Burning the candle at both ends

My parents always tell people that I did nothing but sleep for the first three years of my life and since then I haven’t slept enough at all. It is true that I have always burnt the candle at both ends, living a kind of vampire-like existence. There are even websites for people who live like this. For example: http://www.nightowlnet.com/ and an interesting article by an artist: http://clicks.robertgenn.com/larks-owls.php

I hate early mornings and love the night time, I am actually more productive after 10pm. Oscar Wilde said that only dull people are brilliant at breakfast and I have to say I agree. An ex-girlfriend of an ex-boyfriend once said to me that she was awful if she got less than eight hours sleep (he said she was awful full-stop but I digress…). When I have to get up early, the alarm clock is the most horrendous sound in the universe. Snooze, five more minutes, snooze, five more minutes…

Now I have settled down, got married and had a child, my night owl nature has a more useful purpose than the ability to party until dawn and be the last to leave… Even though my son goes to nursery, there are not enough hours in the day to do everything I need to do, so I have adapted my body clock accordingly. I get up with him at around 9am, work, sometimes have a short siesta in the afternoon, spend time with my son until he goes to bed, usually nod off when I am trying to get him to sleep (that’s another story, he’s two and a half and still needs mummy to lie down with him, completely against parenting advice but at least I get forty winks) and then start my second shift once my husband goes to bed. You can see from the time of this post just how late it actually gets. I probably don’t get much more than 5.5 hours sleep a night during the week.

The main benefit of my work is that if I need some time off to rest, be with the family, travel or whatever, I can do it. This is the best type of work for a mum, I don’t need to go anywhere, I can take my laptop and work in a cafe or on the beach (I rarely do this to be honest but the option is always there). And I’m always around if my boy is ill or on holiday, no need for childcare panic. People often comment on why I don’t have eye bags like suitcases, it must be genes and luck.

I have had to be careful though as a client was slightly concerned when she noticed that her translation was sent at 2.30am! Many people have never even seen this time, let alone almost every night. To be honest though, I generally do not do the fine tuning and proofreading on a document very late at night as my brain is certainly not at its freshest, but obviously some clients set such tight deadlines that there is no other choice. This is another factor in my favour, that I can work late and guarantee the deadline without suffering too much.

By the way, just one last word for you morning larks: getting up late and going to bed late does not mean a person is lazy…