You know you are a night owl when it's not so strange to....

[cateycloggs]

Having been over stimulated by talk of night mowing on another thread I thought I'd see what over night owls really love about the night hours. I find At this time of year the smell of the night air can be as intoxicating as strong drink. Relecting on that I've realised it's always been the case with me since I was a young child I have postponed sleep and felt better and better after midnight. I have been watching TV tonight but often sit in silence just enjoying. Though now I can hear a wee bird starting to sing.

So I don't think it is strange to want to go out and garden in the night. What else is not so strange?

My children are night owls and love walking in the nearby woods at night and star gazing.

They're happy and get the sleep they need. I hate the moralising over arbitary timeslots that children "should" go to bed at. DM thinks that because they're not in bed by 7pm (which is rediculously early for their age anyway) that they don't have a bedtime and I'm a sloppy mother.

I just don't see the point in battling their nature (one has ASD) and sending them to bed hours before they need it. I see no great virtue in the 2+ hours a night I spent in bed reading by streetlamp and cracks of light and measuring time by TV theme tunes.

I think it's great they are using their time constructively and learning directly from experience. Having started this thread I have been having sensory flashbacks to how strongly physical my own reactions to the night air were as a young person. Everything seems so much more exciting. We were fortunate in having some quite overgrown fields behind our garden and in the area there was a river bank and sand banks and as kids we'd be out till after 10 at this time which must be better than watching tv or being on a computer now.

Apparantly those fields and banks have all been built on now and the roads are so much busier which is true in so many places. Though strangely I am in a busy city suburb but we do get a lot of wildlife in the gardens.

You might be interested in the theory of a 'second sleep' OP. Apparently humans were used to sleeping in two phases and would have a wakeful period in the night to play games. pray, have sex or even visit the neighbours. Apparently this gradually dwindled into the twentieth century, perhaps electricity made the evenings longer therefore people would stay up later? I'm not sure if that is the reason or other not. This article explains in a bit more depth and there are lots of other sources.

Yes Lurleene, I have come across that when reading about history or watching television programmes. As I mentioned I have seen a fair amount of repeats of medieval history programmes in the early morning. It is actually fascinating how different the lives of medieval people coulbe from the image of it as nasty, brutish and short. And of course using the light nights of midsummer or full moons is often referenced in literature or contemporary accounts.

Isn't it generally thought to be one of the effects of the industrial revolution in this country that the sleep/wake/work patterns of the general population became more regimented and uniform. Hence night wakers are now regarded as oddities unless they have a reasonable excuse. I am not even imagining that as I have been directly criticised by others on many occasions True I may have been inconsiderate on occasion but I have also been told "Oh we didn't know you were there" whereas I always known about the early risers.
Fortunately I now live alone.

Ohmy, pps, I never knew all this ! Though, on reading, I'm not sure I apply, I'm definitely an early bird. Definitely not a Night Owl. For example, I've just woken up, I went to sleep at 7pm. It's a vicious circle for me ( I've just realised why I only had 1 child - sleep patterns were horrendous!!). Am now 54, and menopause might be lending itself to insomnia? Christ, it's a minefield. But I will embrace it. Am lucky in that I don't have to work, etc. I see myself up now. I might walk my dog, I will definitely clean. I will probably cook (rather prepare) food for the week. In general, potter. House is empty, so no one to disrupt.
Hope you're all ok !

Hi Amdone, I remember you from early this morning, not surprising if you needed a nap you were up so early. Hope you are back safely with your dog. Did you actually make a lasagne? I also slept this afternoon and now have to admit feel a bit queasy. Having outed myself as such a night owl, I think I need to reset my clock as my waking hours are spent waiting to feel better then achieving nothing. I have actually slept better since menopause as before I was having periods evey 2 weeks and had terrible PMTS as I now realise that caused me terrific depression. I used to toss and turn and have bad dreams, was either too cold or too hot. Now I am fortunate enough to have bigger bed with layers of mattress toppers underneath and a better quality duvet on top and when I do sleep it is much better. I generally feel the cold so can tell summer is here because I discarded my bedspread and just had my duvet and slept a few hours. But there is stuff I need to do in daylight hours so think I must reset and go to bed early which for me is after midnight.

Strangely enough 2 alarm clocks that I had stopped working by spraying cleaner on them but had kept in the airing cupboard for about 2 years came to life and started bleeping in the last 2 days. I suppose it is the hotter temperature. The number displays are still only semi-visible. Does anyone have any ideas apart from keep them warm and well wrapped up?

I love night driving! I also cook and sew at night.

I was musing on this the other day.

I am yearning for a holiday, can think of barely anything else at the moment - but what I’m longing for is those warm nights where you sit on the balcony with a glass of wine and just listen to the crickets and listen to either the waves or the shouts from drunken revellers

I’m not much of a party animal any more, but I love the night time and although I hate the heat I miss so much the night times abroad.

Don't know if I count as a night owl truly, bit of an insomniac so I now do night work ☺️ that and watch the village hedgehog video feed 🤭
I live in quite a noisy area (and have a young DD) so the peace and quiet at night is lovely 😊

@JackieTheFart

I was musing on this the other day.

I am yearning for a holiday, can think of barely anything else at the moment - but what I’m longing for is those warm nights where you sit on the balcony with a glass of wine and just listen to the crickets and listen to either the waves or the shouts from drunken revellers

I’m not much of a party animal any more, but I love the night time and although I hate the heat I miss so much the night times abroad.

I know what you mean although my only real experience of that kind of warm night time atmosphere after the sudden sunset was a long time ago when I went to Israel. Even though it was winter it still felt very warm at night by April when I left. Mostly stayed on Kibbutzim or hostels in Jerusalem or Tel aviv and always had the sound of crickets, no drinking though.

At weekends here I would normally be having the sounds of drunken revellers in the early hours returning from pubs and restaurants half a mile down the road. I have realised I don't even know if there is now an imposed curfew on them at the moment because I don't go out I have not kept up with the latest rules.

Love this thread. Not wanting to go to bed but loving sleep hit it absolutely on the head for me. I’ve always fought it, felt like there was something wrong with me. I’m going to start embracing it more.

taking the piss out of seppos on FB past 4am

Going to stand in or dip your feet in the sea, in the middle of the night under the moon and stars, isn't so strange, right..?

@PrincessNymeria

Going to stand in or dip your feet in the sea, in the middle of the night under the moon and stars, isn't so strange, right..?

Oh that sounds lovely - I think my laptop has dyslexia so many mistakes, had to correct 4 in that one word. Anyway, one of my biggest regrets is ever moving from the seaside places I lived in my twenties. I am so aware these words are inadequate to the strong physical feelings these types of night aroused. I meant to mention I had to leave Wales to live in a city. Some friends and i once had a barbecue on the beach in July at which it snowed so very different responses there .

I just remembered the time I went for a swim in a pool in Spain, in the middle of the night. I spent ages foating on my back and looking up. It was amazing. It's far too cold for that where I live though. I'd love a hot tub.

@ZingDramaQueenOfSheeba

taking the piss out of seppos on FB past 4am

I have to ask who or what is seppos?

@Namechange3729

Don't know if I count as a night owl truly, bit of an insomniac so I now do night work ☺️ that and watch the village hedgehog video feed 🤭 I live in quite a noisy area (and have a young DD) so the peace and quiet at night is lovely 😊

Is there a way of ensuring the food gets to the hedgehog and not to stray foxes , rats, slugs whatever? I sometimmes put out spare cat food as I have ssen hedgehogs before but don't know what eats it.

@cateycloggs Only just found your thread. Was the Alec Guinness in a kilt film called Tunes of Glory, or something like that. With John Mills. (I'm a big fan of JM, he was fantastic). I watched a bit of it. I love the Ladykillers.

Is there a way of ensuring the food gets to the hedgehog and not to stray foxes , rats, slugs whatever? I sometimmes put out spare cat food as I have ssen hedgehogs before but don't know what eats it.

Do it on a regular basis and they soon learn where the food is, when we had that really hot summer a couple of years ago I was reading outside with my foot on another chair and a huge hedgehog wandered under my legs.

It wasn't long before I had 4 regular visitors and hedge hog fights are the cutest 'fight' ever, they just run into each other.

Yes, PainterinPeril, it was, I had seen it before but as with a lot ofold films I watchnow the film and colour quality has been hugely enhanced since I got a Sky box. Not promoting but just very struck by how much more there is to see when i thought I'd upgraded by having a Sony HD flat screen. Earlier I watched most of a film called Peeping Tom (1960) and was struck by the intensity of the colour. I wanted to ask someone interested in film is that colour saturation in Technicolour film? Is that the terminology used? I have also been searching for the word to describe the value of the textures in such films. I stopped watching that one before the end because it is pretty nasty.

Morning all
I've now been up for 25 hpurs

This is ridiculous

Thanks sashh, I am afraid it's not that regular. My cat has improved his own eating habits so not much left. I do leave the food in the same place but don' hang around to see who eats it. But I have seen hedgehogs crossing my back doorstep before and ther is a lot of access to other gardens with overgrown areas so I hope they get a lot of worms etc. Our garden is cut back by HA Landlords. Another question have you heard their noises? is it a squealing or grunting type of noise, I have heard they can be loud.

@Frownette

Morning all I've now been up for 25 hpurs

This is ridiculous

I did the same yesterday into the lat morning hours still don't feel good. Is there any reason Frownette or is that aan absurdity in night owl land. My eyes are closing but have gone off on a film and hedgehog tangent.

I often get a lot of creative inspiration at night and in the early hours. I also love the feeling of knowing you won't be interrupted as most people are asleep. There's nothing to do or sort out because everywhere is closed. It's just a nice peaceful time.

@cateycloggs ahhh not you as well. Headache and fever, off to shop at 7am for painkillers and coffee. Talking of Alec Guinness I loved kind hearts and coronets but haven't seen ladykillers!