IN THE EARLY MORNING HOURS, my biorhythms are at their maximum intensity. As the classic early to bed, early to rise person, I would make Ben Franklin proud. In the morning, I am more productive, more energized, more alive. I can maintain that energy level into the afternoon, especially if I am working on something. But after dinner, I fade like a puff of smoke. By about 6:30 PM, my body has unplugged and my brain is having pillow visions. Having arisen between 3 to 3:30 AM, it has been a full day, but I need my eight hours sleep. I climb into bed with a book and read until my concentration level loses the battle with the vanishing day. Then it’s light out, right about the time that night owls are gearing up for going out. I’ll enjoy what’s left of the night when I get up and head out for a walk early the next morning. The night people will have staggered home by then and passed out half clothed. I’ll be lacing up and thinking about which route to take and, perhaps three-quarters through the walk, begin to smell the coffee I’ll brew as soon as I get back home.
I got up Thursday morning about 8:30 and I'm leaving work now at 4:00 Friday morning, hoping to be in bed by 5:00am. So which category do I fall in? &zwj
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Wisdom comes late to some. Burning the midnight oil refers to those staying up late to study for exams but it could just as well include those of us who are midnight owls. Your early to bed and early to rise policy has probably served you well Henry. A close relative who lives in Dubai told me he has had Crohn's but an injection keeps everything in good control. That injection costs 40,000 US dollars a fill, but he like you leads a healthy lifestyle too. A good friend took immuno therapy injections for lung cancer. They are very costly too but he is still around after nine years. Perhaps it is a less deadly form or perhaps it is those injections, but not everybody can afford them even with insurance. Hopefully, those who charge such exorbitant prices for these treatments get to sleep peacefully at night. Best wishes.
Hello Henry M.
Since I matured in years, I had settled into a pattern of going to bed at 22:00hrs and I am then dead to the world until 06:00hrs. However, just recently I have been doing less ‘work’ and therefore see no reason to get up early. This new sleep pattern (although longer) seems to be making me feel much more tired in the mornings than I was before. Hence, I am contemplating whether or not I should go back to work and start getting up early in the mornings again.
Best wishes
Bill
You have my admiration Alex, if you are still able to pull those kinds of shifts in your 50s. I used to work a 4 p.m. to midnight shift years ago, and really liked it. Then I had a stretch of 12 hour overnight shifts, midnight to noon the next day. I only had to do three in a row, and then got four days off, but it still just about killed me, and I was in my early 40s.
Terry
Hi Henry,Surely you didn't mean to imply that all "night people" are degenerates, (staggering home and passing out half clothed)!?There has always been a bit of a bias towards the early birds of this world, and I'm not sure why. I don't think being early to bed and early to rise by nature, bestows virtue on a person. I worked a couple of decades of nine to five, or eight to four jobs, and managed to drag myself out of bed and get to work on time. It wasn't easy for me, but I did it anyway. Perhaps I am more deserving of brownie points, than someone to whom that would come naturally?
Terry
