I love staying up at night.

[ivankiss]

Is it really that bad for me? Or is that a myth?

I absolutely love the intimacy, the peace and quite, the magic of 3 or 4AM. I just love how it feels.

And before anyone jumps at me, yes, I have also experienced 4AM from the other side - so to speak. Getting up at that time, instead of pushing through the night. I experimented with all kinds of sleeping schedules, and while I can adjust to pretty much anything, if I have the total freedom to choose, then I'd probably be up every night till 3,4 or even 5AM, and sleep until 10, 11 or so. Depending on how well rested I feel.

Currently, I do not live that way. I get up at 7-8AM and go to sleep around 11 - midnight. And that's kind of the reason why I'm posting this. I miss those long nights. A lot of magical things happen to me past midnight, when there is nobody around, when it's all silent.

I should mention that I'm a musician. An artist, a creative... and that's more or less THE reason why I prefer the night. Being creative during daytime is just not the same. It can be awesome and it does have it's own magic, but personally, it's nowhere near as epic as night.

I'm sure many creatives would agree with me.

But not only that... Doing any kind of a serious consciousness work, contemplation, meditation, breathwork... I also prefer that at night. Envisioning, planning, strategizing... also at night.

All of those things, and many more are just way more enjoyable at night, to me. It just feels more natural that way. More fulfilling. More potent. More effective. More awesome.

You might want to point towards some kind of a childhood trauma, and yes, I did find peace in late night hours even as a kid. It totally could be that that's why I feel safest at those hours. It's difficult to create if your environment is chaotic or even hostile.

Whether or not it's some kind of a trauma response, I simply like staying up late at night, and that's it.

My concern is, obviously, if I was to practice this way of living... in the long run... would it really fuck me up in any serious way? Or is that just part of social conditioning and/or some lame ass belief system? 

Will my health deteriorate faster? Life expectancy? Aging? Anything else?

If I was to live like this for the next decade or two, or even for the rest of my life... would that really affect me in any significant, negative way? What is the risk?

And if there is a risk, or even a sacrifice... would you say it's overall worth it or not? Would you be ok with maybe aging faster and dying sooner if you created countless masterpieces during all those long nights? Had all those breakthroughs? Had all those insights and realizations? Not to mention all that fun and thrill and adrenaline and so on. Would that be worth it? 

I love staying up at night. It's just how it is. Most people say it's not good for me, because of this or that. 

How about you?

Are you one of those annoying people that get up at 5AM to 'ace the day'?  Lol. Perhaps you work night shifts, so you go to sleep at 7 or 8AM. Which sucks too, in my opinion, because you simply loose too much of daytime.

If you had the total freedom to choose, without any restrictions... when would you get up, when would you go to sleep, and why?

[Leo Gura]

Same.

But it's not practical if you're doing serious business that involves other people.

[ivankiss]

@Leo Gura How about health? Physical, mental and emotional..? Any downsides?

[Yimpa]

1 minute ago, ivankiss said:

How about health? Physical, mental and emotional..? Any downsides?

There are plenty of people who have a “normal” sleeping schedule yet still have physical, mental, and emotional problems.

[ivankiss]

@Yimpa Fair point, but still...

[Thought Art]

I don’t know, but know you want to be getting enough sleep regularly. Regular sleep schedule and getting enough hours of quality sleep would go into play there

[Leo Gura]

I don't think it affects health much.

It just creates social problems because you are out of sync with everyone else.

[ivankiss]

@Leo Gura Mmm. That makes sense, yes.

 

[Rigel]

How do you have the luxury to choose?  ahaha

When I teach in the morning I gotta wake up.

When I have a gig I have to stay up late.

I feel like the world determines when I sleep more than I do!

I don't feel more creative or better at night tho it's all the same to me as long as I had enough sleep.

What's really hurting is flip flopping between day and night. I am already doing that to an extent but last summer I worked at a place where it was 7h-17h one week & 19h-05h the other week. That destroyed my mood & health more than anything else.

[UnbornTao]

Hey, relatable. 

Actually recently added an article to my reading list on this topic: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/25/style/sleep-problem-late-night.html

You can bypass the paywall with a browser extension.

[Bazooka Jesus]

7 hours ago, ivankiss said:

I should mention that I'm a musician. An artist, a creative... and that's more or less THE reason why I prefer the night. Being creative during daytime is just not the same. It can be awesome and it does have it's own magic, but personally, it's nowhere near as epic as night.

Absolutely. When I was working as a music arranger, I loved pulling all-nighters making music until the sun rose from its slumber. And it was not even intentionally... I just got so lost in it that I didn't even notice the passing time until the birds started chirping outside.

I think the reason why our creative juices seem to flow more freely during the night is because subconsciously we associate the day with duty, rationality, work, politics and being busy living life; the night on the other hand is the realm of freedom, un-responsibility, romance, dream and magic where your creative inner child is given full license to come out and play. (My musical hero Richard Wagner composed a whole opera about this topic... Tristan Und Isolde is all about the dichotomy between day and night, duty and love, bondage and freedom, rationality and mystery, life and death.)

There's a reason why romantics have always been "mondsüchtig" (a German expression which literally means "addicted to the moon"). I think it's also that the dark veil of night naturally fuels man's fantasy; our imagination projects more horrifying monstrosities as well as more transcendental beauty onto the dark than the sober light of day could ever bring forth... so it's no wonder that for us artists, nighttime is creative time.

[Rigel]

@Bazooka Jesus **m7b5 intensifies**

[EdgeGod900]

Likewise. I noticed that I would feel the state that I would feel when I meditate for 2hrs straight right before I go to bed. So I took 10mg of thc and was tripping as I was falling asleep. Legit saw infinity again.

I think some advise that you shouldn't trip before bed, but the amplifying effect in consciousness made me try it. It was fun. Will try with lsd and 5 meo next.

Edited January 25 by EdgeGod900