Once I was watching a documentary about the brilliant
and critically acclaimed Off the Wall album, created in 1979 by the master himself, Michael Jackson.
I heard Pharrell Williams talk about one particular song on the album: “Can’t help it“. He said the song had a very nocturnal sound, like entering a secret, mystic garden.
The word nocturnal got stuck in my head,
I love the sound of it, it’s such a beautiful and mysterious word, don’t you think? It’s also the perfect word to describe me, since I’m somewhat of a nocturnal animal myself.
(that’s also a movie title,
more people seem to love this word.)
Photo by luigi manga on Unsplash
So why am I a nocturnal animal? Well, during the (work)day
I kinda feel like a zombie, doing my job and all the other mandatory things everyone else in the world does. Like commuting from and to work, grocery shopping, cooking,
doing the dishes and going to the gym.
When all that is done, I finally wake up, when it’s actually time to go to bed already. Like a cat who regains her energy and wants to go hunting, which is funny, because I actually hate cats.
Cats are jerks. And evil.
This is the reason why I always go to bed way past my bedtime,
because I feel I finally have some free time to play, or in my case dance,
sing and write. I’m at my creative peak when the clock strikes 12 am, unfortunately every day my alarm is set to 7 am, do you see
my problem here? I’m a night owl, a nocturnal animal, a night person,
with a 9 to 5 day job. And that clashes, big time.
That’s also the main reason why I’m always tired during the day, even if I’m
already up for hours, my brain is still snoozing around 2 pm, believe me it’s exhausting.
Photo by Abbie Bernet on Unsplash
But I can’t help it, I’ve tried it all: sleeping tea, melatonin pills, herbal calming pills, breathing exercises, it only gets
me more hyped if anything. It’s like a big red button,
that gets pressed every day around 10 pm, my inner alarm goes off and I feel like I could easily write a book, make a new choreography or play GTA5 for hours on end.
It’s like I receive crazy energy at night and nothing can stop me from conquering the world. The day after I’m exhausted, cranky and in desperate need of an IV filled with coffee.
It’s not easy being a nocturnal animal.
Nightowls are always very siked for the weekend,
because on Friday and Saturday night,
they can finally follow their natural biorhythm and go to bed super late and sleep in until noon, it’s heaven! But when Sunday night comes around, they feel the pressure of going
to bed at a ‘normal’ hour again and lie awake for hours and can’t seem to meet the Sandman. On some nights I can’t sleep at all and I watch the hours on my phone
go by and all of a sudden it’s 7 am and I have to get up for work, feeling dead on the inside. It’s weird, because even when I had a busy day and I’m crazy tired,
my body and mind refuse to relax. Like there are a dozen flamingos jumping on one leg in my head. And I love flamingo’s, just not in my head please.
I’ve read an article about accepting and embracing the fact that some people are just
nightowls with a different daily life schedule and sometimes they just can’t sleep.
I think that’s the key to getting a good night’s sleep. Accepting the fact that you can’t sleep
and trying to make peace with it. That’s obviously easier said than done, because we all feel the pressure of getting enough sleep, otherwise we’ll be a hot mess in the morning.
Photo by Mpho Mojapelo on Unsplash
If there are fellow nightowls reading this, I’m still working on it and
if I suddenly find a fantastic solution to fall sleep fast I’ll share it with you. Drinking 10 shots before bedtime doesn’t count, we are already nightowls, we don’t need to become alcoholics as well.
Just know that you’re not alone and it’s ok to be a nocturnal animal.
And if you ever can’t sleep, just write a comment below,
I’ll be awake 😉
Sleep tight and don’t let the the other nightowls bite.
Love,
Lina
