Sleep Cycles
A friend posed a question on Facebook asking if we were morning people or night owls. I answered that by nature, I’m a night owl; and because my kids are still in school and due to my schedule at work, I’m currently a morning person. Then I started thinking about it.
I currently wake up each day between 3 and 5. I go to sleep between 10 and midnight. So I’m getting between 3 and 7 hrs of sleep a night.
For almost 12 years I worked nights. If I were childless, this might have been ideal. Instead, I came home and either watched my kids (when they were really small) or crashed till it was time to get them from school.
The only time in my life that I’ve ever been able to let my body dictate my sleep cycle was my last year of college. I made sure my classes were scheduled for later in the day and I did all of my darkroom work (my degrees are in photography) during the night. I would go to sleep between 3-7 AM and wake between noon and 2 PM. I tended to eat just one or two meals a day, and I walked almost everywhere.
During this period of my life, I was at my thinnest. I know the daily walking (sometimes as much as 6 miles a day) made a huge difference; but I have to wonder what part my sleep cycle played.
These days, I tend to wake up with time to read/write first thing as I’m getting my bearings for the day. But my best/favorite time to sleep is between 6 and 10 AM. So if I don’t have to be up till 6:30 or 7 and I fall back to sleep after waking up around 3 or 4, I’m screwed. On those days, when I’ve managed to go back to sleep, but I have to wake up again before I would naturally, I spend the entire day in a fog.
I have eight more years till my youngest is out of school. Eight years of working a day job while editing at night and on the weekends. Eight years to build that editing business into something I can do on a schedule that makes sense to my body. So, the goal is to retire from a “day” job in eight years. Either that, or I’ll finally be able to work the 2:30–11:00 PM shift at my office. Either way… I’m so tired of 3 AM being a time I wake up at instead of when I go to sleep.
