5 ms·

Poll: When do you usually go to bed?

102 points by antichaos 16y ago

I'd like to confirm that most hackers are night owls.

olefoo 16y ago
now
tkrawlins 16y ago
It's amusing that there are about 20 votes for the options, but only one person upvoted the actual post.
- finnomenon 16y ago
  I usually only use the upvote to save a story (bookmark it).
vishaldpatel 16y ago
Thanks, mom! I'm going to bed now...
thu 16y ago
I try to go early (between 10pm-12am) and wake around 8am. But I have a bad sleep. These days it means go to bed between 12am-2am and wake up at 5am... and I find that I can get to work better at 5am than at 8am.
prosa 16y ago
Well, the "before 10:00pm" option is likely skewed by the poll being posted after 10pm in all US and EU timezones :)
- epi0Bauqu 16y ago
  When I woke up before 6am, it was at 1. Then 2 (with my vote). Now it's creeping back up...
westi 16y ago
I'm a night owl. But I have a 9-5 job and like to get into the office early when it is quiet as you can get more done that way. So I try to get to bed before midnight - of course my pet projects suck me in and I lose track of time some days!
bjelkeman-again 16y ago
Does the word "hackers" mean that I should not vote? I don't code, but I design systems and project manage. I presume you mean "Hacker News readers". ;)
Luyt 16y ago
In the summer, 1 o'clock at night (and I rise at 8:30 in the morning to take advantage of the good weather). In the winter, 3 o'clock. No need to rise early when it's dark and storming outside.
isaacforce 16y ago
I'm unemployed right now, so my sleeping habits have gotten a bit strange with nothing to force me in to any sort of schedule. I find that my "go to sleep" signals don't start coming until after I've been awake for 18-20 hours, then I sleep anywhere from 6-10 hours, so my sleeping time tends to slip forward on the clock constantly. Not having a fixed schedule doesn't particularly bother me, but being disconnected from the day when I go to sleep after the sun has been up for a while is a bit bothersome. When it gets to that point I usually stay up all day so I go to sleep at a "normal" time.
- DLWormwood 16y ago
  This is me, as well. I’ve found that every time I’m between jobs, my weeks go from 24/7 to 28/6. The worst part of the cycle is when my bedtime’s about noon; I can’t find many places to shop or run errands before 10am and most everything’s closed when I wake back up at about 7pm.
- wheaties 16y ago
  You need to find something to occupy your time. Even if only a pet programming project. Something you force yourself to do for 2-4 hours every day non-stop as if you were at work. You'd be surprised how your body and mind relax into a "normal" schedule once you've got that "I'm done with work" feeling.
  - smokinn 16y ago
    That's completely untrue. I'm the same as the gp. When I don't have a rigid schedule I absolutely have to follow (whenever I'm unemployed or when I was in school) I drift around the clock. It's much more natural for me and I feel much more rested than when I'm on a fixed schedule.
    - gte910h 16y ago
      Most people have this issue, some to a larger degree than others, if they don't give themselves strong light cues.
- 16y ago
limedaring 16y ago
It's 3am, I wanted to be sleeping by 1am, but no dice. Being (f)unemployed has definitely skewed my sleeping habits later and later as I find myself working on things that I don't want to stop. Last few days I've slept in past noon, when in the past I hated sleeping past 10am.
cdr 16y ago
I can't stay asleep when it gets light, which in the summer that means 5:30AM at the latest. I need a full 8 hours, so that means bed at 9:30.
Gidion 16y ago
Summer: wake and sleep schedule with the sun (~5:30am to around 9:30 pm) Winter: 9am - midnight I wish I could do the summer schedule all year.
bluesmoon 16y ago
I don't have a fixed time to sleep, though it might be more correct to say that I live on a 26 hour day so each day I sleep 2 hours later than the day before. At some point I end up sleeping during the day and working at night, but every now and then my girlfriend will call me at 9 or 10am and reset my clock.
metamemetics 16y ago
sleep ~4am-9am and ~8pm-9pm. I hit the internet cafe as soon as I wake up in the morning. After dinner I take a nap. When I wake up at night I go to bar or meet friends. I do sleep longer than 6 hours during the beginning of the week, but I haven't felt the need to switch to the traditional 9 hour schedule.
robryan 16y ago
I voted after 4am because without daytime commitments I usually end up in a cycle where I try to get to sleep an hour or 2 before the sun lights up the room, so been getting to sleep at 5am. Of course with uni I try my best to change this and make as much stuff as possible, ideally night classes would suit me but no chance of getting them.
dkersten 16y ago
Generally I go to bed sometime between 5am and 5am the next day.
jakevoytko 16y ago
I wake up at 6:30 to beat the traffic, so I go to bed between 10:30 and 11:30. Waking early has some benefits: working for a few hours before your coworkers are awake is a nice feeling, and I get home in time to run and and cook dinner at a reasonable hour. On the other hand, if a crisis happens at work, everyone else's 9 hour day is my 12 hour day
- silversmith 16y ago
  I've gone into a pattern of going to bet sometime between 12:00 and 1:00, and then waking around 7:00. I am sure this is going to bite me hard in years to come, but damn, at least I have time to get things done this way.
  - GFischer 16y ago
    I do the same, but then I collapse on Friday evening and quite a bit of the weekend. And having a girlfriend doesn't make it any easier.
i386 16y ago
Interesting that most people (as of the time of this comment anyway) have picked the 12:00am - 1:59am range. I'd be curious to know at what time most people here start work.
- ephesus 16y ago
  I start checking my mail and notifications as soon as I wake up around 7:30, but I don't get in to the office until 9::30-10. I usually leave the office at 7pm. Startups can be a time-sink.
- subwindow 16y ago
  I usually go to bed around 1 and wake at 8:30 to get in to work before 10.
- redraga 16y ago
  I usually go to sleep between 11:30 pm-12:30 am and wake up around 8 am. I'm at my lab (grad student) by 9:30 am.
- darklajid 16y ago
  My current workplace is very relaxed. I do continue working outside of the office-time and I'm sure that I deliver, but I regularly start at 10am+, sometimes 11 or 11:30. That doesn't keep me from leaving at ~6pm - it's mostly to have some office time (highly overrated in my opinion). I'm not going to bed before 1pm, most of the time I pass 2pm as well.
electromagnetic 16y ago
Used to go to bed between 12:00am and about 3:00am, however since I now get up for work at 6:30am it's exceedingly difficult to stay up late even when I want to. However, I still routinely stay up past 12:00am but generally hit 11:30pm
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
Komi 16y ago
I work at night, from 11pm to 6am, so i go to bed at about 8am. Should i vote "before 10:00pm" or "after 4:00am"? :-)
apu 16y ago
Heh, I know these polls are far from scientific, but saying "I'd like to confirm..." is like asking for poll results to be skewed...
thought_alarm 16y ago
Depends on DST.
moxiemk1 16y ago
This does get significantly affected by where I am. Right now, being at a startup internship for the summer, I need to wake up at 8 to get to work, so I'm in the 12:00 - 1:59 bracket. When I'm at school, however, it's usually 2:00-3:59 or after 4:00. When I'm at home with my family, it's before 10:00.
eel 16y ago
I try to sleep between 10 pm and 11:30 to wake up around 7 am. My most productive times at work seem to be mid-late mornings. My most productive time for hacking seems to be 10 pm - 12 am, which is unfortunate because I end up neglecting one of sleeping and hacking.
bpourriahi 16y ago
Past week I have been on a 30 hour wake and 14-16 hours sleep intervals. I should stop that but I don't like going to sleep and I don't like alarms, so the behavior is well supported..
michaelcampbell 16y ago
I'm experimenting with a biphasic sleep schedule. It's working... mostly, for me so far. The "win" for me is not so much that I have to sleep less but that I get a couple more hours of productive wake time than I did before. As such, I've voted twice.
dennisgorelik 16y ago
You nailed it -- your mid-choice (12:00am - 1:59am) got the most votes (mine too :-)).
nrbafna 16y ago
Home - 10:oopm - 11:59pm. College - 2:00am - 3:59am. Drinking nights - after 4:am.
sgallant 16y ago
Wow, the after 4am is almost double the before 10pm.
larsberg 16y ago
Just before 10pm, and up at 4am to get in my workout and get to work before the hungover morning slacker crowd gets in.
timtrueman 16y ago
I tend to alternate between two schedules for a week or more at a time: 12-2AM: Life is busy and I've lost track of time but I am always in bed by 2AM. 10PM (ish): My body is in tune with the sun and so I'm waking up at 5-6AM by the light. I find I usually need naps to make it through the day but this schedule is usually my most productive. I get onto this schedule when I crash early from staying up late for an entire week or when I spend time outdoors (e.g. camping for a week in Yosemite under the stars).
kylec 16y ago
I wish you had overlapping intervals, as I usually go to be around 2AM but it varies. My choices are "12:00am - 1:59am" and "2:00am - 3:59am". Since it's about half and half, I voted for both.
- SoftwareMaven 16y ago
  That was the same problem I was having. My time is usually 1-3am.
petercooper 16y ago
Between 7 and 9am. I do the night shift because we have a baby. That way my wife gets a full 8 hours of sleep and can be an even better care giver during the day.
moomba 16y ago
Seems like it would be hard to go to bed after 4 am on a consistent basis. I'd like to know the schedule of those people. Probably a lot different from mine (I go to bed around 12).
CRASCH 16y ago
I go to bed late sometime after 3:00am and before the sun comes up. It really sucks trying to fall asleep when it is bright. I stay up late out of necessity. I work from home (on my startup) and I have a large family. That means the only time I get uninterrupted time is after 11:00pm. I need the uninterrupted time for the difficult problems. Other work I can bang out during the day. The down side is I sleep until noon. When I had a 9-5, I stayed up until 2:00-3:00 got up at 8:00 and was in the office by 9:00. I would catch up on sleep over the weekends.
thedigitalengel 16y ago
The early to bed and early to rise paradigm works incredibly well for me - there is something about being up before sunrise that boosts my productivity. I sleep 5 hours when I'm not working out and around 8 hours when I am; which means my sleeping hours are either [12 AM, 5 AM] or [10 AM, 6 AM].
sabj 16y ago
In the silence of the night, the world hums and purrs with silent energy -- the tantalizing electric potential of opportunity, latent in the night air, each pregnant moment of reflection brimming with inspirations born unheralded from the ether. So yes, late night is the way to go for me. While other sleep, I dream.

102 points by antichaos 16y ago

I'd like to confirm that most hackers are night owls.

olefoo 16y ago

now

tkrawlins 16y ago

It's amusing that there are about 20 votes for the options, but only one person upvoted the actual post.

finnomenon 16y ago
I usually only use the upvote to save a story (bookmark it).

vishaldpatel 16y ago

Thanks, mom! I'm going to bed now...

thu 16y ago

I try to go early (between 10pm-12am) and wake around 8am. But I have a bad sleep. These days it means go to bed between 12am-2am and wake up at 5am... and I find that I can get to work better at 5am than at 8am.

prosa 16y ago

Well, the "before 10:00pm" option is likely skewed by the poll being posted after 10pm in all US and EU timezones :)

epi0Bauqu 16y ago
When I woke up before 6am, it was at 1. Then 2 (with my vote). Now it's creeping back up...

westi 16y ago

I'm a night owl. But I have a 9-5 job and like to get into the office early when it is quiet as you can get more done that way. So I try to get to bed before midnight - of course my pet projects suck me in and I lose track of time some days!

bjelkeman-again 16y ago

Does the word "hackers" mean that I should not vote? I don't code, but I design systems and project manage. I presume you mean "Hacker News readers". ;)

Luyt 16y ago

In the summer, 1 o'clock at night (and I rise at 8:30 in the morning to take advantage of the good weather). In the winter, 3 o'clock. No need to rise early when it's dark and storming outside.

isaacforce 16y ago

I'm unemployed right now, so my sleeping habits have gotten a bit strange with nothing to force me in to any sort of schedule. I find that my "go to sleep" signals don't start coming until after I've been awake for 18-20 hours, then I sleep anywhere from 6-10 hours, so my sleeping time tends to slip forward on the clock constantly. Not having a fixed schedule doesn't particularly bother me, but being disconnected from the day when I go to sleep after the sun has been up for a while is a bit bothersome. When it gets to that point I usually stay up all day so I go to sleep at a "normal" time.

DLWormwood 16y ago
This is me, as well. I’ve found that every time I’m between jobs, my weeks go from 24/7 to 28/6. The worst part of the cycle is when my bedtime’s about noon; I can’t find many places to shop or run errands before 10am and most everything’s closed when I wake back up at about 7pm.
wheaties 16y ago
You need to find something to occupy your time. Even if only a pet programming project. Something you force yourself to do for 2-4 hours every day non-stop as if you were at work. You'd be surprised how your body and mind relax into a "normal" schedule once you've got that "I'm done with work" feeling.
- smokinn 16y ago
  That's completely untrue. I'm the same as the gp. When I don't have a rigid schedule I absolutely have to follow (whenever I'm unemployed or when I was in school) I drift around the clock. It's much more natural for me and I feel much more rested than when I'm on a fixed schedule.
  - gte910h 16y ago
    Most people have this issue, some to a larger degree than others, if they don't give themselves strong light cues.
16y ago

limedaring 16y ago

It's 3am, I wanted to be sleeping by 1am, but no dice. Being (f)unemployed has definitely skewed my sleeping habits later and later as I find myself working on things that I don't want to stop. Last few days I've slept in past noon, when in the past I hated sleeping past 10am.

cdr 16y ago

I can't stay asleep when it gets light, which in the summer that means 5:30AM at the latest. I need a full 8 hours, so that means bed at 9:30.

Gidion 16y ago

Summer: wake and sleep schedule with the sun (~5:30am to around 9:30 pm) Winter: 9am - midnight I wish I could do the summer schedule all year.

bluesmoon 16y ago

I don't have a fixed time to sleep, though it might be more correct to say that I live on a 26 hour day so each day I sleep 2 hours later than the day before. At some point I end up sleeping during the day and working at night, but every now and then my girlfriend will call me at 9 or 10am and reset my clock.

metamemetics 16y ago

sleep ~4am-9am and ~8pm-9pm. I hit the internet cafe as soon as I wake up in the morning. After dinner I take a nap. When I wake up at night I go to bar or meet friends. I do sleep longer than 6 hours during the beginning of the week, but I haven't felt the need to switch to the traditional 9 hour schedule.

robryan 16y ago

I voted after 4am because without daytime commitments I usually end up in a cycle where I try to get to sleep an hour or 2 before the sun lights up the room, so been getting to sleep at 5am. Of course with uni I try my best to change this and make as much stuff as possible, ideally night classes would suit me but no chance of getting them.

dkersten 16y ago

Generally I go to bed sometime between 5am and 5am the next day.

jakevoytko 16y ago

I wake up at 6:30 to beat the traffic, so I go to bed between 10:30 and 11:30. Waking early has some benefits: working for a few hours before your coworkers are awake is a nice feeling, and I get home in time to run and and cook dinner at a reasonable hour. On the other hand, if a crisis happens at work, everyone else's 9 hour day is my 12 hour day

silversmith 16y ago
I've gone into a pattern of going to bet sometime between 12:00 and 1:00, and then waking around 7:00. I am sure this is going to bite me hard in years to come, but damn, at least I have time to get things done this way.
- GFischer 16y ago
  I do the same, but then I collapse on Friday evening and quite a bit of the weekend. And having a girlfriend doesn't make it any easier.

i386 16y ago

Interesting that most people (as of the time of this comment anyway) have picked the 12:00am - 1:59am range. I'd be curious to know at what time most people here start work.

ephesus 16y ago
I start checking my mail and notifications as soon as I wake up around 7:30, but I don't get in to the office until 9::30-10. I usually leave the office at 7pm. Startups can be a time-sink.
subwindow 16y ago
I usually go to bed around 1 and wake at 8:30 to get in to work before 10.
redraga 16y ago
I usually go to sleep between 11:30 pm-12:30 am and wake up around 8 am. I'm at my lab (grad student) by 9:30 am.
darklajid 16y ago
My current workplace is very relaxed. I do continue working outside of the office-time and I'm sure that I deliver, but I regularly start at 10am+, sometimes 11 or 11:30. That doesn't keep me from leaving at ~6pm - it's mostly to have some office time (highly overrated in my opinion). I'm not going to bed before 1pm, most of the time I pass 2pm as well.

electromagnetic 16y ago

Used to go to bed between 12:00am and about 3:00am, however since I now get up for work at 6:30am it's exceedingly difficult to stay up late even when I want to. However, I still routinely stay up past 12:00am but generally hit 11:30pm

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

Komi 16y ago

I work at night, from 11pm to 6am, so i go to bed at about 8am. Should i vote "before 10:00pm" or "after 4:00am"? :-)

apu 16y ago

Heh, I know these polls are far from scientific, but saying "I'd like to confirm..." is like asking for poll results to be skewed...

thought_alarm 16y ago

Depends on DST.

moxiemk1 16y ago

This does get significantly affected by where I am. Right now, being at a startup internship for the summer, I need to wake up at 8 to get to work, so I'm in the 12:00 - 1:59 bracket. When I'm at school, however, it's usually 2:00-3:59 or after 4:00. When I'm at home with my family, it's before 10:00.

eel 16y ago

I try to sleep between 10 pm and 11:30 to wake up around 7 am. My most productive times at work seem to be mid-late mornings. My most productive time for hacking seems to be 10 pm - 12 am, which is unfortunate because I end up neglecting one of sleeping and hacking.

bpourriahi 16y ago

Past week I have been on a 30 hour wake and 14-16 hours sleep intervals. I should stop that but I don't like going to sleep and I don't like alarms, so the behavior is well supported..

michaelcampbell 16y ago

I'm experimenting with a biphasic sleep schedule. It's working... mostly, for me so far. The "win" for me is not so much that I have to sleep less but that I get a couple more hours of productive wake time than I did before. As such, I've voted twice.

dennisgorelik 16y ago

You nailed it -- your mid-choice (12:00am - 1:59am) got the most votes (mine too :-)).

nrbafna 16y ago

Home - 10:oopm - 11:59pm. College - 2:00am - 3:59am. Drinking nights - after 4:am.

sgallant 16y ago

Wow, the after 4am is almost double the before 10pm.

larsberg 16y ago

Just before 10pm, and up at 4am to get in my workout and get to work before the hungover morning slacker crowd gets in.

timtrueman 16y ago

I tend to alternate between two schedules for a week or more at a time: 12-2AM: Life is busy and I've lost track of time but I am always in bed by 2AM. 10PM (ish): My body is in tune with the sun and so I'm waking up at 5-6AM by the light. I find I usually need naps to make it through the day but this schedule is usually my most productive. I get onto this schedule when I crash early from staying up late for an entire week or when I spend time outdoors (e.g. camping for a week in Yosemite under the stars).

kylec 16y ago

I wish you had overlapping intervals, as I usually go to be around 2AM but it varies. My choices are "12:00am - 1:59am" and "2:00am - 3:59am". Since it's about half and half, I voted for both.

SoftwareMaven 16y ago
That was the same problem I was having. My time is usually 1-3am.

petercooper 16y ago

Between 7 and 9am. I do the night shift because we have a baby. That way my wife gets a full 8 hours of sleep and can be an even better care giver during the day.

moomba 16y ago

Seems like it would be hard to go to bed after 4 am on a consistent basis. I'd like to know the schedule of those people. Probably a lot different from mine (I go to bed around 12).

CRASCH 16y ago

I go to bed late sometime after 3:00am and before the sun comes up. It really sucks trying to fall asleep when it is bright. I stay up late out of necessity. I work from home (on my startup) and I have a large family. That means the only time I get uninterrupted time is after 11:00pm. I need the uninterrupted time for the difficult problems. Other work I can bang out during the day. The down side is I sleep until noon. When I had a 9-5, I stayed up until 2:00-3:00 got up at 8:00 and was in the office by 9:00. I would catch up on sleep over the weekends.

thedigitalengel 16y ago

The early to bed and early to rise paradigm works incredibly well for me - there is something about being up before sunrise that boosts my productivity. I sleep 5 hours when I'm not working out and around 8 hours when I am; which means my sleeping hours are either [12 AM, 5 AM] or [10 AM, 6 AM].

sabj 16y ago

In the silence of the night, the world hums and purrs with silent energy -- the tantalizing electric potential of opportunity, latent in the night air, each pregnant moment of reflection brimming with inspirations born unheralded from the ether. So yes, late night is the way to go for me. While other sleep, I dream.