The Student Room Group

Can people be nocturnal?

I've always joked about this with my mates, but I really want to know if it is possible for people to genuinly be nocturnal.

I'm not an insomniac as I have no trouble sleeping, only problem comes in that I have to turn lights on making me think I'm sleeping during the day, and then when I wake up, and I see daylight, I always feel dissapointed that I have to wait for night.

I am often tired during the mornings, but even if I have had a really busy day, as soon as the sun goes down I'm instantly awake and just wanna do everything as normal, like shopping etc... just in the middle of the night.

My optician has said quite a few times that my pupil responses are "strange" and I don't know if this is because I live in the night mainly, or what. I also like to wear sunglasses during the day if possible cos that makes it a lot less bright, and closer to night.


Am I just weird, or genuinly nocturnal?

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Reply 1
No.

You're just a lazy ****, thats your problem.
Lmao, so cool!
Reply 3
imasillynarb
No.

You're just a lazy ****, thats your problem.

I probably do more exercise in 1 day than you do in 1 week!! I snowboard for 3 hours every day, I cycle between 8 and 16 km every day, I spend an hour or two in the gym most days on step masters and I never use elevators and most my lectures are on the 9th floor and I come in on the 2nd floor, so how am I lazy???
Reply 4
living in the night is good, so dont worry. when i'm not at uni, i'm switching to my night pattern ^^. well, i dont need to turn the lights on to pretend im sleeping durring the day, cause usually i go to sleep around 6am and it's half night/half day at the time (i like the time of the day when sun just rises and its still a bit dark ^^ its the perfect time to go to sleep). night is just so much batter than the day. sun does no good ^^... you mentioned snowboarding every day and ur from canada - i can guess you have alot of snow laying around for the whole year (i love snow!!!) so it only makes things better. personally i love to go running at 2 or 3 am in the middle of the winter to my local park and see all the snow lying around :smile: and some people thinks im crazy therefore.

anyway, if you truly are nocturnal, its good :smile: (unless you live in a small city which goes to spleep at 10pm and after 10pm theres noone there... so its quite boring to live in the night...)
Reply 5
[quote='[maciek]']living in the night is good, so dont worry. when i'm not at uni, i'm switching to my night pattern ^^. well, i dont need to turn the lights on to pretend im sleeping durring the day, cause usually i go to sleep around 6am and it's half night/half day at the time (i like the time of the day when sun just rises and its still a bit dark ^^ its the perfect time to go to sleep). night is just so much batter than the day. sun does no good ^^... you mentioned snowboarding every day and ur from canada - i can guess you have alot of snow laying around for the whole year (i love snow!!!) so it only makes things better. personally i love to go running at 2 or 3 am in the middle of the winter to my local park and see all the snow lying around :smile: and some people thinks im crazy therefore.

anyway, if you truly are nocturnal, its good :smile: (unless you live in a small city which goes to spleep at 10pm and after 10pm theres noone there... so its quite boring to live in the night...)
Yeah, snow 24/7/365 is great, though it's normally 2 cable cars and 1 tow away :frown:

I live in Sheffield, so I normally go round at the times when there is no one around, but I have uni at 9am most days, so I have to get up then :frown: Though recently I've been a bit, well, quite a bit bruised and battered, so my movement is limited at the moment. High speed compression into the quater pipe hurts like hell, and switch 50-50 on the rail just didn't work at all.
Reply 6
We had a lecture on chronobiology the other week - basically 'biological/body clocks.' And... to cut a long story short your body can be programmed to sleep at different times - hence why people who work nights for along time find it hard to adjust to being awake during the day, its like night becomes day for them - because thats when they are awake and working. Also, everybodys body clock has a set time which is a day for them - most peoples are about 24hrs, which is fine because thats how long a day actually is. Some peoples though are longer or shorter than that - and its convention that will try and keep it on track (setting an alarm and getting up in the morning etc.) If your clock is set at more that 24 hrs, then if you are allowed to do what you want, ignoring the world outside if you like, then that person will wake up later each day. If there clock runs at 25hrs and they get up at 7:00 one day, the next day it will be 8, 9, 10 ... and so on. This can also work backwarks - so that the person has a shorter than 24hr clock.

Without sounding like I am trying to diagnose you - it sounds like your body clock is probably set different to the majority of people and your body has programmed itself to prefer to being awake at night! It doesn't have to be a problem - it just depends how to affects you! :smile:
I turn nocturnal when I do nightshifts at Sainsburys. I do 5 in a row and by the end of it im completely nocturnal. It was hard to adjust at first but now im fine, its not a problem switching from sleeping at night to in the day.
Reply 8
what does nocturanal mean?
Reply 9
I find I work better at night so i do think i might be nocturnal :wink: During the day im always tired and waiting for the evening lol :biggrin:
Cathie86
We had a lecture on chronobiology the other week - basically 'biological/body clocks.' And... to cut a long story short your body can be programmed to sleep at different times - hence why people who work nights for along time find it hard to adjust to being awake during the day, its like night becomes day for them - because thats when they are awake and working.


how does that tie in with sunlight/melanopsin signalling & melatonin release at night?

can the "programming" occur physiologically (don't understand how that would work..) or does it require an abnormality of the normal signalling cascades somehow?
The Canadian
I've always joked about this with my mates, but I really want to know if it is possible for people to genuinly be nocturnal.

I'm not an insomniac as I have no trouble sleeping, only problem comes in that I have to turn lights on making me think I'm sleeping during the day, and then when I wake up, and I see daylight, I always feel dissapointed that I have to wait for night.

I am often tired during the mornings, but even if I have had a really busy day, as soon as the sun goes down I'm instantly awake and just wanna do everything as normal, like shopping etc... just in the middle of the night.

My optician has said quite a few times that my pupil responses are "strange" and I don't know if this is because I live in the night mainly, or what. I also like to wear sunglasses during the day if possible cos that makes it a lot less bright, and closer to night.


Am I just weird, or genuinly nocturnal?

I think it's called Seasonal Affective Disorder....or S.A.D.
:redface:
Reply 12
The Canadian
I probably do more exercise in 1 day than you do in 1 week!! I snowboard for 3 hours every day, I cycle between 8 and 16 km every day, I spend an hour or two in the gym most days on step masters and I never use elevators and most my lectures are on the 9th floor and I come in on the 2nd floor, so how am I lazy???

:own3d:
Affectation
I think it's called Seasonal Affective Disorder....or S.A.D.
:redface:

That's to do with the seasons, and they don't affect me, cept that in the winter I snowboard more than in the summer, and thus get more injuries.

Oh, and anjurdsg, nocturnal means I generally sleep during the day and am awake and functioning at night, like an owl, just bigger, less feathers, no wings, and my head doesn't turn a full 180 (I don't think)

LPK
:own3d:

Heehee, aye, they were own3d indeed :p:
The Canadian
I've always joked about this with my mates, but I really want to know if it is possible for people to genuinly be nocturnal.

I'm not an insomniac as I have no trouble sleeping, only problem comes in that I have to turn lights on making me think I'm sleeping during the day, and then when I wake up, and I see daylight, I always feel dissapointed that I have to wait for night.

I am often tired during the mornings, but even if I have had a really busy day, as soon as the sun goes down I'm instantly awake and just wanna do everything as normal, like shopping etc... just in the middle of the night.

My optician has said quite a few times that my pupil responses are "strange" and I don't know if this is because I live in the night mainly, or what. I also like to wear sunglasses during the day if possible cos that makes it a lot less bright, and closer to night.


Am I just weird, or genuinly nocturnal?


ooo that sounds just like me (minus the "strange" pupils lol), how nice to know i'm not the only one...
anjurdsg
what does nocturanal mean?


Oh my.
I prefer staying up all night and sleeping in the day. Feel better for it too :smile:
it's probably possible to be nocturnal... not if you go to school in the day though
Reply 18
law:portal
I prefer staying up all night and sleeping in the day. Feel better for it too :smile:

I agree, no day time TV to rot your brain lol. In the summer I switch to wakeing up about 2-3pm and going to be about 6am. I hate hot wather, I basically colapse totally about mid day, so I get up when it should be cooling down. Works for me. I can normally switch between that and 'normal' sleep in a weekend. I wouldn't mind only being up at night, there's not much that I can't do at night.
and since i ain't nocturnal.. i'm going to sleep.
night peeps :biggrin: