Naturally Nocturnal Humans

I was nocturnal. I somehow made it through college that way. But then my life just had to change. Needed to make more money, living with all these fracking morning people.

The only way I ever became "Normal" was through an insane amount of coffee in the morning, and an insane amount of benydryl valrian root, and melatonin at night.

Originally posted by thomas_
May I take this opportunity to ask something to you all nocturnal people?

How many of your consider your selves to be mediums or have extra degree of sensitivity to the environment or people?

I don't consider myself a medium. I don't really have an extra sensitivity towards people. Environment? Yes. Animals? Definitely. My ability with animals never fails to surprise people. Animals always feel comfortable around me and I with them. I've even had stray cats come up to me meowing..while I'm walking my dog(at night of course). Lucky for the cats he has been around cats and likes them. Many of the pets I've had are ones that just showed up on my porch one day, like they knew the person inside the house would help them, and they were right.

reply to post by Nightflower



Maybe their sleeping patterns need to be fixed. I don't think there are any nocturnal humans, just insomniacs.

*Hoots to my fellow night owls*
I've been a night owl since I could kick in the womb. Mumzy will attest to that. My intire familly are night owls. During the day I'm a zombie..I just feel wrong. I've tried a long time to 'go day' but my body wrestles me back to the night. Second it hits night, zombie like symptoms go away. I'm happier, more creative, and you name it. At night i'm at my opitimum. I sleep better during the day, feel more rested.
I've always thought of day timers as the watchers of day and us night timers as the watchers of night. While one sleeps, the other awakes to keep guard.
We do ourselves wrong I think when we operate against our 'natural flow' and the ill feelings we have when we operate against that 'natural flow' are the omens of that violations. But that's just my own experiences.


[edit on 20-3-2010 by Arles Morningside]

Originally posted by thomas_
May I take this opportunity to ask something to you all nocturnal people?

How many of your consider your selves to be mediums or have extra degree of sensitivity to the environment or people?

I'm not a medium, but I've had a lot of weird abilities come and go over the years.

reply to post by Nightflower


good stuff night flower... I am very noctural and always have been... I went to an alt ed school after being asked to leave my high school due to me sleeping all the time... luckily i am smart enough to pass all the exams without studying and sleeping through class. my teachers thought i had narcolepsy... nope just like the night... its nothing as it seems though...

haha that's cool, never really thought about how bad the disinformation is that everyone wnats to think we are all day time dwellers, i'm pretty diurnal but i've been known to lean towards the dark side, and flurish there, i find that psychic abilities and strengths are greatly increased

I am nocturnal, with big lemurian eyes

Originally posted by indigothefish
... but i've been known to lean towards the dark side, and flurish there, i find that psychic abilities and strengths are greatly increased

Yup, I would agree. At night, there is a lot less background noise and interference. You can sit outside after midnight and hear nature. I can't hear nature during the after noon, the day humans make too much noise. And all that radiation from the sun during the day, that too can cause interference. Anyhow, I think my nocturnal-ness is caused by 1) being very ADHD, and 2) there are just too damn many people in the daytime world. At night, it's as if 90% of the human population has disappeared from the world, and I like that the most about the night.

Thank Goodness there are people out there like me, for as long as I can remember I have never been able to sleep before midnight, as a teenager I used to be tired all day long and fall asleep in class, I was never on time and found myself wide awake late at night, every night.
In college I used to fall asleep and feel sluggish no matter how much sleep I had.
As an adult I have tried to change this pattern for many years and like many of you, it only works for a couple of days before I am awake all night again and it can be a struggle when you have to keep up to normal working hours in a job. I manage a lot easier now, as I can cope better with the tiredness.
My partners in the past never understood why I didn't sleep, even I didn't understand, my mother used to get annoyed and call me lazy even though I have always worked my ass off! Other people make you feel guilty for sleeping during the day which I find unfair.
It feels more peaceful and cosy to sleep during the day and the little birdies sing me to sleep, I find that I sleep much better and deeper than at night time. I don't fight it too much though, I still go shopping at 2am, go on night time drives and look at the stars, it feels more natural to me.
My youngest daughter and my sister are the same as me, they are up all night too, luckily my daughter is doing well in school so it hasn't affected her in that respect.

Great thread.

I also am nocturnal, born at 10:30 p.m. and started my life that way. Most of my life was trying to conform to society's time issues. I think my health has suffered.

I come alive in the evening and at night. I think most nocturnal people are ultra sensitive to noise, whether audio or visual. There is much more movement during the day; things seem more raw.

I know that the two cartoonists that came to speak to our Cartoon class in Berkley (a NIGHT class), both said they slept in til noon or later, did their work late into the night. One did Zippy the Pinhead, the other did Travels With Charley.

I find that if I am not working even a couple of days, I'm up all hours of the night, just automatically.

I think there are deeper differences between diurnal and nocturnal folks: something about the ultrasensitivity issue; and the way our brains energize during the night.
It may be we are on an 'off' sleep cycle; but in any event our culture does not tolerate us and we are forced to comply to a day schedule unless we are lucky enough to work in a field that time of day is unimportant

My view is rather short. Some of us, particularily as a teen and late-teen age, are receptive to an onslaught of other minds that impinge to some degree on our own. We don't know what the problem is only that there is a problem.

We find by simple observation that we are more clear-headed during the time where others around us--I would suggest within a few hundred miles--are resting, asleep. That reduces the interference and we feel more ourselves and work better during that time.

Empaths, sensitives or whatever, many of us out of pure self-defense eventually learn to block those unwanted interferences and lead somewhat normal lives. Some don't and they parish one way or another.

I can relate. I would even feel tired around 9 and 10 but after 12 I'm totally active and not tired at all, Even though I was exhausted an hour or two before.

Although, I'll have to say that I never thought there were actually nocturnal people out there, I guess I would consider myself one.

Thanks for the post! I really relate and didn't know others out there feel like I do...

I've always been "not a morning person"...

I've always felt it was because of my Circadian Cycle, have fought against it and other times conformed to it. As well as needing more sleep than other people, less than 8 hours renders me moody and unfunctioning, probably due to slight a chemical imbalence. Though , I prefer the Nocturnal definition. While not having light hypersensitivity, as people who are BiPolar react to light. Also, I do love the night more than the day. Good thing for that, or I'd be more annoyed when things I have to do can only happen in the daylight and I run out of that or when places close early because of winter hours(dark at about 4 here in the winter).

My husband doesn't mind this, but some of my exs, my in-laws, and other family in friends scoffed and still do, over this. There were times when I could be awake at crack of dawn, after sleeping from 9 or 10 at night on....out of total necessity. However, it did cause problems in the workplace( I didn't function until about 9/10 am) and as well with college. Times even when I was on sleep medication, etc.

So, on my last college experience, I went to night school, while working in the afternoon and on weekends. Wow, did my grades improve. Maybe I do attribute my less than straight As, sometimes Bs, because of having to be at school by 7:30 am but my school didn't offer evening shifts(as some schools were doing). At least I was out of school by 2pm or so.

Overall night jobs and college have worked better for me.
The night gives me a serenity with my mind more clear as it goes on toward midnight, while feeling more normal. My mind just doesn't function at sunrise and I am becoming more comfortable with it, I just wish others would.

Nocturnal is a good way of defining night people!

Originally posted by March of the Fire Ants
So from a nature or nurture POV, would you (open to all 'Nocturnals') say it is something you were born with or something that developed due to X circumstance?

I have been this way since I was little. It was so bad my mom wanted me in the afternoon kindergarten class but I got stuck with mornings.

Originally posted by Divinorumus
I can't hear nature during the after noon, the day humans make too much noise.

I have to agree. I think this is why I hate TV it's always shouting at me. The same goes for ringing phones.

Originally posted by Spiramirabilis
the lower body temp/appetite thing is what caught my attention - have no idea if there is a real connection - but that goes for me too

Same here low body temp/appetite/blood pressure. Are we vampires? I eat very little all day no breakfast at all my appetite only picks up after 10pm.

I have more vivid dreams when I sleep days. I never remember my dreams at night. I really don't think it's insomnia, when it's time for me to sleep I have no problem getting there. Very interesting thread.

So I'm not alone. What regular-sleep-schedule-having-people sometimes misunderstand is that we're not lazy, we're awake and productive as many hours as they are, just not the same hours, this is just how our sleep schedule works! It's great to have a thread for this. I think this thread will be most active at four AM.

reply to post by Nightflower


I thought this made me weird, but I love taking a walk in the middle of the night once in a while. Sometimes yes it's spooky, not because it's night, but because of crime around my area.

But most of the time it's so peaceful, nobody around, and if it's a clear sky with stars and moonlight, it's so peaceful and relaxing.

And this may seem strange, but I sometimes bump into the local cats at night, because it's peaceful and quiet, they come up to me to say hello lol. It's a nice feeling, if they remember you the next time you feel like going for a walk. Cats are cool. Foxes too.

Peace.

reply to post by KyleOrtonArmy


LOL it's 4:26 am here

Yep, I'm one too!
For as long as I can remember, I haven't been able to sleep before 1 A.M. and 2 A.M.
Matter of fact, I don't even sleep much,
and at least once a week, I'll stay up for 40-45 hours straight.

One time, when I was just over twenty years old, I stayed up for 6 and a half days.
I would still go to work and go out to the bars, drink heavily, but just not sleep.
I could have gone much longer, but a friend starting telling me how much damage I was doing to my body, and after a day or so, he got into my head with this stuff, so I thought it best to get some sleep.

I now have a four year old boy, and his bedtime is 9 P.M. give or take.
I will go into his room to check on him, and most of the time he is awake til midnight, maybe later.

He just lays there, staring at the ceiling or whatever, and even though I tell him he needs to go to sleep, I walk out of his room totally aware that that's exactly what I used to do.

How fitting for a thread like this to be created.

Since birth my mom bragged(dad cringed), I've been a nightwalker. She said her earliest memories, related to this subject, were of me sleeping all day when I was born, then being up looking around and active all That night. My earliest memories, in regards to being partial to nightfall, were in elementary school, when i'd play alone during the night while my siblings were asleep.

Over my 31 years on this rock, I can strongly admit that I'm nocturnal. Friends, family and significant others acccept it, the latter not so much lol, and like a couple other members who've posted on page 1, part of my reasoning for self employment fell on the ability to control my own schedule. My current fiance' grudgingly accepts this fact, though she'd rather me be like her but 10yrs together, I told her the deal LONNNG ago and she didn't believe it until she'd go to sleep and wake up during my off days and see our dwellings would be spot clean, cars washed, oil changed in both and breakfast cooked when she rolled over and i'd be passed out by the time she'd go to work at 9am.

My peak hours begin as the sun goes down and wane as it comes up again. For me, summer sucks because the days are much longer so I usually start my before it gets dark, but whatever. I've work as a "9 to 5er" and on a few occassions for large companies in a cubicle blah blah. and while I enjoyed my work, daywalkers are too frantic, and distracted. I'm happy I am a nightwalker, my worlds fairly quiet. Though some could argue a little dangerous.

[edit on 20-3-2010 by ahmonrarh]