A lot of people ask me "How do you stay up all night? When do you sleep?"
One of the hurdles of working late nights is the that you can't really have a 'normal life'. Normal life is usually defined as waking up in the morning and getting ready for the day and heading to work. At the end of the day you come home and relax for a little bit, then do some chores, eat dinner and go to bed at the end of the day. Easy.
Not so with my job. Right now, I come home at about 5:30am and immediately sneak into bed. Unfortunately my bedroom faces East, which in Arizona is a bad thing. Facing East means that my room gets full sun exposure until about 3:00pm, which heats up the room like a toaster oven. Have you ever tried sleeping in a toaster oven with the sun blasting through the window? Not easy, but I manage with some super high tech items.
First: My awesome sexy sleep mask. I know its ridiculous, but I don't think I could sleep at all if it weren't for this stupid thing. It just keeps things nice and dark. No matter what you do you will always look stupid wearing one of these things. Except for maybe this sleep mask:
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| My lame, yet effective sleep mask... |
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| Arg, I be sleepin' in style! |
Second: Ear plugs. I live in a pretty large apartment complex, which means the yard guys are there almost everyday being as loud as possible. These things are meant to to be warn as ear protection when you're at the gun range. So they're pretty effective at blocking the sound from the guy leaf blowing the same spot of cement outside my window for 45 minutes.
With all the help I get from these babies I can't sleep past 12:30 or 1:00. I just cant seem to sleep longer. I'm still catching 6-7 hours of sleep a day, but I'll also catch a nap right before work to keep myself fresh.
Today especially was great because my wife stayed home from work all day with me to watch my son. It was really refreshing to spend my extra time with my favorite people. Its amazing how good you feel when you're with people who care about you.
As for staying up all night, I've found that your body sort of adapts eventually but a good source of caffeine really helps now and then. Here are some of my favorite caffeine sources:
Of course Dr Pepper is the most ready available source of yummy caffeine. I love a good soda and Dr Pepper is the best. If you get a chance head over to QuickTrip and mix yourself up a vanilla Dr Pepper. Tasty. And its from a doctor!
The one that seems to be working the best these late late nights is the infamous 5 Hour Energy. It tastes like crap and it burns your throat. One of the joys of caffeine that I enjoy is that it usually comes in a tasty liquid beverage, 5 Hour Energy does not. Yuck.
Last and absolutely not the least is a weird drink you have probably never seen or heard of: Yerba Mate! You're probably thinking that it looks slightly illegal and rather nasty. You would be wrong. I picked up drinking Mate while I was serving in New Jersey as an LDS missionary. Its a sort of herbal tea infusion that is drank (drunk? Whatever) in Argentina, Uruguay and parts of Brazil. I met a lot of people from those countries and they taught me to love this awesome drink. Its caffeinated, tastes great and it is really fun to drink, especially with friends! Sadly its not very popular in most of America, so people give you some really weird looks when you're sucking green weed tea out of a wood bowl, with a metal straw. Delicious.
Yerba Mate: Oh sweet caffeine.
So, with the help of a few simple tools, and some chemical helpers you too can be a Everyday All Nighter! I think part of the secret to staying up all night is best accomplished when you have a purpose. Mine is a the opportunity to work on a TV show in the middle of the night. You should have a reason to stay up late, but if not we can still keep each other company.
I'm planning on doing a video blog tomorrow, but I'm not sure if I'll make it but I'll try. Suggestions for future posts and the video would be greatly appreciated.
-The Everyday All Nighter
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