In my mind I’ve always been a night owl, but in truth, the time I figured out I was night owl was probably somewhere in middle school. My parents had set my bedtime for 10:30 pm, however, every single night, I stayed up past that time. It wasn’t a rebellious act to say, “Haha parents, I refuse to go to bed by the time you set for me.” Rather, my body just didn’t want to go to bed so early. I was too awake to go to sleep. So, with the awesome parents I have, they basically just got rid of a bedtime for me.
Throughout high school, it was rare if I was in bed before 12am. To give a reason, I was a very busy high school student going straight from class to multiple sports practices in one day. I played three sports in one season freshman and sophomore year (track and field, club volleyball, and club soccer), so there wasn’t a ton of time to do homework early in the evening.
It never really bothered me that I would stay up to finish work. I didn’t mind coming home after a 7-9pm volleyball practice, then eating dinner, showering, and then finally starting on homework. I preferred getting started late at night. I was and definitely am never going to be the type of person to instead: eat dinner, shower, go to bed and set an alarm for an absurd hour in the morning to wake up and do the work then. Nope, just not for me. I always feel like I have to stay up late because the hours are endless in the night. Okay, obviously the night isn’t endless, but what I mean is that if you set a time in the morning to get up, but an assignment takes you a little longer than you planned, you wouldn’t be able to finish it. However, at night, you basically have as long as you need to stay up. So no, the hours aren’t endless, but there is definitely a lot more cushion time.
Whereas many kids, and people in general, get spooked to be alone at night, I took comfort in being the only one up when my family was asleep. I didn’t find it spooky; I found it quieter and more relaxed. Sure, my brothers and parents would stay up late to do other work (or to help me with my homework/projects/etc.) some nights too. But, there were definitely countless nights when I was the last to crawl under my covers.
Now that I am in college, I still rarely go to bed before 12 a.m. Some people may find it crazy that I decide to go to the library or gym at 12 a.m., but that is just my nature. I respect people that wake up at the crack of dawn. I’ve tried it, but that just isn’t how my circadian rhythm works. I get energized at night. I can’t help it, I’m a night owl.