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Comment by fleddr | Hacker News Reader

It's hard to say who is truly a night owl and for who it's a lifestyle.

I've always considered myself to be a night owl. I struggle to go to bed on time. Yet on some of my lengthy remote travels I learned it's all bullshit.

There, the sun sets at 6PM. There's little artificial light, and nothing much to do, so some 2 hours after dinner people tend to go to bed. So for weeks I went to bed around 9pm and wake up super fresh at 5-6am like some crazy morning person.

Just like that. Zero issues. So no, I'm not a night owl, it's distractions that make me not want to go to bed, it's not that I can't.

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It's interesting that the article doesn't seem to mention anything about evening activities. They're solely focused on when they went to sleep and woke up, yet seem to completely ignore why they went to bed at a specific time.

I had a before school class in high school and 8-9am classes in college. It was never an issue for me. Anecdotally the people who had trouble at these times and even later where the ones who stayed up late playing videogame and drinking (caffinated soda or alcohol), partying, or working as a bartender (sounds like the study controlled for this last one with shift work exculsionl).

Depending on your coursework you could also be closing down the library studying organic chemistry for example. Its almost a rite of passage to do that while taking that class.

I'm not buying that. I know people who took OChem. There's a certain point where studying is no longer effective and sleep is more beneficial. So it's really about time management, regardless of when the class starts.

Says someone who didn’t take ochem. Of course there’s a point where too much studying isn’t effective, but that point is really hard to hit as a 19 year old and OChem is often designed to be impossibly difficult, graded on a curve, and critical to your acceptance into med school. So the closer you push to that line the better your leg up on your classmates.

I remember I got about a 40% in the course and it put me in the top decile of the class of 400 students. You needed to be one of the top 5% to get an A and the top student, who was probably the smartest person I’ve ever met, had right at a 50% after studying the same kind of hours we did.

Your comment reminds me of other students at the university with their comments like “you never come out on weekends. Who study’s that much?” And the answer was, anyone who was going to pass Ochem.

Almost two decades later and it still spikes my blood pressure thinking about that semester.

You’re commenting everywhere in this thread. A large part of college is about socialization. Staying up until 1am drinking beer and playing video games with a few friends is absolutely a part of college. Just because people are staying up until 1am, 2am, etc doesn’t mean they’re parting. They’re just being young adults.

I got hired by a big tech company right out of high school. Skipped college. I’ve done well for myself career wise, but I certainly regret not having the “college experience”.

You seem to be quite harshly judging those who used college as a place to have fun, as well as building life skills.

Its amazing when you go camping with no artificial lights or internet and soon after dark everyone is yawning and ready to sleep.

Wasn't really the case for our camping trips.

We usually stay up talking at least until 11PM and wake up roughly ~7:30AM

What's different about camping is usually the quality of sleep. If you're a nightowl and you get 8.5 hours of really good sleep, you won't be feeling like crap waking up at 7-8 AM.

Hah, yeah right! I get the shortest amount of sleep on camping trips, because I'm up with the sun, but I don't get to sleep until late, because everyone is hanging out and talking the night away. That said, as short as it is, it's some of my best quality sleep.

I'm the exact same way and wondered if it's the fresh air and nature that causes that. I can operate on 4-6 hours sleep camping or at the cottage for as long as a week and it's so refreshing. And it's the most refreshing sleep I experience.

I try so hard to replicate it in my normal life because I feel so accomplished when I wake up at 6am and walk down the road to shower and get ready for the day.

if anyone cracks this code I would pay dear money for it. maybe i should setup my tent in the backyard for a week

Nah. My friends and I stayed up way late. Laying down on a frozen lake at 2am looking up at a moon-less star-filled sky. I will never forget that. :)

Not my experience at all, as someone who is both a night owl, and an avid backpacker. I figure a week in to a backpacking trek I've hit my no-screens adjusted schedule, and that still involves going to sleep somewhere a little past midnight, and waking up an hour or so after dawn.

I think people tend twords early bird/ night owl, but it’s adjustable. I tend to like to stay up late, but when employment forced me to be at work at 7am I adjusted my sleep schedule to accommodate.

But with a flexible schedule now I’ve moved it later. except the dog keeps me in check ..

I also was close to convinced I was a night owl, then attempted sleeping with the blinds open - and over a few days, I started naturally waking up with or shortly after the sunrise. Started getting sleepy around 12-1am rather than 3-4am too.

I think if you're only getting sleepy around 1am, you're still a nightowl.

Most early birds I know are ready to _pass out cold_ at 10PM, naturally.

I think it's partly bullshit. I would consider myself a night owl but: On one hand, if i never check myself, I will just stay up to the late hours of the night, which I often feel is attributed to how I grew up, and as such it's psychologically ingrained in me.

Otoh, I successfully followed an 11p-6a sleep schedule for months, but I'd never noticed any negative differences in my general day to day energy/etc levels compared to when I would go to bed late. (Maybe better mood bc being up before most ppl is a great feeling?) But really, the biggest difficulty I had with this regimen was to just go to bed on time, and I think this is more to do with habits rather than genetics. But only partly.

Easy hack for night persons to be a morning person - just fly from the east coast of USA to the west coast, but continue to sleep and wake on the same schedule, just with a minus 3 hour offset. Works perfectly for me.

Haha. But no. For me, traveling across timezones only extends how long I'll stay up late (in local time), no matter the direction of travel.

Note that there are other possibilities, too:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_sleep_phase_disorder

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-24-hour_sleep%E2%80%93wake...

The latter in particular can look and feel very much "night owl" when forced in a regular 24-hour schedule on a mostly permanent basis.

I am similar.

I found that the later I sleep, the more sleep I need. I attribute that to environmental noise, like my neighbours waking up at 5:50 and walking with little to no regards for everyone below them.

However, when I sleep at 23, I am usually up by 4:30, and I am functioning great. When I sleep at 00, I am usually up by 6:30, at 01, it goes to 8:00, and so on.

So I decided that I will not use electronic devices after 21:00.

Likewise for me while camping although you tend to do more physical activities during the day which also tires you out.

I have had similar experiences. Are night owls perhaps just people who have a hard time putting down interests?

I would think yes. A curious mind plus endless opportunities to distract and entertain yourself creates the night owl. Being introverted may also contribute to the behavior.

Teens and young adults are almost always night owls, even the early risers function better waking at 8-9am.

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