An Ode to Night Owls

I tried, I really did try.

After half a life time of spending most of my years sleeping in the daylight and coming out in the night time, I tried for several days to adjust my lifestyle to better suit my fundamental biological requirements; primarily an attempt to ease up on my cognitive functions (or lack there of).

But I’ve failed miserably.

Final exams have a way of screwing up any attempt to make any good habits routine. It seems for years now I’ve lived 3 months at a time. It takes one month to work up the motivation to change, one month to attempt to change, and about one month to finally ‘succeed’. And then finals come and screw it all up. For me.

“And have made the night as a covering (through its darkness), And have made the day for livelihood” (An-Naba’ 9-10) In other words the Quran says rest in the night and work in the day (preferably). This is a verse my mother often quotes for me as a divine way of saying “get your butt in bed for God’s sake!” I get this speech even over long distance calls.

Perhaps I’m just not built that way. Perhaps the blood of night owls flows through these very veins. A freak lab experiment to mutate an owl into a man.

I do admit I liked the short period of times in my life when I did sleep early and wake early (i.e. last week). You do get a sense of restfulness in the night and accomplishment in the day. Perhaps because you’re no longer working on your own time zone.

Then again, there is nothing like cracking the books in the middle of the night with nothing but a silent sleeping city and the hooting of night owls in the distance (seriously, I live behind a forest).

14 Comments

  • Hehe šŸ™‚ cool! I live on my own time zone as well, but a bit different than yours, cuz over the past week, I’ve been falling asleep at 11:00 PM and waking up at 4:00 AM… and that’s a nice feeling as well, when you go to work at 8:00 and everyone is half asleep while your day had started so freshly hours before.

    But then again, every month I have a week of staying up till 3 or 4 AM to get through the cramming and meet the looming deadlines! Come to think of it, life is much more interesting without fixed habits šŸ˜‰

    Good luck on your finals!

  • Lina, thanks! yeah but the problem is that the lack of routine has become my routine hence i crave for a routine (or those fixed habits) to make life much more interesting šŸ˜€

    but i will try again because there’s nothing more challenging than defying your own nature, even for a little bit šŸ™‚

  • Huh?? There are owls in Jordan? really? :O And Lina, u wake up at FOUR IN THE MORNING!??!?! Oh my God, plz, don’t spread this, don’t tell people about this, what if it becomes a trend and extends to me? This is bad, very very bad.

  • Haha, night owls rock šŸ˜‰ I’ve had the different time zone myself since I was really young.. Anyway.. I’m going to take a nap.

  • Good luck on your exams, and hopefully things will get back to whatever you consider “normal” soon. Laa tit2a5ar 3alayna ya 3ammi šŸ™‚

  • I totally understand you man. I went through a phase like that when I was in university. My friends actually called me a vampire because I lived in the night and slept all day long. My bed, which was broken and seemed more like a coffin than a bed, only helped strengthen those thoughts, lol…
    I really enjoyed that period though. I really am a night person.

    I wrote about that period on my blog too, here: http://www.subzeroblue.com/archives/2004/03/night_life.html

    Not self blog promotion, just wanted to share my story with you šŸ™‚

  • MMM, nothing wrong with a little self promotion (although you dont need it), good read though šŸ˜€

    Hala, lool well it’s not like I have my location stamped all over my blog šŸ™‚

  • Best of luck in those exams. Say, do you have big eyes and do you eat raw meat? I once tried to keep a baby owl as a pet, and after some research I let her go. Owls do not make good pets.

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