On being a night owl.
Ever since I remember, I never enjoyed getting up in the morning. As a child, I was always the last to get up and always the last to get in the car to go to school. I had to write so many “I shall never be late to school” detentions that I wrote them in my spare time in preparation for the next time I was late, which always came way too soon. I even used to sell them to my friends who knew they could rely on me if they were too lazy to write their own. I also got creative in doubling and tripling my productivity by using carbon paper. Unfortunately, there was a limit as the fourth copy was hardly readable. Who said schools don’t teach you anything? Just by being late, I learnt commerce, production engineering and politics.
My family, especially my brother, got creative in ways to wake me up. Years of being responsible for that thankless task, led my brother to his yet-to-be-patented, fail-proof method to which he had to resort a lot. Yelling, drumming, singing, shaking me were only temporarily successful. They only produced temper tantrums followed by me rolling over and falling back to sleep. As a night owl, you acquire a unique capacity to sleep through mayhem. One day, in desperation, he stumbled upon his last resort “wake up the dead” method: he stuck his thumb in my ear. After the temper tantrum and falling asleep again, he would stick his thumb in my ear again. It only took no more than 3 thumb-in-ear repetitions and I was up chasing him around the house. I got no support from the rest of my family who were anxiously waiting for me to get ready for school. We only had to endure this saga a few times before we arrived at a mutual compromise. After suffering through my brother’s torturous (ingenious in his dictionary), last resort method, I would get up after the first application of the thumb-to-ear method. My brother, on the other hand, would quickly disappear from sight the moment I opened my eyes. It worked. I knew once he used the thumb that there was no margin for error. Even my late detention notes would not be sufficient to save the day. So I would grudgingly get up.
I would get up groggily, stumble to the bathroom, sometimes fall asleep sitting on the toilet, get woken up by my mother yelling at me to get ready, rush through putting my clothes on, typically skipping breakfast and running to the car with my school bag in one hand and a sandwich in the other hand. A typical school day routine.
Summer vacations were heavenly! Getting up around noon, by the time I finish breakfast, playing with the cats, watching TV and what not, it’s time to go to the beach when the temperature is tolerable and the sea water is nice and cooling. After watching the sunset on the beach, packing up, showering and eating, it’s time to hang out with friends. We used to stay up playing cards and board games till sunrise when we fall asleep in our seats.
When I was in high school, my brother was in medical school. We both needed long hours of uninterrupted studying. Since we were each other’s major distractions, either playing or arguing, we resorted to a brilliant schedule that worked for everyone involved. It was like the change of guards revolving around major meal times: I would stay up all night studying, as soon as the morning prayer called just before dawn, I would wake my brother up then go to bed. Around noon, I would get up, socialize and take care of tasks needing other people. We used to eat lunch around 3 pm. My brother would typically be taking a nap around that time so I would wake him up, have lunch, watch TV and what not then around 6 pm or so, I would go take my nap. Supper is around 9-10 pm and that’s the next change of guards in our house. My brother would wake me up, have supper together, then go to sleep. I would stay up till the next sunrise and so on. If you’re curious, we both did very well in our exams with minimal confrontations and irritations to everyone else who lived in our household.
If anything, that year was yet another positive reinforcement of my night owl-ness.
I never questioned my preference for being awake at night. It felt natural, comfortable and enjoyable. Daytime is too hectic. Too many people and things vying for my time and attention. With all the distractions, it’s hard to focus on whatever I choose to focus on. It’s a mystery to me how anything gets done during the day. At night, whether I choose to stare at the ceiling or do homework, no one questions, judges or demands something different. It’s all up to me and I’m accountable to no one but myself. No expectations, no shoulds and have-tos. As soon as the sun rises, all the “I've got to-dos” start rushing to my conscious mind. The good thing is that just as it starts to get overwhelming, it’s time to go to bed. After all, I have been awake for a long time now. I deserve some rest.
As I briefly mentioned, a very handy side effect to being a night owl, is that one learns to be a heavy sleeper. All the morning rush noise and clutter fades away as the sweet sense of blissful rest takes over like a calm ocean swallowing a sinking ship. All the drama, demands and duties get folded into the soft blankness of deep sleep just like the horror, screams and breaking objects of a sinking ship get slowly and calmly swallowed by the ocean waves into silence and stillness. To be no more. Once you learn that skill, you can rest anywhere, anytime. In a busy airport, on a rocking bus, with loud neighbors, with TV on, or even with crying babies (that’s a tough one though, requires more training).
My cat, Keesha, figured me out so she had to find her own fail proof method to wake me up demanding her food. Meowing and purring seems to relax me more (she has a cute squeak for a meow :-). Then, as if she consulted my brother, she figured it out: licking my ear with her tongue. My guess is that my brother told her to stick her thumb in my ear but she doesn't have an opposable thumb. She tried her tail, that didn't work, her paw, that was kind of cute but still didn't work, then finally stumbled on the tongue idea by trial and error. Smart cat. Now I make sure to feed her at 4 am before I go to bed.
So let this be my cry for justice for all of us night owls. We deserve to be acknowledged and accommodated. There are more of us than you may think. You just don’t hear from us because we like peace and quiet. That’s why we avoid the noisy, busy and chattery day time. Too many distractions. While it’s handy to have a restaurant open all night, spare us the noisy stuff that attracts too many people. After all, that’s what we’re trying to avoid.
Call it escape, avoidance, responsibility-phobia, whatever you early birds need to feel falsely superior. I prefer to call it, simply, life.
Ever since I remember, I never enjoyed getting up in the morning. As a child, I was always the last to get up and always the last to get in the car to go to school. I had to write so many “I shall never be late to school” detentions that I wrote them in my spare time in preparation for the next time I was late, which always came way too soon. I even used to sell them to my friends who knew they could rely on me if they were too lazy to write their own. I also got creative in doubling and tripling my productivity by using carbon paper. Unfortunately, there was a limit as the fourth copy was hardly readable. Who said schools don’t teach you anything? Just by being late, I learnt commerce, production engineering and politics.
My family, especially my brother, got creative in ways to wake me up. Years of being responsible for that thankless task, led my brother to his yet-to-be-patented, fail-proof method to which he had to resort a lot. Yelling, drumming, singing, shaking me were only temporarily successful. They only produced temper tantrums followed by me rolling over and falling back to sleep. As a night owl, you acquire a unique capacity to sleep through mayhem. One day, in desperation, he stumbled upon his last resort “wake up the dead” method: he stuck his thumb in my ear. After the temper tantrum and falling asleep again, he would stick his thumb in my ear again. It only took no more than 3 thumb-in-ear repetitions and I was up chasing him around the house. I got no support from the rest of my family who were anxiously waiting for me to get ready for school. We only had to endure this saga a few times before we arrived at a mutual compromise. After suffering through my brother’s torturous (ingenious in his dictionary), last resort method, I would get up after the first application of the thumb-to-ear method. My brother, on the other hand, would quickly disappear from sight the moment I opened my eyes. It worked. I knew once he used the thumb that there was no margin for error. Even my late detention notes would not be sufficient to save the day. So I would grudgingly get up.
I would get up groggily, stumble to the bathroom, sometimes fall asleep sitting on the toilet, get woken up by my mother yelling at me to get ready, rush through putting my clothes on, typically skipping breakfast and running to the car with my school bag in one hand and a sandwich in the other hand. A typical school day routine.
Summer vacations were heavenly! Getting up around noon, by the time I finish breakfast, playing with the cats, watching TV and what not, it’s time to go to the beach when the temperature is tolerable and the sea water is nice and cooling. After watching the sunset on the beach, packing up, showering and eating, it’s time to hang out with friends. We used to stay up playing cards and board games till sunrise when we fall asleep in our seats.
When I was in high school, my brother was in medical school. We both needed long hours of uninterrupted studying. Since we were each other’s major distractions, either playing or arguing, we resorted to a brilliant schedule that worked for everyone involved. It was like the change of guards revolving around major meal times: I would stay up all night studying, as soon as the morning prayer called just before dawn, I would wake my brother up then go to bed. Around noon, I would get up, socialize and take care of tasks needing other people. We used to eat lunch around 3 pm. My brother would typically be taking a nap around that time so I would wake him up, have lunch, watch TV and what not then around 6 pm or so, I would go take my nap. Supper is around 9-10 pm and that’s the next change of guards in our house. My brother would wake me up, have supper together, then go to sleep. I would stay up till the next sunrise and so on. If you’re curious, we both did very well in our exams with minimal confrontations and irritations to everyone else who lived in our household.
If anything, that year was yet another positive reinforcement of my night owl-ness.
I never questioned my preference for being awake at night. It felt natural, comfortable and enjoyable. Daytime is too hectic. Too many people and things vying for my time and attention. With all the distractions, it’s hard to focus on whatever I choose to focus on. It’s a mystery to me how anything gets done during the day. At night, whether I choose to stare at the ceiling or do homework, no one questions, judges or demands something different. It’s all up to me and I’m accountable to no one but myself. No expectations, no shoulds and have-tos. As soon as the sun rises, all the “I've got to-dos” start rushing to my conscious mind. The good thing is that just as it starts to get overwhelming, it’s time to go to bed. After all, I have been awake for a long time now. I deserve some rest.
As I briefly mentioned, a very handy side effect to being a night owl, is that one learns to be a heavy sleeper. All the morning rush noise and clutter fades away as the sweet sense of blissful rest takes over like a calm ocean swallowing a sinking ship. All the drama, demands and duties get folded into the soft blankness of deep sleep just like the horror, screams and breaking objects of a sinking ship get slowly and calmly swallowed by the ocean waves into silence and stillness. To be no more. Once you learn that skill, you can rest anywhere, anytime. In a busy airport, on a rocking bus, with loud neighbors, with TV on, or even with crying babies (that’s a tough one though, requires more training).
My cat, Keesha, figured me out so she had to find her own fail proof method to wake me up demanding her food. Meowing and purring seems to relax me more (she has a cute squeak for a meow :-). Then, as if she consulted my brother, she figured it out: licking my ear with her tongue. My guess is that my brother told her to stick her thumb in my ear but she doesn't have an opposable thumb. She tried her tail, that didn't work, her paw, that was kind of cute but still didn't work, then finally stumbled on the tongue idea by trial and error. Smart cat. Now I make sure to feed her at 4 am before I go to bed.
So let this be my cry for justice for all of us night owls. We deserve to be acknowledged and accommodated. There are more of us than you may think. You just don’t hear from us because we like peace and quiet. That’s why we avoid the noisy, busy and chattery day time. Too many distractions. While it’s handy to have a restaurant open all night, spare us the noisy stuff that attracts too many people. After all, that’s what we’re trying to avoid.
Call it escape, avoidance, responsibility-phobia, whatever you early birds need to feel falsely superior. I prefer to call it, simply, life.
