So Says The Wise Owl

I came across this article about sleep-wake cycles yesterday.

According to this article some people function best in the mornings, while others do so at night. It is biologically set into their bodies.

Excerpts:

"If you have a hard time crawling out of bed in the morning, it could be that your body is biologically programmed to start the day later.

Experts say a spectrum of natural sleeping and waking rhythms exists, ranging from extreme morning people to extreme night owls."

"That may be because evening people show increased motor cortex and spinal cord excitability in the evening, about 9 p.m., meaning they had maximal central nervous system drive at that time, Lagerquist said.

Although night owls may maximize their strength in the evening, they are at a serious disadvantage if they have to compete in the morning."

This news could not have come at a better time for me.

Since the past 3 days, I've been trying to work my body clock into going 'early to bed and early to rise', but have been failing miserably!

Here's my story:

You see up until last week, I had gotten into this habit of going to sleep in the early hours of the morning and then waking up past noon. So, as everyone says that you're supposed to wake up early, I started feeling guilty about it all.

Then I decided, that if I've got to study, the circadian rhythm must be changed. Hence, the effort.

But then, the day I started to work on my new schedule, I ceremoniously closed down all my books before 0200. Now, since I had nothing to do, with not a wink of sleep in sight, I started browsing the net, visiting blogs and random sites and what not! And lo behold, before I knew it, it was already past 0500!!

What a sheer waste of what could've been a productive night! (well, it was intended for a good cause! :D)

Then came the waking up part!

The next day, to make sure I stuck to schedule, I woke up at 1000 (an early morning for me!) But by 1200, I was already snoozing over books and before I knew it, there I was cozy in bed sleeping for a full 3hrs!

This was not right! Frigging-not-it-was!!!

Well, continued on the same lines, hoping in vain, that one of these days, I'd sleep early, and then have a full day ahead of me the next morning... Trying. Trying. Trying some more. (Wasted three whole nights for the cause!)

But this person I was trying to turn into was not me.

I'm an owl-person and function best at night. (I used to think this 'being a night/morning person' was bull crap- but by personal experience I'd say, its true.) Everyone has his own productive hours-and mine happen to be into the night.

My cognition abilities are at their lowest in the morning hours, with a lot of time going into doing even the easiest of topics. (This is especially true, if I don't get those eight hours of sleep :D) The body has a way of telling me when am up too early (without enough sleep)- it hurts, I yawn, mind buzzes, myalgias- its like a withdrawl syndrome even without doing drugs!*

Thenforth, for my own good, I've gone back on my decision, and will now be seen up and studying at night. ( Although, just kick my ass if you see me wandering aroung on the net, will ya!)

PS: All this time browsing for the past days, I've added a new tweak to the sidebar. Check out the 'Label Cloud' :) Had to do some HTML editing, which was a first for me, so I'm really proud of my work here.

:D

*This withdrawl holds true only for mundane things like sitting down to study! Not so-much-so apparent for other activities.