I've met several people who can't sleep because of depression and sometimes I ask them at what time they go to bed and they always say 1-2 AM. And when they ask me and it turns out I'm going to bed at 4, they always go "whoa, that's really late!" My psychologist said so, too... but like, to me, 1-2 AM is a normal time, 3-4 is pretty late, 5-6 is REALLY late, and then 7-8 is "oh my god how are you still awake". It's like my times were shifted by 2 hours compared to everyone else's expectations or something. Is it really that bad?
Well, I go to sleep at exactly the same time, but like, I'm not sure that it's evidence that it's good to do so.
Personally, I don´t think so. I feel best rested when I sleep between 4am and noon. It´s not typical, but I think if an earlier sleep pattern were good for me I would not be feeling like death when I have to stick to it, nor having such a hard time doing so. (While in school I had to get up at 6am every day. It was horrible and greatly contributed to making the experience bad.)
It's not inherently bad, but it depends - how do you feel? Some people (like littlemissCodeless!) really do best on a much later sleep schedule. Some people end up on such a schedule and... don't do so hot. Like me - I need a lot of natural light to function well. I'm most naturally suited to a schedule of walking up between 8 and 10, and going to bed around midnight to 2. I end up veering toward a much later schedule because I stay up too late talking to people online because so many of my friends are in a different hemisphere, and then I sleep too late because I'm overtired, and then I feel like crap because I slept too much, I get stressed out from having less daytime-time to do errands in and I get less light, my moods go to hell because a regular schedule is very necessary in for me to maintain a stable mood. If you're depressed or have some other mental illness, and/or you don't feel all that great physically, then it's entirely possible that your late schedule is contributing considerably to that.
It depends on your circadian rhythm One of the functions of the circadian rhythm is determining when you start getting tired, and when you're ready to wake up. If you're unhappy with the timing of your sleep cycle, you can change your circadian rhythm (to an extent), but if it's not causing you any problems then no, it's not bad. You might look into delayed sleep phase disorder, in which a person's circadian rhythm is either off from the average person's by a couple of hours or their circadian rhythm is longer than the standard 24 hours.
i tend to be a lot more alert when it is dark out, so i prefer to sleep during the day. i think i sleep best if i fall asleep just before sunrise too
Okay, good to know. Thanks for the replies, I... yeah, sometimes it's a problem, but mostly that has to do with how much I slept the day before, and at what time I need to get up. Maybe it's like, a mix of both things?
This is pretty much me too. If I have no responsibilities getting in the way, like work, appointments, etc, I tend to shift to going to bed at 4-5 am, often just getting tired when the sun starts to come up. I'm currently going to bed about 2am though, due to changed time zone and some other things, and it is not very fun. I'm just glad my job is from 2:30pm to 11:30, so once things are less messed up, I can shift things to at least another hour later.
My classes are from 5 to 10 pm and I find that really helpful. Taking my dog for a walk at 9AM is a pain, though. I usually come back and go immediately back to sleep for 3-4 more hours.