On Being Nocturnal

I have what many would deem a bad habit of staying up extremely late (sometimes as late as 8:00 am) and then sleeping for about six hours, therefore often waking up at noon or later. Now, although this wouldn't work with most people's work schedules, I never have to teach before 3:00 pm, so it's not really a big problem for me, save the possible argument that sleeping when the sun's out isn't as solid of sleep as sleeping when it's not.

Why do I stay up so late? I've always blamed this on a fear of not having enough hours to do what I want to do (which is often generally wasting time on the internet, mostly with YouTube), but maybe I subconsciously also don't like sleeping(?). After all, there is the fact that most of my dreams could be described as "bad", "uncomfortable", or "tense", so maybe I'm just trying to avoid them as long as possible? Consciously, it's not the sleep part I don't like but rather the feeling that I ought to stay up just a little later to do more of the stuff I like to do with my "free time." Naturally I never really plan on staying up until the sun rises, but when you keep saying to yourself "just a little more", it kinda creeps up on you.

When it comes down to it, if I were to admit to having any single addiction, I might say that this is it. Fortunately, I don't think it has much of a significant negative effect on the quality of my life, but it's probably something I should try to wean myself off of sooner or later regardless. After all, I do enjoy having days where I wake up early and get a lot of stuff done before I go to teach (even if those things are simply the same things I do late at night), so maybe I should just bite the bullet and start forcing myself to go to bed a little earlier every night. Seeing as I've been an extreme night owl ever since high school though, it's probably unlikely I'll be able to change it too drastically, but I suppose going to bed at any time prior to 8:00 am is still an improvement... =)