Since I’ve left my full time job at West Point, I’ve pretty much been able to go to sleep and wake up when I want. Normally, I’m a super-late night owl forced to operate on a ‘normal’ 9-5 day. If left to my own devices, I’m more likely to still be awake at 5am than to wake up by 5am. I’ve been like this for as long as I can remember. My Dad’s kinda like that too. In fact, my thought processing, creativity, and productivity seem to peak around 11pm and stay high for 4-5 hours. Unfortunately, this didn’t work real well in the ‘real world’ since you’re kinda forced to operate on the ‘day-walkers‘ schedule.
My new schedule is much more my style and I’m feeling better for it. I’m getting about 6 hours of sleep a night…up from 5 when I work a ‘normal’ job and I’m much less likely to feel tired during the day. The reason I’m writing about this is because I recently read an article The Triangle film that eluded to what I’ve personally known about myself for a long time….that staying up late and sleeping in makes me more productive. While some people look at the time you wake up and immediately think that makes you lazy…I look at them and think how lazy they are for going to bed at 9 or 10pm….My second work day starts at 10pm!
Eli Franklin
August 18, 2008
I agree 100%. The workday just starts too early. I have to keep a bottle of red wine by the bed to wind me down usually.