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It's not that I'm nocturnal. It's that I'm Bajoran or something. I'm supposed to live on a planet with longer days.
Seriously. My natural sleep phase lasts about 12 hours. (That means: if you don't wake me up, that's how long it will take my body to wake up of its own accord.) And my natural activity phase seems to last something between 16 and 20 hours. (That means: that is how long I can stay active without feeling tired when I'm well rested to begin with.)
And the nocturnal-ness (nocturnality?) is a side-effect of that. When I've slept well, I tend to extend my subsequent activity phase well beyond what is reasonable by normal standards, and this of course results in me being awake at night. And then of course, the vicious cycle begins... 'cause going to bed later, I need to sleep longer into the day, which in turn results in me staying up even later in the night, etc.
Which results in what you can witness here and now: Me being awake still at five a.m., two hours before I have to leave for work.
This wouldn't be so annoying if there weren't rather convincing statements by specialists that say that people with my sleep pattern tend to die a lot earlier than people with a normal sleep pattern. I don't want to die early, dammit! I want to live as long as Methos or the Doctor! Or, barring that, I at least want to reach 90!
Any advice on how to learn to sleep like a 'normal' person?
Seriously. My natural sleep phase lasts about 12 hours. (That means: if you don't wake me up, that's how long it will take my body to wake up of its own accord.) And my natural activity phase seems to last something between 16 and 20 hours. (That means: that is how long I can stay active without feeling tired when I'm well rested to begin with.)
And the nocturnal-ness (nocturnality?) is a side-effect of that. When I've slept well, I tend to extend my subsequent activity phase well beyond what is reasonable by normal standards, and this of course results in me being awake at night. And then of course, the vicious cycle begins... 'cause going to bed later, I need to sleep longer into the day, which in turn results in me staying up even later in the night, etc.
Which results in what you can witness here and now: Me being awake still at five a.m., two hours before I have to leave for work.
This wouldn't be so annoying if there weren't rather convincing statements by specialists that say that people with my sleep pattern tend to die a lot earlier than people with a normal sleep pattern. I don't want to die early, dammit! I want to live as long as Methos or the Doctor! Or, barring that, I at least want to reach 90!
Any advice on how to learn to sleep like a 'normal' person?
