Nocturnes, day sleepers, diurnally challenged, or Night people

I appologize too Resticon. In a way I'm the same as you. I feel people are perstonaly challenging me, and am to quick to just simply guess that I am being judged. Allthough your thread isn't an example of what bothers me, it is sometimes very difficult for me to discriminate bettween the two.

It's a good article and thanks for sharing

Metsu Desal wrote:
I think the main reason a lot of prejudice towards people whom are more active at night than day is due to the Self-Diagnosed insomniacs (and there's a large amount) whom ruin it for the general populous of diagnosed insomniacs.

Just a quick interjection, I know from having a conversation with you earlier that you're a medically diagnosed insomniac Resticon.

I myself find it extremely irritating when people "self-diagnose" with insomnia, just because they spend hours on their PC/Xbox360/PS3/ETC and then expect to be asleep within minutes of coming off of it...your mind is still active for at least an hour afterwards...

Having some intermediate knowledge of the medical world I do find it irritating when you get some people saying they're insomniacs because they have difficulty getting to sleep...

Just my thoughts on why true insomniacs get discriminated..

I agree with this statement for the most part. The downside to this is also that many people (doctors included) do not feel that it is even possible for someone to be nocturnal or even an insomniac so it often goes undiagnosed except by the people who experience it.

Research has only just started coming out in the last few years regarding the "Circadian Rhythm" that is ingrained in everyone's body. Similar to the idea that homosexuals are just born homosexual, this is an idea that is not very popular in most places. I found another article about 2 years ago when I was doing my own research into the subject of nocturnals and found this...

http://voices.yahoo.com/the-truth-nocturnal-people-183708.html?cat=5

It describes how people who are nocturnal are often told (and often feel) that there is something wrong with them because of their sleep schedule. It talks about the methods that many use to try and "fix" themselves so that they can operate in a normal society. It also describes how people are often viewed by others because of the way that their boy operates.

If you were to take my natural sleep schedule (4pm - 9am roughly) and reverse it, I would be waking up at 4 am every morning and going to bed at 8-9 pm every night. Someone with that schedule would be considered an early-riser and a productive member of society. Because of my sleep schedule, however, I have been confronted by police 3 times while smoking outside my own home at 3 am. I have been let go from several jobs because of tardiness (I have to use 3 alarm clocks including one that forces me to do math problems to shut it up) because it is insanely difficult for me to wake up to be at a 9 am shift. Imagine if you were start to fall asleep naturally at 7 pm and then have to go to work at 9 pm. How easy do you think it would be to wake back up and then work for 8 hours? Do you then think that you could fall asleep easily when you got home at 9 in the morning if your body said, "Hey it's daytime, wake up!" Even if you could, would your natural sleep schedule reassert itself on your days off? Now imagine having to do that every day for forever because society was active primarily at night an most decent paying jobs were closed after 10 am.

I have made numerous attempts to fix my sleep schedule. But when you are trying to completely reverse it you have 2 options.

A. You go to back to bed and fall asleep for the rest of the night within 6 hours or less from the time you woke up. If you woke up at 4 am, could you go back to bed by 10 am and sleep until 10 pm? It's tougher than it sounds.

B. You go without sleep for roughly 24 hours straight. This would be like waking at 4 am and not falling asleep until 4 am the following day. Pretty tough to get passed that 8 pm regular bedtime but much easier than option A (for me at least).

Now imagine you go through all of that on a Sunday so you can be on the correct sleep schedule. What happens when Friday rolls around? You've had a long work week so you're kinda tired, but you go have fun with your friends and stay up late (which in this example means staying up til around 3-4 pm). Would it really be that easy for your body to just wkae back up naturally at 9 pm or do you think you'd keep sleeping and wake up at 4 am? Now you're awake at 4 am and you have to repeat this process again so you'll be ready for work this coming week. As confusing as all this sounds, it is what I not only have to think of every week but what I have to do almost every single week to try and maintain a normal asleep schedule.

And people feel that they have the right to call me lazy or just tell me that there is something wrong with me and that I need medication. I say all this to describe my life and to say that I personally don't feel that I have insomnia. I sleep just fine, just opposite hours. My "insomnia" comes from trying to fit into societies rigorously defined schedule of how I should be sleeping.

I gotta admit, I'm a night owl. I wake up around 1 or 2pm and go to bed around 6am. I love my local Wal-Mart 'cause that thing's open 24/7! No lines, no crowds of people making you feel all uncomfy, just in-and-out.

Lol, I wish my local Walmart was 24 hours. The nearest 24 hour Walmart to me is over an hour drive away. I'd lose my mind if it weren't for my local 7-11...and streaming online TV.

Metsu Desal wrote: I think the main reason a lot of prejudice towards people whom are more active at night than day is due to the Self-Diagnosed insomniacs (and there's a large amount) whom ruin it for the general populous of diagnosed insomniacs.

I agree that there are some people out there who call themselves insomniacs when they aren't. Some people just throw the term around without really understanding what true insomniacs go through.

But don't tarnish them all with the same brush...there are plenty of self-diagnosed insomniacs out there who are perfectly legitimate. I should know, I was one. For a several years whilst I was at school over GCSEs and A levels. I would go to bed at 11pm, and still be wide awake at 4am...then I'd have to get up at 7:30am for school. I went to the Doctors about all the problems I was having at that point in time and they said that I was just a bit miserable and they don't like to diagnose under 18s with things. Suffice to say, I wasn't very impressed and didn't feel like going back to the Doctor's again.

Since when I went to uni (4 years ago) I've been a night person - not through insomnia, but through choice. I just somehow feel happier going to bed at 4am and waking up at midday. I think that's it's partly to do with the peace and quiet...I guess I feel a little more centred within myself at night. I can still operate on normal hours if I need to though.

I'm the same, but I do find it irritating when I know they're self diagnoising and they're really not an insomniac.

(In case anyone becomes pedantic, I know because I ask them all the questions a doctor would)

I feel that the same is done with A.D.D(but that's another topic). I admit that I am one who prefers to sleep during the day and be up during the night. Self diagnoising, the term itself is funny. My mother worked for doctors, and not one of them has every worked on themself. They always go to a colleague. So again, the fact that the term "Self Diagnose" even exists is laughable.