44
Obligatory xkcd.
:O how do they do it so perfectly
Randall Munroe is a witch
I've always hated this train of thought (when people call you lazy for staying up late/sleeping in).
I have been working in IT my entire life, from 24/7 data center operations to managing world-wide systems. There were times where I had no sleep, because as soon as the Americans left the office on the west coast, China and Taiwan were waking up and starting their day.
Just sleep when your body tells you to sleep, and wake up when your body wakes you up. Force fucking a time schedule is awful and 9-5 does not work for every physiology.
I think you're agreeing with me, so let me rephrase: the sleep schedules we don't align with could be due to a geographical misalignment in our circadian rhythm.
If you live on central time and never get tired until 4am maybe your body is telling you that your natural state would be somewhere in Hawaii. The friction comes from people generally being scattered across the world in places that don't agree with what their body feels should be the right time to go to bed.
Does that make more sense? Go to sleep when your body tells you to, and then figure out where in the world that lines up with a "normal sleep schedule" you know what I mean?
No need to rephrase, I understood perfectly. I am agreeing with you 100%, just adding my own reasons for why I hate it when people call you lazy for staying up late, and an example of how often time staying up late and sleeping in is actually the exact opposite of laziness.
Hell yeah, we need someone to run the 7/11 overnight! /s
To stay on brand: hire someone from Europe, and then nobody has to "stay up all night" lol
Amusing thought, but doesn't really make sense biologically. Your body doesn't know your geographical location. It just reads the environmental time using a bunch of different inputs and guesses at what the actual time is. Your body is actually fairly good at guessing the time, but people are just naturally predisposed to sleep later or earlier.
That tendency is influenced by genetics and also changes over time with age, but I also heavily suspect that people are actually just messing up their circadian clocks without knowing it. Try dimming your lights after sunset, you'd be surprised by how early you get tired.
Wish it worked like that with the lights. I don't like artificial light so only have some back lights on or none at all most of the time. And will sleep until 1pm with two big windows without blinds in my room.
Eating is also a really big factor for the body's circadian clock. Not sure what your lifestyle is like, but I would try to avoid eating anything when it's late.
Interestingly enough, autism is also noted to affect the circadian clock, so it seems like medical and psychological conditions can exert an influence too.
And it could be entirely possible that you are simply a night owl. I just find it disingenuous that some people would use the circadian clock as a way to justify poor sleep habits, especially if they have habits that disrupt their circadian clock. It kind of dilutes the struggles of actual night owls
Hey don't bring my 1am dinner into this lol we're talking about sleeping!!
I'm a Night Owl and have been from a very young age. I also wish Night Owls were more just considered a thing in this society rather than labeled lazy or deviant. But hey, if you don't conform to the Capitalist mold, you're apparently whatever people want to negatively label you as. Unless you're a Night Auditor, Night Security Guard, Fireman, or Soldier, then you're a (somewhat) acceptable part of the machine.
Anyways, here's a BBC article on why humans might have evolved to have different sleep schedules. It's an interesting read IMHO.
this post was submitted on 14 May 2025
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Showerthoughts
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
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