Mingle for All #8 -- Are You an Early Bird, a Night Owl, or Permanently Exhausted Pigeon?

Crap. Maybe it's time I made a hard turn through a guard rail...

You would miss and hit a cop car.

I just wonder... If we took coffee out of the equation, how would that affect this matter?

Great show and thanks for playing along. You are a good sport.

Hey.. I gotcher sport right here!!

And here I thought we were making progress. My sincere apologies if you were harmed. I was truly just joking.

Hey Everyone,

I borrowed the term "Permanently Exhausted Pigeon" from a recent Ted-Ed video about people's natural sleep/wake cycles.

I am interested in hearing how people would classify themselves: Early Bird, Night Owl, or Something in Between, and how it has affected your life.

I have always been an early bird, which seems to be part natural and partially learned from my parents. My mom often started her day at 3 AM, and no later than 5 AM. I developed a cycle even in grade school where I went to bed at 8, but got up at 3 AM to do my homework. (Of course, the danger was what if I hadn't estimated enough time to finish before school started.)

I maintained that kind of schedule even through college because I've just always thought more clearly in the still of the early morning.

But of course, real life doesn't care about what our individual body clocks. Throughout my life, I have worked pretty much every shift there is, and I think that somewhere along the line, my inner clock became broken, because I've had rampant insomnia for longer than I can remember. (On the plus side, I don't really suffer from jet lag either, but I don't travel enough for it to be a real benefit.) Ironically, even though I am a natural Early Bird, my favorite work shift was actually the Night Owl shift (10 PM to 6 PM,) because I became more energized as my shift went on instead of winding up feeling like an unwound clock.

But now that I'm on a "standard" daytime schedule, my system seems to only sleep a full night about once every 3-4 nights -- or longer. On the intermittent nights, I'm left with light naps, which certainly doesn't leave me feeling very well-rested. I'm trying to learn more about what I can do with the aspects I can control.

And so, I've been trying to do research on various sleep disorders (which, ironically, some scientists seem to be think might have been brought on or at least exacerbated because of electricity/artificially controlled light.)

It's always fascinating to me how God made our bodies, and how sensitive our eyes and entire sleep/wake cycles are to natural sunlight. I've been learning that some people's natural circadian rhythm isn't set to the standard 24-hour schedule. Apparently, some people have longer or shorter cycles, which plays into why they can never get enough sleep.

This really has me interested in other people's experiences here:

* How would you describe your natural sleep/wake cycle? Would you say you are an early bird, night owl, or somewhere in between?

* Do you have a hard time getting enough sleep? (I think we pretty much all do.) How much of this can you control (going to bed earlier,) and how much are things you can't control? How are you coping?

* How has your natural body clock meshed or clashed with the demands of real-life responsibilities such as school, work, family, etc.? If you've had jobs, school schedules, or life issues that go against your natural cycle, what have you done to survive?


I am really interested in hearing what role sleep -- and how you attempt to get enough of it -- has played in your life.