Friday, April 17, 2009

RESISTING SLEEP

I am a night owl. I am happiest sleeping until noon. Eating dinner at 9 PM or later. Writing, painting, manipulating images on the computer, all best done at 2AM, at least by me. How would you like it if every day was Saturday? Oh...yeah...you do have to shop and go for services during regular hours since the world runs on 9-5. Wait...most things can be bought over the internet, so maybe you CAN live outside the norm.

The next obstacle? Finding someone to hang with that is also a night owl. Early birds and night owls don't make a great pair. Everyone is programmed to believe that you have to conform or you are some kind of slacker, lazy and undisciplined. You just go to bed at 10PM and get up at 5:30AM and go do your job on 7 1/2 hours sleep. What if your personal internal clock is set to wind down around 2AM and you would naturally wake up at 11AM if there wasn't an alarm clock to force you awake? I NEED 9 hours sleep. Not want, NEED. Most people NEED 8 hours. they don't get it. I don't get 9 most of the time, but less than 7 for more than a couple of nights and I get clumsy. I start hurting myself, bumps, bruises, cuts...not a pretty sight. Left to my natural rhythm, I sleep 9 hours and wake naturally, instead of being jerked out of sleep by an annoying sound. Oh I know you can get an alarm that wakes you with increasing light, or gentle sounds that increase in loudness. But those don't work on me.

My life is just about perfect right now. I sleep when I want, go to bed when I want. I have no pressure on me at the moment and I'm enjoying it immensely. Life is good.

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