Sleep Cycle

If you know me pretty well or have ever lived with me then you know that I love to sleep. I'm like a cat. I require WAY too much sleep to survive. But now that I work from home, I have developed some very bad sleep habits. On a typical night I am in bed by midnight or so... It's the "or so" part that really gets me. Sometimes I get in an editing groove and stay up til 1, 2, or sometimes pushing 3am if I'm really on a roll. Now I rarely stay up that late just because. I stay up that late because I work best in the midnight (and beyond) hours. I'm not sure why -- I'm sure there have been studies done -- my brain goes into overdrive around 10pm and thinks it's time to work super hard. But for some reason I get more accomplished in those 3 or 4 hours than I do any other time of the day.

The problem? The rest of the world gets up at reasonable times like 6, 7 or 8 am while I am still sleeping because I've only just crawled into bed. If I don't get into bed til 3am, sometimes I'll sleep til 11am and so starts the endless cycle. Because I slept so late, I eat breakfast around noon, lunch around suppertime and supper around 9pm... You see the problem here.

I think there are several reasons why I do this:

• I've always been a night owl. 
• I don't have a regular day to day schedule. Each day differs depending on whether I have a shoot or not, what I'm editing that day, if I'm traveling, etc. 
• My husband doesn't have a regular schedule. Being a retail manager his schedule is every changing as well. One day he may work a 7am-4pm and the next day he may work a 2pm-midnight shift. 
• I not really a "stick to a schedule" type of gal.
• I'm weird. 

The solution? So here's what I have done time and time again to break the cycle: I go to bed on time (sometime around 11:30 or midnight) and get at a normal time (by 8am). That way, I'm tired again by 10 or 11pm. This is an easy way to break the cycle but you forget my most productive hours are in the wee morning hours.

source

So here's the question? How do I make the most of my awake hours so that I may get a proper night's sleep and at a normal hour?

All of the things I'm coming up (such as make lists, plan ahead, get organized, set priorities) make me sound old and boring. Sigh. I guess that's what comes with owning your own business. SOMEONE'S got to be organized. I guess it has to be me, huh.