I used to think I kept odd sleeping hours, working freelance from home as I do. But after reading interviews of other artists, I find myself in the norm, as far as artists go. Why artists can't seem to keep normal business hours is a mystery to me. Certainly evening hours finds the rest of our time-zone fast asleep, so that we're left alone to create, uninterrupted by phone calls and other distractions. I get the vague feeling, however, that even without daytime interruptions we'd still prefer to work while the zombies are up and about.One thing is for certain: my wife would prefer I worked a normal schedule. If I thought I had the discipline to do so, I'd actually prefer it also. But when I'm in the groove, or when deadlines are due, I can't rationalize going to bed when I have plenty of energy left to work. Perhaps it's the caffeine, but whatever it is, I don't want to lie down. I know exactly how my children feel when they don't want to go to bed. Thankfully I'm old enough to stay up if I like, and no one can tell me otherwise. I often tell my wife that if I could live without sleep, I'd never go to bed. Life is too short, and there's too much to do. The concept of boredom is entirely foreign to me. The drawback to a nocturnal lifestyle is never seeing the daylight (a statement that may be entirely redundant). Sure, I see the sun rise -- right before I climb into bed. And there's no worse feeling than having slept the day away, even if I only got eight hours or less sleep. There's something I like about rising while it's still dark and the house is quiet, and accomplishing a ton of work before noon rolls around. But every time I attempt that routine, it's only a matter of days before I decide I don't want to go to bed, and I'm off to a nocturnal schedule once again. I can't quite kick the zombie habit.
