[Kronos Zul]

Sounds like me too. :S
I'm a bit of a Night owl as as well, and for all the same reasons you all listed.

 

[Chronomar]

I guess I am a nocturnal/ late afternoon person, but my schedule (due to school) runs starting early in the morning, when I am likely to kill the first person who tries to talk to me. However, I like morinings when I don't have to get up, they are pretty and I like reading during them. But I don't actually like getting up and going out of my room and being productive (as school forces me too). The really hard part is that I like my classes in school and so want to be awake in them, and so it seems that during the school day I have a super awake feeling even though really I'm dead tired, and then when I get home and have to do my homework, I crash, forcing me to stay up really late to get my work done, and the cycle repeats.

 

[Sapphire Harp]

I've always been the night owl type, too... I've kind of stabilized falling asleep around 12-2 in the morning and getting up 8-10, but when I was free to adjust my schedule as I liked I pushed on to 5 AM sometimes.

It's rare that I do it, but I've been having an interesting time with sleeping from 6 PM until 9 or 10 PM, waking up for 3-5 hours and then sleeping until morning.

Anyway, I know just one you were saying Tekton:

I am a night person. Forcibly wake me up in the morning and I will say incoherent stuff, be generally lazy, and absolutely unproductive. At night, my mind races with thoughts more than during the day; I am focused, active, lucid, creative.

and Linsejko:

I can't seem to get myself to go to sleep at a consistently early hour; I, also, find my mind lucid at night, my creativity sparked, my thoughts new and imaginative. As a kid, going to bed at 8, and later 9, I would lie in bed for one or two hours before I was able to fall asleep, my mind active, uncontrollably alive.

Like you two, my mind just gets clearer and clearer as the sun goes down and everyone else gets off to sleep. In contrast, I feel mentally sluggish during the day.

Personally, I have an itch that suggests part of the clarity comes as the social expectation/anxiety of being out and doing things during the day disappears. When other people stop being a factor, I do start feeling freer.
​

 

[flow]

Delayed sleep phase syndrome I definitely have. Where do I go to get drugs for it?

 

[mmortal03]

Delayed sleep phase syndrome I definitely have. Where do I go to get drugs for it?

There's no cure, and many people don't have success with the drugs that are out there. It is still a scientific work in progress as far as managing it, unfortunately. I suggest that you read the wikipedia article, then the following web page, and join the listserv mentioned at the bottom (which I am a member of): http://dspsinfo.tripod.com/

The following links are also a good start: http://www.circadiandisorders.org/faq.html
http://www.circadiandisorders.org/links.html

 

[AndOhh]

I am a night person. Forcibly wake me up in the morning and I will say incoherent stuff, be generally lazy, and absolutely unproductive. At night, my mind races with thoughts more than during the day; I am focused, active, lucid, creative.

I have the same issues. It really seems that once night comes, I'm wired and alert. I will have to get up early get 3 or 4 hours of sleep be tired the first half of the day and then once night rolls around I'm wide awake again and my mind is racing even though I'm operating off of a few hours of sleep.

I have noticed that this seems to have gotten a little better, I'm 26 now; however it's still not uncommon for me to go through a week with very little sleep every night.

Then again, sometimes I manage to keep myself on a pretty good cycle for a bit -- then those close to me need to watch out.. I get daffy with too much rest...

 

[aahzombies]

Because of school I'm forced to wake up around 6am, but during the breaks I become somewhat nocturnal as well. For instance, I have not gone to bed before 5am in the past two weeks because I'm on Winter Break. I tend to go to sleep finally as it's just getting light out, and finally get out of bed sometime between 2-4pm. I then spend the evening meeting my expected social interaction quota before retreating to my bedroom around midnight to spend the rest of my time as I wish. During the school week I am always stressed and tired because I am required to get up early, spend the day at school, spend time with friends for the rest of the afternoon to keep up the facade of actually caring about my social life, do my homework in the evening and then I am literally left with no time to myself, which I need. Thus, I have a tendency to remove sleep from it's priority position to make room for time for me to let my mind free as it is finally removed from the monotony of school and mind-numbing small talk of my social interaction.

 

[dbtng_thomas]

I'm a confirmed vampire. (My last name literally means 'keeper of the night'.) When I throw my rhythms off enough, I can get pretty loopy, so I have to somewhat monitor how much sleep I've been getting. If I'm up too late, the sunrise generally sends me scurrying off to bed.

I can operate without noticeable effect for a single day on as little as 3 hours of sleep. I can go for about a week only sleeping 4-5 hours. I've read that you aren't supposed to be able to make up missing sleep. Wrong. When I push it for a week, I need a downtime day.

Not much issue with insomnia ... unless I quit the mary jane; then it gets really bad. My sister's been telling me to try melatonin for years. I would give it a shot, but I _like_ being up at 4am.