The Sleep Dilemma: Why I Love and Hate Being a Night Owl

By Lacey Gunter

I have been a night owl for as long as I can remember. When I was a toddler, I remember my dad sitting in my room at night waiting for me to get to sleep. He did this out of love and concern for my health and well-being. But, he didn't quite understand how hard it was for me to actually get to sleep. Most nights I would just close my eyes and fake sleep until he left and then play pretend games in my bed until I finally did fall asleep.

Fast forward three decades later and I am still no better at getting myself to fall asleep. Only now I am the adult and I have no one to push me to at least try. My husband gave up that battle long ago.

I find this to be both a blessing and a curse. For a busy mom with three young kids and a part time job, this can mean a few extra hours to do the laundry, clean the kitchen and finish up a lecture or data analysis for work.  As long as I am pretty quiet, I can get a lot of things done while everyone else is asleep.

This is also the time where I get most of my research and writing done. I of course attend writer's groups and critique sessions during more reasonable hours, but without those night time writing sessions, my writing habit would be non-existent.

But my disdain for tossing and turning in bed waiting for sleep to finally be my friend again often results in me getting far less sleep than I should be. I would rather spend another hour perfecting that ending paragraph or researching another agent, than risk spending even 20 minutes in bed staring at the ceiling. But trading 20 minutes of sleeplessness for an hour of productivity means 40 minutes less of sleep time my body probably needed. Oh the dilemma!

I don't like this predicament.  If it were as easy as just working only an extra 20 minutes, I would do that. But the only way I have figured out how to consistently avoid battling for sleep is to work myself to exhaustion. And trust me I have tried all the oft recommended solutions with no luck. A better solution may be staring me in the face, but honestly, I am too sleep deprived to figure it out.
 
Well, if nothing else, society loves the stereotype of the troubled author, right? How can someone ever become a published author without some personal inner struggle. At least I can check that off my list. What's next?

Is Bedtime the Writetime?

After considering a few different topics late this Sunday night, I've settled on one very close to my heart: Bedtime. I'm not talking about the bedtime of small people who need stories and songs and books and prayers and kisses and drinks of water (but not too many sips because how many times can one mom wash bedsheets?). No, I'm talking about OUR bedtime.

Before I really immersed myself in writing, I went to bed at the reasonable hour of ten o'clock at night. (This gave me enough time to do my dishes AND watch House Hunters.) I had a child who woke up throughout the night still, but I managed to lay down with the rest of the world. Then when I started writing (and okay, blogging) bedtime and I were no longer friends.

This is a shame because I like sleep. I really feel I need sleep. And I've struggled a lot with this because I also really like to write. (You may refer to another post on choosing sleeping over writing. It's not pretty.) Does it have to be one or the other, though? I mean, if I managed my time better couldn't I sleep AND write? (And does staying up late REALLY shave minutes off my life like my mom says?)

I know I'm not alone because there is that little organization of women many of us are involved in-American NIGHT WRITERS Association. So what I'd really like to know is how late are you up? It would be nice to know who is up burning the midnight oil with me. Me? Midnight has been my average bedtime, but I've been shooting for eleven o'clock lately. Do some of you manage to stay up later than this AND function like a normal person the next day? If so, I might be jealous because THINK OF ALL YOU CAN GET DONE! (I really felt like John Travolta in Phenomenon wasted a lot of those nighttime hours by NOT writing a book.)

(Of course, while I'd like to say that EVERY late night is on account of writing, it isn't. There is laundry, movies with Husband, the occasional baking of chocolate-chip cookies at ten thirty, and Children. I'm sure that my children are involved in a conspiracy to rob me of my sleep because often JUST as I lay down to sleep, he wants a drink of water or she wakes up. I may have also blogged about this.) (Wow, three posts in my blogging life on sleep. i need a nap.)