Why is sleeping during the day such a bad thing? (in Off-topic)

I've always been a night owl, when I was a kid I would stay up all night on the computer, or reading, or playing playstation, and then I would go to school, and sleep after, rinse repeat. I just couldn't sleep at night!

From like 5th grade through 12th, I always was given a hard time about this from family, and adults. "Oh you were up all night" *scoff*...

Always.

After Highschool, the first job I got was a graveyard shift, because I can't sleep during the night... working full time, people still seemed to pass judgment on my sleeping habits.

After that Job I started playing poker full time, I would be at the Casino from 9pm until 6am pretty regularly, people passed judgment on me still, the fact I made over 60,000 in 8 months at the age of 19 didn't change anything, family and "adults" still seemed to look down on me and tell me how unhealthy it is to sleep all day, and what a bad/dysfunctional person I am.

If I had a dollar for every time I've heard, "Oh you've been up all night?" with the condescending "really" tone... man I would be set...

I'm 21 years old and I sleep all day, and play all night. Why does this seem to bother so many people???

I don't get it. I'm not going to change...

/end rant

(sorry I've yet again chewed on my tongue after being told how "I need to stop doing this." by someone so absolutely ignorant and dull it's mind boggling)

Anyways good morning CB

I always sleep during the day. But, to be fair, I sleep during the night too. I just really like sleeping. OT: I think it's just fine to sleep any time you want. People are different, can't expect them all to work on the same sleep schedule.

Yah I'm just surrounded by narrow-minded people who can't seem to grasp or accept anything that out of their "norm".

Frustrating.

At least you sleep during the day. I suffer on and off from pretty bad insomnia, made worse as I get older from the constant ringing in my ears from years of too much loud music in small rooms.

At it's worst I'll get maybe two three hours if I'm lucky. And then go to work.

Jir,

Don't let people bother you.

For example, what if you simply worked the night shift somewhere? Would people still scoff? If so, it's not your problem, it's theirs. You don't need their approval.

Now, I think there ARE times when getting your sleep somewhat organized is important. I had a friend staying with me for a while when I lived in St. Louis. When I say friend, I mean the younger brother, like 20 yrs old, of a neighbor I used to have. I was trying to help him out but giving him a place to stay while he looked for work and then kept up a steady job (there wasn't much work around his hometown in Arkansas).

It took him 4 months to find a part-time minimum wage job. Why so long? Sloth. He stayed up until 2 AM (at least) every night, not really doing anything. So he slept until 11 AM, took a couple hours to "wind up", then maybe grabbed applications from a couple restaurants per day. Just no hustle. So yeah, in that case he SHOULD have let me bother him, and bother him I did. I kept telling him to shift his sleep, slowly, so he could coexist with the rest of the world in the daylight hours in order to get a job. I felt like a parent. He finally got a job, barely following my advice, and paid back everything I had loaned him for bus passes, etc. But goodness, it was like pulling teeth.

Anyway, back to you... It sounds like people think you are being lazy (like in my example) when you really aren't. So screw 'em.

Oh, and the young man who stayed with me? He never found a full time job and was just sort of wasting away, so after a year I sent him back home. He has a kid now. Awesome. When I watch Idiocracy now I smile a little less and fear a little more.

"When I watch Idiocracy now I smile a little less and fear a little more."

I know the feeling.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_sleep_phase_syndrome

You sound like my brother. Even now, his ideal cycle is to sleep at 6am and wake up around 1pm. His solution? Just find a great job that starts later than the orthodox 8:30am.

Maybe I need to get a Camaro and "get busy?" *smile*

Thanks Sut, well said. Nice Idiocracy drop, I fear if America was left to it's own without foreign influence... well I don't even want to go there... :S

Night is much more fun than day anyway, and sleep sucks. Enormous amount of time lost catching Z's. If you are still standing, then I guess it's because your sleep patterns are not so problematic. As long as you are functional, no one should bother you.

Who cares about everyone else's opinion anyway? The only thing you own in this life is yourself, do with it what you will. As long as you don't judge anyone based on how they manage their own sleep, you have the right to expect the same in return.

/morning rambling

Sounds like someone didn't get enough sleep and is now grumpy... ;)

You know what I can't do? Sleep on a train or a plane. I'm currently doing a two hour journey by train in the morning and again at night. I could catch some ZZZs then but it just doesn't happen, no matter how tired I am (Never underestimate the affect a very small child can have on your sleep!!).

And as for planes....I had reason through work and family to travel to Singapore and back from London a lot a few years back. It's faster now than it was but the first few times I went I was looking at a 12-15 hour flight. The flights left the UK at 11pm at night. So by the time you get to the airport, check in, get sorted and get on the plane you've probably been on the go all day already, then you've that distance to cover. About halfway through the flight I'd normally be the only person apart from the crew to be awake.

http://www.puredoxyk.com/index.php/polyphasic-sleep-portal/
2-3 hours of sleep a day ftw.

Ive basically had the same problem with people around me since i turned 9 years old :o Oh and its pretty sick about the poker part, since most of my opponents are frm the US, i play at night here in norway to play at peak hours in the US -_-. So ive had rythm of waking up 10pm, got tons of shyte for it. Nowadays I even have some mixed light cues, when the morning sun rises I get sleepy, and when the night comes I feel a rush of awakaness :)

But man I gotta say, your "story" could be mine, its pretty sick. Ive played poker daily since 2003. Naturally right now as we speak aswell.

http://xkcd.com/320/
yo, nothing wrong with a little insomnia/nocturnalism.

last year, I would get home from class around 5, eat dinner, and sleep until midnight. then stay up until class the next morning. it was great! I had time to study, do homework, or basically whatever I wanted, while everybody else was asleep.

you are not alone :)

Jir, I feel your pain. I'm also rather nocturnal. Unfortunately, my work schedule and the rest of the world doesn't accommodate this very well.

Well, at least I work the evening shift. It's better than early mornings. Midnights would be better though.

My solution is to do what I do: every time someone gives you crap about not conforming to their schedule, remind them how stupid they are.

Come on Jir, family and adults alike know that you can only count sheep at night time.. when they are out jumping ;) And think about the stress you caused the tooth fairy when you were younger.

I do have to say all night sleepovers were fun times back in the day!

"My solution is to do what I do: every time someone gives you crap about not conforming to their schedule, remind them how stupid they are. "

lol...LB wins this thread, hands down.

I've worked nights for most of my working life. In high school I was a nursing aid in a geriatric facility, so whenever I could get away with it I'd take the 11-7 shift. My job paid twice what "movie theater" and "fast food" jobs did.

Even working two or three jobs in college, the best ones were overnights. You can absolutely make a career out of sleeping all day, so you can then tell the naysayers where to go.

Bed by 8 a.m. and up with Oprah at 4 in the afternoon is an ideal working life, if work one must. The only constant problem: people who insist that they should still be able to reach you during "normal people's hours".

Follow-up: When you're making $60k a year playing all night, are you still paying for benefits comparable to a "real" job? Health, dental, vision, STD, LTD, and life insurances, plus retirement? You don't get to claim you are being all adult and responsible just because you have an income.

^^ Drug dealers beg to differ.

STD insurance huh? I need to get some of that for college. ;P

Not to get caught up in a minor detail, but that 60k... was that net winnings, or gross? And do you pay your obligatory 55% gambling winnings tax on it?

I might worry about Vitamin D deficiency if you sleep away all the daylight hours (unless you choose to sleep in the sun.... say hammock & beer style)