Be Nocturnal

Humans have a circadian rhythm that causes us to sleep during the night and stay awake during the day. But what if you want to reverse this natural order and become nocturnal? Whether you work the graveyard shift and need ways to stay alert on the job or you’re just interested in becoming a creature of the night, with some practice you can train your body to adopt nocturnal habits.

Steps

Staying Up All Night

  1. Train yourself gradually. It’s difficult to switch straight from a normal sun-driven schedule to one in which you’re sleeping while the rest of the world is awake. Doing this will likely just leave you completely sleep deprived, since you’ll force yourself to stay up all night and you won’t be able to sleep well during the day. Instead, gradually start staying up later each night and sleeping in later in the morning. Push the times back more and more, and in a week or so you won’t have as much trouble waking and sleeping when you want to.
    • The first night of training, stay up as late as you can without forcing yourself. Stay awake until you feel like you can’t keep your eyes open a moment longer, then go to sleep. Don’t set an alarm, and block the windows so you won’t wake up with the sun. Sleep as late as you can, then wake up and go about your day.
    • The next night, try to stay up an hour later than you did the night before, and in the morning, sleep an extra hour.
    • Continue this process until you’re falling asleep and rising when you want to.
  2. Keep your mind occupied. Staying up at night is a lot easier when you’re doing activities that keep your brain engaged. Watching shows or movies can be helpful, although many are known to fall asleep midway through an episode. Try something that keeps you active, like reading a book or playing video games.
    • Some find that they feel more creative at night. Try working on an art project, making music, or writing an essay in the middle of the night. Try not to go to sleep until you’re at a good stopping point. You probably won’t even notice when the sun begins to rise.
  3. Exercise at night. This is a sure way to get your blood rushing and make you feel more alert and awake instead of sleepy. Go for a night run or a brisk walk. The fresh air will wake you up, too. If you don’t want to go outside, do sets of crunches, situps or pullups in your house to keep yourself awake.
    • Taking a shower after you work out, preferably a cool one, will also help keep you from falling asleep.
    • If you don’t like to exercise, just stick your head outside and take several deep breaths of air when you’re feeling tired. The temperature difference will make your body wake up.
  4. Eat a meal. Your body will wake up a little in order to start digesting the food you take in. Cook a meal and eat it in the middle of the night. Don’t fall back on a typical midnight snack, like a peanut butter sandwich or pizza, because these are foods your mind already associates with late night eating. Instead, cook a meal you’d normally eat during the day, like poached salmon, spinach and couscous. Drink a big glass of cold water as well.
  5. Play music. If you don’t share your home with people who would like to be able to sleep in peace, put on some loud, fast music to get your body moving. Choose music that makes you want to get up and dance or sing along, instead of music that puts you to sleep. If you’re concerned about waking people up, use headphones.
  6. Talk to other people who are awake. Have you ever had one of those late night phone sessions with a friend that keeps both of you up until dawn? Talking with someone else is very stimulating, and it’s one of the best ways to keep yourself awake. If you have a friend who’s also trying to stay up all night and sleep during the day, schedule phone conversations to keep each other entertained.
    • If you don’t know anyone else who’s trying to be nocturnal, use a chat program to get in touch with someone living in another time zone where everyone’s awake. If you’re chatting with someone who lives in a place where it’s daytime, you’ll be able to wake right up.
  7. Shop at stores that are open all night. Getting out of the house and walking around can help you feel more awake and normal at night. If you know of a store or a diner that’s always open, consider going there to hang out and shop or eat for a few hours. This is usually easier to do in a city where there are other people looking for spots to hang out at night.
    • Make sure you stay in safe, well-lit areas when you go out at night. Since fewer people will be out and about, it’s important to be aware of your surroundings and mindful of your safety. Bring a cell phone with you and tell someone where you’re going.
  8. Use caffeine carefully. Caffeine is a stimulant that provides an excellent pick-me-up for a few hours, and it’s great in a pinch when you need to pull a one-off all-nighter. However, if your goal is to become permanently (or semi-permanently) nocturnal, you shouldn’t fall back on caffeine as your tool for staying awake. Having a lot of caffeine in your system will make it more difficult to get to sleep during the day, and it’s important that you sleep when you can so you don’t deprive your body of rest.
    • The same goes for energy drinks that contain other types of stimulants. It’s better to gradually train your body to stay awake instead of forcing it using artificial means.

Resting During the Day

  1. Use blackout curtains. When your body senses the sun has come up, it’s a lot harder to get to sleep. The slightest bit of sun peeking out from around the edges of your blinds will cause your body to become more alert. If you want to be able to sleep during the day, invest in blackout curtains. They’re so sturdy and opaque, they block out all sunlight. When the sun comes up, you’ll have no idea that it’s daytime.
    • If you don’t want to buy a set of blackout curtains, get very dark, heavy drapes or cover your windows with thick, dark-colored blankets.
    • Using a sleeping mask to block out light is also helpful if you don’t mind sleeping with something on your face.
  2. Block out sounds, too. As the rest of the world wakes, they’ll start making all kinds of noises: the sound of a garbage truck barreling down the street, the neighbor calling his dog, your roommate’s microwave opening and closing. To defend against the onslaught of morning sounds, you’ll need a good pair of earplugs or noise-canceling headphones.
    • If you don’t like wearing items on your head while you sleep, try using a white noise machine. These machines produce low, quiet sounds to which your ears quickly grow accustomed, and they block out the other more annoying sounds that might enter your room.
  3. Try melatonin. This is a chemical the brain produces to put the body to sleep. Melatonin pills are a natural sleep aid that can help your body rest if you have trouble sleeping during the day. Unlike regular sleeping pills, they don’t have addictive properties and won’t leave you groggy when you wake up.
    • If you’re interested in taking stronger sleeping pills that use synthetic chemicals to put the body to sleep, it’s best to discuss this with your doctor first. This is especially important if you have to drive or go to work upon waking.
  4. Eat breakfast when you wake up. Even if you wake up at 6:00 in the evening, eat breakfast foods. This will signal to your brain and body that it’s the beginning of your day. If you eat lunch or dinner foods, you’ll be sending different signals. Follow the normal morning routine you’d have if you woke up at 8:00 am. Put on a pot of coffee or tea and enjoy your typical breakfast.
  5. Tell people not to disturb you. If you’re quite serious about following a nocturnal schedule, tell the people in your life not to disturb you during the day unless it’s an emergency. Let them know that it’s very important for you to sleep during the day, because otherwise you’ll end up sleep deprived.
    • You’ll need to set up a schedule that works for your family so they have no need to disturb you. For example, if your children will be coming home from school during the time you’re supposed to be asleep, have a plan in place for them to go to after school care or stay with someone until you wake up.

Keeping Your Body Healthy

  1. Stick to a schedule. If you’re planning on staying nocturnal for awhile, it’s important to stick with a steady schedule. Go to bed at the same time of day and rise at the same time, too. If you don’t, your sleep schedule will end up all over the place, and that can wreak havoc on your health.
    • After you’ve gradually gotten accustomed to your schedule, stick with it the same way you would a regular schedule. Set your alarm and try to go to bed on time.
    • When you’re ready to go back to a normal day/night schedule, do it gradually.
  2. Get vitamin D. Staying inside during the day means you won’t be exposed to the sun’s healthy rays. Sure, too much sun is a bad thing, but too little sun is actually worse. When you don’t get exposed to any sun, your body doesn’t produce vitamin D, which is essential to healthy bone growth and other natural functions.
    • Try to arrange your schedule so that you get at least a little sun exposure during the daylight.
    • You may want to get a sun lamp to stimulate vitamin D production if you’re getting very little sun.
  3. Be careful operating machinery. When you adopt a nocturnal schedule, you’re going against your body’s natural rhythms. You’re always going to be a little sleepier and less sharp than you’d be if you had a normal day/night schedule. For this reason, it’s important to be careful operating machinery, including a car, while you’re still getting used to being awake all night. Stay as alert as possible, especially while you’re at work.

Choosing a Long-Term Nocturnal Lifestyle

  1. Decide if being nocturnal will enhance your life. There are many reasons for going nocturnal, but they need to resonate with who you are and the life you'd like to lead. The disadvantages of going nocturnal should be weighed when considering it as a way of life. You won't be around when most people are awake, so that means missing out on a lot of social activities. You'll also be underexposed to vitamin D, which could negatively affect your health. However, the benefits of going nocturnal are numerous:
    • There are fewer people around during the night, which can be great for a number of reasons.
    • It can be a creatively productive time if you are naturally a night owl. People will not be emailing you with demands, so you will not be interrupted.
    • You'll be the life of the party because you'll be more refreshed than all the people knocking off a day's work. You might even join the ranks of the "professional night owls" who live to party in the best nightclubs in town.
    • It's a chance to connect with interesting people also staying up all night, including night owls, vampire fans, social moths, and people who just can't get off the internet late at night.
    • Your house won't seem as messy. Human vision is terrible at night. Even with the lights on, it is harder to see the dust and fluff bunnies. You won't need to clean half as hard!
    • Another thing to consider is being nocturnal seasonally or for a set period rather than all year long. This can be useful during a special season like summertime when the nights are lovely, during a vacation season and so on. You can be available to pursue whatever interests happen to coincide with your need to stay up all night.
  2. Find a job or lifestyle that allows you to have a nocturnal lifestyle. If you're serious about making this a long-term commitment, you'll need to find a job that allows you to sleep during the day and stay awake at night. If you plan to stay nocturnal as a long-term or permanent change, you'll need to be able to work around the things that are usually done during the day.
    • Shift work will allow you to continue working during the night. There are many different possibilities for shift work, including loading and transporting goods, security and policing, monitoring facilities, night-fill in supermarkets, hotel reception work, fishing, cleaning, journalists, highway work, and so on. Even sports can be played at night; a recent study showed that morning larks made better morning pitchers, while night owls made better evening pitchers.
    • Work from home. If you are a blogger, online marketer, eBay seller, writer, artist, etc., who can work from home, set up your own routine as befits your work.
    • Studies will be harder, but if you are taking classes online, you can study this whenever you like. For university, get recordings of lectures, or ask friends for notes. You will have problems with missing tutorials that require attendance for grades, so try to schedule evening tutorials.
  3. Connect with other nocturnals or night owls. Find other people who love the night more than the day, from geeks and gamers, to creative types and mystics. Try to connect with people who have the same love of the night as you. Be aware that this is going to be more likely in a large urban environment like New York, Tokyo, or Sydney than anywhere else – cities that never sleep.
    • In New York City, you can connect with other like-minded night owls through the New York Night Owls, a weekly meet-up of hardworking night owls which keeps the hours 10pm – 4am.[1] The idea has also caught on in London,[2] and may be coming to a location near you anytime soon!
    • Look for cafes and other meeting places that court night owls and don't throw you out after midnight. Again, these are more likely to exist in large urban environments but if there isn't one near you, consider creating a home network with fellow nocturnals so you can drop in on each other and have a cup of something and brainstorm creatively together in the deep of the night.
    • Use social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook to connect with other nocturnals in your area: check the location status so that you know you're talking to a night owl and not a lark in a city on the other side of the world!
  4. Pay attention to your mental health. Be aware that while it has been claimed recently that night owls are more intelligent than their morning lark counterparts,[3] being a night owl can impact your mental health negatively.[4][5] If you find yourself experiencing mental challenges, such as depression, you might want to reconsider your night owl behaviors. Seek advice from your doctor if you're worried.
    • Be sure to get sufficient vitamin D. You will need a little regular sunshine daily.
  5. Revert to your diurnal self. If you want to be back to your normal diurnal self again, it's easy. Just stay up all night and then keep yourself awake all day the next day. When the sun comes up and lights up the sky with beautiful colors, you should feel peaceful with that moon still hanging in the sky, it will give you a wonderful fresh, waken-up feeling for the day. The time it takes to get back into the usual rhythm will depend on your personality, activities, and how sleep deprived you're feeling.

Tips

  • Find the stores that keep your hours so you can get your usual grocery and other shopping done with ease.
  • Note that this will be easier if you're naturally a night owl personality.[6]
  • Give yourself a fresh start in the evening by taking a shower, getting dressed and ready for the night, eating a hearty waking up meal, and getting some fresh air outside by exercising - hop on a bike or go for a jog while it's still light or twilight.
  • For many people, the ability to stay up late changes throughout your life; if you're not able to do so now (because your parents or partner say so, or because your body punishes you severely for it), try again at some other stage in your life.
  • Do not underestimate the glory of earplugs and an eye-mask! Many 3rd shifters would never sleep at all without them.

Warnings

  • If you are afraid of the dark, being nocturnal can be confronting. Then again, it might just be a way to overcome such a fear.
  • Avoid caffeine unless you know you can drink it and still sleep during the daytime. Daytime sleep is much more prone to distractions and you're much more likely to be woken up, causing possible sleep deprivation challenges.
  • "Shift work malaise" is a well known condition that brings about mood disorders, tiredness, an inability to concentrate, and broken sleep.
  • Other family members, spouse or partner and friends might not like your nocturnal habits. Keep other people's wishes in mind. If you are single and fancy-free, being nocturnal is easier than if you're married and have kids in tow, although shift work can justify a nocturnal lifestyle.
  • Get sunshine regularly. Vitamin D is important for our health, as is being exposed to light for growth and good health.
  • Doing this can cause you to lose your job or flunk your studies. Students can get lecture notes off other students, but goodwill only extends so far!
  • Disrupted circadian cycles are linked to mood disorders such as bipolar disorder but other vulnerabilities contribute too, such as stress.
  • Many experts contend that a nocturnal lifestyle is carcinogenic, although this may be due to unhealthy habits that come with being a night owl, not the sleeping habits themselves. Cancer in pilots, flight attendants, and shift workers has been shown to have a link with disrupted circadian cycles owing to the unconventional schedules imposed on them by work.
  • This is not the normal pattern for humans but we have the ability to override our usual circadian rhythm; investigate the potential health consequences if planning to do this long-term. Shift worker studies will probably help you.

Related Articles

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ http://nynightowls.com/
  2. ↑ http://www.shinyshiny.tv/2010/09/late-working_geek_night_london_nightowls.html
  3. ↑ http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-scientific-fundamentalist/201005/why-night-owls-are-more-intelligent-morning-larks
  4. ↑ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30965546/
  5. ↑ http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/16/earlyshow/health/main2687237.shtml
  6. ↑ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1549823/Gene-explains-why-people-are-night-owls.html
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