Reverting

My brain's reverting to its natural state, the state of the night owl.

It started with the new year, round about the time I decided I needed to get serious about developing my creativity by devoting at least an hour a day to it, in some form or another. So perhaps that was the trigger: assuming that a brain works best on its natural rhythm, by trying to increase the trickle of creative juices, maybe it's fighting its way back to its old schedule. Maybe it was the excessive holiday-induced time off work I've had lately that reset my inner clock. Or perhaps its just one of those cycle shifts that happens for no apparent reason. But I've been up past 2 AM on most nights since the New Year... which means my brain wants to sleep in until 9:30 or 10 AM.

This wouldn't be a big problem, except everyone else in the family tends to be morning larks. (Dad's an exception, but he tends to catnap all day, so he's often up early, too.) Sleep until 10, and you not only run a greater risk of being awakened by others, but you've missed a good chunk of active household time... plus it leaves you with very limited options round about 9 or 10 PM, when at least half of the human household has shut down for the night and your brain is still wired up and ready to go. I normally spend that time in my room, which is why I try to shut down by midnight; there's only so long one can take being stuck in one room while conscious, even with the World Wide Web at one's beck and call.

It's also a Very Bad Thing insofar as my job goes, where I have to be out of the house by 8 and slinging books with some degree of competence and accuracy by 9. Granted, it's hard to fall asleep when working around loud machinery, but I do have to operate a motor vehicle to get there.

So I really need to remind myself to at least feign sleep round about midnight, or 1 AM at the latest. Natural cycle or not, I can't keep doing this. It'll make Wendesday morning all the more troublesome.

What? It's already 13 past 2 AM? On Tuesday?

Dang it...