Daytime versus Nighttime

 With daylight savings time just around the corner, it's time to once more look at...well time!  The purpose of daylight savings time was to create more 'usable' time during the daylight hours, so that businesses would be open and people would go about their daily routine when it was light out, trying to make the most of those precious hours of daylight in the winter.

One of the obvious advantages of doing things in the daylight is that you can see (without using artificial light).  We now know that the exposure to actual sunlight has a physiological effect not only on how people sleep but on their mood in general as well.  

Many people find that being on a night schedule is exhausting (and of course it is inconvenient...trying to run all your errands on a nigh shift schedule is near impossible), and even if they tend to be night owls and naturally stay up later at night, not going to sleep until after the sun has risen can be difficult.

A lot of people believe that waking up early is somehow better than sleeping later and staying up later (and I'm talking about when you can schedule your day however you like).  Almost every productivity schedule has an early rise time.  And if someone needs to stretch their day to add in workout time or meditation, it's rarely suggested that you stay up later to make more time, you are always expected to wake up earlier.

Now, speaking as someone who isn't a morning person, at all, that always struck me as somewhat odd.  I understand why, if you need to be at work by 8, then sleeping until 9 is a problem, but I never understood why it was an issue if you weren't bound by such a schedule.

And I think that part of it is our association with day time, the sun and the external world.  If we consider the sun and moon as the ruling heavenly bodies of their respective times, the sun is out outward facing selves and the moon is the inward facing self.  The sun is how we interact with others, the going out and doing, while the moon is our inner world, the sitting and thinking and dreaming.

So it sort of makes sense that we lump 'work' and active times with the day and sleep with the night.  But it might be worth considering what kind of work you want to do.  I definitely find that some things come easier at night, and some things I prefer to do during the day.

I read an interesting correlation between electric lights and candle light, how when the electric lights are on, we talk about the outer world, but when we are light by candle (or fire) light, we focus on dreams and spiritual matters.  I think this lines up quite well with the sun and moon energies.

If I have a lot of stuff to get done in a day, I would much rather sort out the outside stuff first.  I may not even be fully awake, but if we have errands to run, I'd rather do them early and have the rest of the day to enjoy, than take my time waking up and piddling around the house, then have to go and get everything sorted.

And while I can get more done during the day, I often get great ideas at night (especially after I'm 'done' with my stuff for the day).  The evenings are my time to just unwind and do whatever, and I often feel like my brain is just done for the day, and yet if I engage in a creative practice (with no expectation of 'producing' stuff, just focusing on the process) I make leaps I might not make at other times.  The best time for me to think about new ideas is right before bed (though that does make it sometimes hard to remember the ideas!)

Our brains work in different ways, so some people might find that fresh energy in the morning, when they first wake up and soak in the sun, is what vitalizes their mind and body.  They may be someone who can get a million things done in the morning, and when they harness that drive their life moves smoother.  For them, waking up later might throw their entire day off, and they might feel like they are playing catch up the rest of the day, like they are always behind.

Others may be more like me, and when I have to get up early, almost irregardless of what time I went to bed and how much sleep I get, I'm groggy and tired and I just can't think straight.  But on the flip side of the day, even if I was up since the crack of dawn and yawned my way through the day, once the sun sets, it's like my batteries recharge and my mind wakes up.

Whichever way you seem to lean, it's worth paying attention to how you feel and what you excel at in the day and night times.  Find ways to structure your day to make the most of how you personally react to the times of day, and try swapping things around whenever you can until you find the way that works best for you.