I’ve always thought of myself as a night owl.
I naturally tend toward being awake later at night, when things are quiet and there isn’t much to do as far as errands, social events, etc., and I can just do my own thing.
But then I started working night shift after graduating from nursing school. I did this for about a year, and it was a struggle to get any amount of quality sleep. If you’ve ever tried to sleep during the day, when people are outside mowing the grass, you know how difficult this can be. A small crack of light coming in the window would keep me up. I started using a little bit of tape to keep the light from coming in. I debated sleeping in the walk-in closet, where I thought it would be darker, and quieter.
Eventually, I got off night shift, and back to a more normal sleep schedule, and was able to work “normal” hours- 8 am to 4:30 pm, Monday to Friday.
Now, I tend to stick to the same sleep schedule, more or less, even on the weekends. I’m rarely up past midnight, and even if I am, I still wake up around 6:30 or 7.
There’s something called a chronotype- this is your body’s natural tendency to stay up late or go to bed early. And there is evidence supporting living aligned with this. But there’s also evidence supporting the opposite (at least for night owls)- that even if your body prefers being up at night, there is an association between staying up late and mental health problems (see Stanford link below).
A more recent study found that there are more categories than simply “night owls” and “early birds,” (see nature link) but even so, there are still associations.
Next up, Part 2: Mind After Midnight. Do we make worse decisions after midnight? Probably.
Are you a night owl or an early bird???
Writing RN 
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