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Thanks, Brian, for a very informative interview with Jennifer Ackermann, and thanks to her for guiding listeners to Columbia's on-line assessment of morningness-eveningness at www.cet.org. When someone falls at the extremes -- especially of eveningess -- there is a set of recently established chronotherapy techniques that can "set the internal clock straight," often with relief of accompanying depression. www.nyppsychiatry.org/lighttherapy explains these developments in a nutshell.

I seem to be alert at two distinct times of the day-early morning (5-6am), then late at night(11-1); the rest of the day I spend either ramping up or fighting off sleep. Does anyone else have this issue, and should I try and push myself in one direction?

Willie Nelson once said:

'the early bird gets the worm,
but the second mouse gets the cheese.'

I have been a night owl all my life and I'm 66 years old.I found it painful to get up early mornings for school and during my whole professional life working in a hospital. Now I have a pracice at home and can start later and I feel so much more alert, energetic and creative. However whenever there are morning events that I must attend I struggle since I don't fall asleep until approximately 2am.
Are there other people out there with the same problem??? How do you deal with it?

I agree! There is definitely a bias against those owls among us. The early bird gets the worm and all that. Well, the later bird gets the later worm. It's true -- early risers think people whose internal clocks run later are just lazy. Left to my own devices -- I would get up around 9 and go to bed around 2. I am useless early in the morning -- and hit my stride in the late afternoon, early evening. My work promoting concerts and other events requires working into the evening -- and I need to "on my game." If I faded at 9 p.m. -- I would be in serious trouble. So there are uses for all of us -- larks and owls.

I think creative people work at night for two reasons. 1) Sometimes creative folks have to hold down a day job and can only do what they want at night. 2) Creativity is something that cannot be controlled, and sometimes solitude enduces a creative burst of energy. Reflection on the events of the day.

Once I dropped acid and afterwards slept for 20 hours straight. Should I be concerned?

There have been some studies on the effect of lack of sleep on the ability to loose weight. Any comment?

tim here's what you are looking for
http://cet.org/

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1352383

Study: Shift work as an oxidative stressor

I once worked at a stressful call center job in a condensed work week schedule, working 8am to 6pm for four days a week. In the dead of winter, I left my house in the dark, and when I left work, it was dark again. I never saw sunlight-- I grew terribly depressed and probably mildly alcoholic. It was, in a phrase, 'that permanent midnight'.

There's a reason some ancient cultures worshipped the sun.

I used to work on movie sets. I remember sitting in the cafeteria of an armory during an all night shoot and a slice of cheese that someone stuck to a wall and made a smiley face out of started talking to me.

I come from an entire family of night owls. We work just as hard and as long as anyone else. Just because I wake up late, am sometimes late for work, doesn't make me morally inferior to the larks. After all, while those larks had to get to bed so they can get up early to finish their tasks, I'm up all night making sure it gets done before my head hits the pillow!

All of the artists and creative people I know are night owls...is there an actual trend with regard to personality/brain type?

My body clock dictates that I go to bed around 1 or 2am, wake up at 9 or 9:30. I've always been like this. When I did work 9 to 5 for a couple of years at a software company, I NEVER adjusted. It meant I was sleep-deprived for two years straight. It was awful. I hated everybody, and was not fully functional till about 11am. All my students who I had taught before 11am, were all the ones who constantly called technical support with problems!

What was the website for that sleep quiz?

Bartender - Owl

She didn't answer the question about teenage sleep habits!!

Hi
Can your guest comment on the evidence that night shift work may increase breast cancer risk?
thanks

Related to your topic, in his book 'Creativity' Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi writes that 'Time is more flexible than most of us think'.

I wrote around these issues of time, career, work and flexibility on Columbus Day for My Monday Work Etiquette.

Here is the link http://www.sergetheconcierge.com/2007/10/this-columbus-d.html

Serge
'The French Guy from New Jersey'

I once worked at a stressful call center job in a condensed work week schedule, working 8am to 6pm for four days a week. In the dead of winter, I left my house in the dark, and when I left work, it was dark again. I never saw sunlight-- I grew terribly depressed and probably mildly alcoholic. It was, in a phrase, 'that permanent midnight'.

There's a reason some ancient cultures worshipped the sun.

I'm just taking my shower and getting ready for work (I start at 12:30 today) (thank goodness I work freelance). What I find hard about being a night owl, is that all my 9 to 5 friends seem to think I sleep all day and don't do any work! But I only get about 7 hours of sleep a day. And if I get up later, it's because I simply go to bed later, and thus start my day later. We're very misunderstood, we night owls who are free to live in harmony with our body clocks!

can you ask her if you can change this? I was always an owl but had to become a lark for work - now i couldn't tell you what I am!!!

What advice (besides a change in occupation) do you recommend for those of us who are BOTH waking up early (6:00 am) and getting to bed late (12:15am ish) b/c of jobs w/ long hours?