Sleep

The last few summers I have ended up completely rearranging my sleeping schedule and I think my body is trying to desperately do it yet again.

Since I have the summers "off" I tend to revert to my more nocturnal ways. I am very much a night person, not that I'm not a morning person, but I just seem to be more awake and active in the evenings. In the summers, since I do not have many things I have to be awake for at a certain time, I find myself sleeping in and in turn, staying up late at night. Generally, I end up starting to go to bed around 3 am and wake up around 10 or 10:30. What do I do so late at night? I mostly read, but that's also when my mind really starts going so I ponder all of life's questions and a few random thoughts as well.

This summer has been different. I am teaching summer school twice a week, so I have to keep a somewhat "regular" sleeping schedule so that I can wake up on time on those two days. Because of this, I have not been staying up too late, but I think my body is really trying hard to do this. I'll go to bed at a decent hour thinking that I am tired only to lay there for an hour or two. My mind tends to just go and go and go at night which wakes me up. A routine would be nice, a schedule would be nice to help let my head and body know when the appropriate times to sleep are going to be. As much as I try, my body wants to have its regular summer schedule.

On the other hand, it's very peaceful at night when everyone else is in bed. The temperature is cooling and the world is mostly quiet. I would love to go for a walk or something to enjoy this time more, but that's not the safest thing to do in the middle of the night. If you haven't experienced the quiet of 3 am, I recommend it at least once in your life, just be sure you don't get used to it or have something important to do the next day. It's really rough getting back to a "normal" schedule once you start the 3am bit, trust me, I know, I experience it every year right around the time school starts up again.