There are two kinds of people out there: people who like to get up early and get things done, and people who love to stay up late, work all night, and let the rest of us have the daylight hours to ourselves.
I guess technically there are three kinds of people, because there are always those who would rather be night folks but are forced by society to operate in daylight hours. Boo for them.
If you’re a day person and wondering what it is that night people love so much about the dark, here are 18 people willing to share their very favorite things.
1. We all have our own problems.
All those toxic types i.e: “Life is a gift, let’s all be happy, yay” are asleep.
Everything is silent, there’s no sunlight burning out my eyeballs and I can just be myself: calm and content.
t: I’m a ginger. Sunlight burns.
2. People bad, animals good.
Much fewer people.
Night animals.
No pressure. Nothing being asked or expected of me.
3. Nights inspire poetry.
Nightman, sneaky and mean
Spider inside my dreams, I think I love you
You make me wanna cry
You make me wanna die
I love you
I love you
I love you
I love you, Nightman
4. They might be vampires.
There’s no sun.
Brought some garlic who wants it.
5. Out of the heat.
Things are much quieter, the air is much cooler, and I don’t have to do anything.
I am finally by myself and can do whatever I want.
I pretty much spend the whole day waiting for it to end lol.
6. If this matters to you, it really matters.
Less sensory stimulation. The end.
The moon, cricket sounds, no glare on the TV.
I have social anxiety so I like checking the mail and taking out trash at night because there’s less people, spooky shows are better at night, lots of animals come out.
7. True peace.
True peace, ya know?
Not being interrupted because someone wants something or there is a task that needs to be done.
8. Navel-gazing abounds.
Sometimes I can just chill with no one there to bother me.
I end up feeling like one of those lofi characters. It makes me feel whole in a strange way. It’s just the right temperature, the shining moon barely illuminating the beautiful view of my surrounding area, my pets contentedly sleeping while I do something like play a relaxing game, read, sketch, watch a nice show, or just generally chill.
And then of course, there is the feeling of being perfectly content. Around this time I consider everything I have and how lucky I am to have everything I do and try to remember not to take anything for granted and savor every moment. Then, I fall into sleep.
9. Do whatever you want.
During the early morning I mean 2 AM to 4 AM nobody expects you to do anything other than sleep.
The normal thing is that if you have something to do it is done during the day so the early morning is completely yours To do whatever you want
But If you want something a little more romantic: in my case i live in a big city, quite noisy but a little over a year ago I started renting this house with a balcony, from which you can see a large part of the city, and a few months ago I realized that sometimes around 3 in the morning the city goes completely silent for a few minutes no cars, dogs, cats, people or any type of sound other than that of the wind.
And it is beautiful.
10. A holy time.
The night is sacred, the universe allows us a small look into the holy void, the moon who mercifully slowed our planet’s rotation continues her vigil over us.
The deep things of the night sing their songs while the meaningless screeching of a pointless society halts if only for a few hours…
What’s not to like?
11. You’ve gotta appreciate this.
It makes me feel sneaky, like a bandit, or an old-timey outlaw on the lam… it adds a cinematic element to mischievous tip-toing abouts, even if there’s no one else in my domicile to disturb with my witching hour antics.
If I’m up particularly late (as is the case tonight), I particularly enjoy working on art in my studio, low music humming, objects lightly rustling as my little fingers explore my many glass jars and wooden boxes filled with my myriad precious objects–bones, scraps of metal, wood, and other natural or man-made debris that I acquire throughout the day, squirreled away like pilfered goods in my pockets to be emptied and catalogued for future use.
In punctuating the silence, these sounds, otherwise gone unnoticed amidst the chaos of day, remind me that I am a living being, that my movements have an impact. This reminder feels important, although I’m sure I can properly articulate why. So, I listen.
My brain is always chit chit chattering to itself throughout the day. Maybe it’s the ADHD, maybe I’m just too curious for a world as large and with as much access to information as this particular chapter in history provides, and all of this stimulus and movement and all of the bright sounds–the blaring of horns, the mosaic of overlapping conversations outside my window, bottles and cans hitting pavement, tires brrring as they stop at the intersection–keep me from holding a thought long enough to make it meaningful.
At night, I follow a singular sound–the staccato thud of my beating heart, my steady breath, the sussurus of the wind as it winds its way between the buildings, gently passed through by distant cars, cascading downwards and bounding upwards, touching without touching every object and living thing, including the acquaintance of my windows.
It’s almost as though, at night, the world becomes more considerate–all things are made soft. The light dimmed, noises hushed, activity muted. I like it here, where it is steady, and gentle, and my thoughts collect either to meander, winding as they please into quiet contemplation, or to find their centre, where I can sit down and process a task at length without interruption. When the world goes to sleep, it also opens. To nocturnal animals. To surreptitious meetings. To solitary walks. To meditation. To mischief. To both liberation and dedication of thought. And the beat beats. And beats. And beats. And beats. Steady, and gentle, into the morning.
12. The rise of meaningless screeching.
There’s nothing that feels quite as dreadful as the rise of that meaningless screeching, a few hours before sunrise. Noise pollution, light pollution, sound pollution. We take up so. much. space. despite sharing it with thousands of animals and other critters.
At least at night the light pollution, albeit annoying and destructive to the environment, is the least of our worries.
That roar of traffic seems inescapable, like some f**ked up collective tinnitus.
That holy void is the one peaceful break we get in most towns and cities.
13. You can let go of the responsibility.
My sensitivity to outside noises and stimulus go down.
My dogs are asleep, so I no longer need to keep one ear on them.. kid is asleep so I don’t have to really listen out if he needs something. The road is quieter. Delivery drivers don’t come to make the dogs bark. No one besides myself needs anything.
For a few hours I’m only in charge of myself and I’m low maintenance compared to everything else
14. The creative juices start flowing.
The quietness of it, I find I’m a lot more creative and can get more work done during the night because of that
Some video games are more fun if you play them at night.
I’m gonna give Subnautica a try soon, I have been told that is better if you play it at night.
15. Are they born or made?
I have been a night person my whole life. I love the quiet and calm of night. I feel like night people have a different mindset.
I used to be a morning person in middle school and high school. 2nd semester of college came a little over a year ago and messed up my sleep schedule; I pulled 1 all-nighter, but I mostly stayed up till about 2 am doing what I need to do.
My favorite things about the night include (but are not limited to: stargazing, city lights, cricket sounds, relaxing
16. Parents know what they’re doing.
The kids are asleep.
And, for example, I can make myself something to eat and a)not have to make 3 of them b) not have to share any c) not have to listen to any whining or bitching about any aspect of it.
And I can do all of that while listening to my old man 80s rock and reminisce with myself about high school, because for as much as high school itself sucked balls, the music was amazing.
17. Their brains are wired differently.
My prime functioning time is around 10pm-5am. i really enjoy the night sky, and lack of people in places that are typically crowded.
The streets are quiet, the air is still, and i feel so awake. i wish more of the world operated in the night.
I intentionally switched my retail shift from mornings to evenings because the early hours were practically killing me.
Everyone else prefers the morning, but I roll in during the afternoon and clock out deep into the night. Works just fine for me. 🙂
18. It just smells different.
Night air has a different smell, especially in Spring. Flowers, rain, wet earth… all smell different at night to me.
I feel the same about night winter air, particularly when it’s snowing. Everything is calm and quiet, with a slight glow from lights being reflected between houses and clouds, and the soft sound of snowflakes hitting the ground. I used to stand at my bathroom window for ages in the middle of the night, leaning on the windowsill and breathing in the crisp cold air that just smells like snow (if you know, you know), watching the snow fall, with the occasional snowflake making its way through the screen to hit my face.
Such a sense of peace, it slows down my brain and I can stop thinking for awhile, just enjoy the silence and totally relax. Best way to wind down for a good sleep, nothing can match it. I miss that.
19. It would be easier to work from home in the middle of the night, for sure.
I can do whatever I want without anyone interrupting me.
I wish I lived alone in the middle of nowhere so whatever ruckus I make wouldn’t bother anyone.
I have more energy at night than at daytime.
20. Even some flowers come out to play.
I have flowers that bloom at night, so I love to sit on my back porch in the middle of the night, listen to the crickets chirp, and seeing the moonlight reflect off of my garden. 0
There’s nobody else around, it’s quiet, and it’s the only time I feel at peace.
During the day I feel like I need to be productive, there’s traffic and people and kids playing and tons of stuff to do, but like right now, 1:30am, I can sit on my porch and just be.
21. Which is hard to find these days.
Nobody else is awake. It’s true privacy.
Cruising around town at some odd hour of the night is a serene experience. It’s almost surreal.
I do this pretty often. A lot of late nights at the studio or other places and then I’m on my way home at 2 or 3am, enjoying the peaceful drive.
It’s really something else.
22. The pull of the moon.
The peace and quiet, it’s cooler ( temperature wise ) and I love the moonlight shining in my room.
It’s the peace for me. Nothing is more relaxing than being alone to recharge and just exist. No entertaining or compromising, just you doing you
It’s like the inside version of a breath of fresh air.
I prefer the porous rock to the giant searing ball of hatred in the sky.
23. Peace abounds.
the general lack of people. I work 3rd shift, and unlike my daywalking cohorts, I can listen to a podcast and do paperwork in relative peace because there’s a solid 3 hours in the middle of the night where I am left the heck alone.
I work 1930-0800 with a small crew and can pop in earbuds or whatever. Then on days off, I could be found running on one of the random country roads around my house at 2am but it’s rare anyone is out there.
I usually just run in the moonlight and only turn on my headlamp if a car is coming. I like my solitude.
The pandemic has been just fine on me.
24. Just enjoy the present.
The calmness, the serenity.
The night drive with windows open, no music, just the sound of my tires hitting the ground.
Man i could hear the brakes sound, i could hear the wheel turn.
Night time is like, we forget the problem of the world and just enjoy the present.
25. As long as your neighbors sleep.
It’s so quiet. And peaceful.
It feels like during the day the world is so busy and chaotic. At night it’s all zen.
This is why I want a house… my neighbors in the apartment complex are so damn loud. On one side is a twitch streamer and she’s screaming at her games until 4 or 5am most days. Above me is a couple that works opposite shifts so there’s always someone awake listening to music, vacuuming, doing the dishes, or… moving furniture around I guess, in the middle of the night.
If I leave my bedroom window open for some cool air, I’ll probably end up hearing the couple across the way fighting in their bedroom, which then makes other people’s dogs start barking.
I really miss being able to stay up a bit late to get some peace and quiet. Now I gotta turn on all the fans and a white noise machine to drown everything else out enough to sleep.
26. Unrequited love.
The stars.
I’ve got a big crush on stars.
27. The wildlife is adorbs.
The quiet, the lack of people, the wildlife is more active.
There are possums (Australian possums) living in our roof, and at night they like come out and sit on the verandah railings. I love leaving the curtains open so I can watch them play. They’ve all got names, they’ve got their own personalities and quirks.
There’s a family of wombats living in a burrow under the garden shed, and a couple of wallabies that visit at night. We also get visits from flying foxes, owls, tawny frogmouths.
28. It’s a different world.
The calmness and quietness of the surroundings, especially when places that are usually crowded are completely empty.
29. The nighttime sounds are soothing.
I just love the serene feeling during the night.
The gentle sounds of crickets are calming to the ears.
30. Lots of heaven-gazers, here.
The night sky is a huge sell for me.
Especially storm season. That and less people around
31. It eases the anxiety.
No expectations.
Daytime feels like I’m expected to do productive life things.
Nighttime, all I have to do is be quiet and no one expects anything else from me.
I can knit or read for hours and not feel like I’m “wasting the day.”
32. If people just aren’t your thing.
Day people are all asleep. Stores aren’t crowded. Less traffic.
I always do my grocery shopping late at night, so much more peaceful.
I just turn on my headphones and wander around a close to empty store.
33. There is downtime for everyone.
I think I was always a night person vs a morning person.
But it only got to very much be the case after I started working in high-stress jobs with long hours. Where despite being exhausted, I would still stay up for a few more hours into the night than I should have just to watch TV or read or clean or anything. It was my way of carving out at least a few hours of my day that were entirely mine to control and to do what I wanted to do, even if I knew it would make me miserable in the morning.
(I also know for a lot of people the gym can be that period too, and even though I was obviously under no obligation to go to the gym and always felt better after, it never really felt like “me” time as much as something I still felt like I had to do to stay in shape)
34. Nothing is a waste of time.
You have no obligations and no one expects anything of you.
You can stare at a wall for three hours or count blades of grass on your lawn and you don’t feel like you’re wasting time.
i’ve started doing stretches outside in my yard at 1am and i just love the sound and feel of night— the owls hooting, the coyotes howling, the calm of the wind.
I love the stars and the moonlight, it’s like magic to me for 30 minutes
35. You can just relax.
Does anyone else feel anxious that they need to be doing something productive while the sun is out? At night I feel relaxed. Office is closed. Everyone is asleep. No one is going to bug me, and there’s nothing I can do about particular problems even if I wanted to, so no one is going to mind if I’m just here chilling out doing nothing… right?
Only time I’ve really been able to get work done since the pandemic started is at night. My parents have a dog that barks a lot and even with (cheap) noise cancelling headphones, I can still hear him. Before covid, I could at least go somewhere quieter to study. When he and my parents are asleep, I know he won’t be barking. Of course, I can’t do that if I need to be in a call, so I either need to mute my mic and get flack for not participating much, or let everyone hear him bark constantly.
I can definitely see the appeal, but with kids and school and a job, there are only a lucky few who can pull it off.
Are you a night owl? Early bird? Tell us your favorite part of the day in the comments!
