Poll: When do you usually go to bed?

102 points by antichaos ↗ HN
I'd like to confirm that most hackers are night owls.

53 comments

[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 103 ms ] thread
It's amusing that there are about 20 votes for the options, but only one person upvoted the actual post.
I usually only use the upvote to save a story (bookmark it).
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.
Well, the "before 10:00pm" option is likely skewed by the poll being posted after 10pm in all US and EU timezones :)
When I woke up before 6am, it was at 1. Then 2 (with my vote). Now it's creeping back up...
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!

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". ;)
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.

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.

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.
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.
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.
Most people have this issue, some to a larger degree than others, if they don't give themselves strong light cues.
I'm on vacation and I am experiencing 'the creep' I have to get up at 6am tomorrow but currently I am going to bed at 3am. I'm not a morning person either, I'm going to die :(
That is usually the point that I decide the three hours sleep isn't worth the pain getting up will cause.
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.
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.
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.

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.
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.
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.

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

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.
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.

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.
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.
I usually go to bed around 1 and wake at 8:30 to get in to work before 10.
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.
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.

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
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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"? :-)

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...
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.

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.