At risk of belaboring a point, here are some things I've learned during my vampiric winter:

- When you sleep in the day, it's really difficult to keep track of time. I think that the variations in light during the day help us remember which day is which and what happened when. In other words, if Tuesday is cloudy and Saturday is really sunny, it's easier to hold those days individually in your mind than if you always are asleep during sunlight hours. Nights always look the same, unless you're really into stargazing or something. When you combine this with the fact that I work six days a week, I really can't keep track of time at all. Ask me what I did on the weekend, and I'm like, "Uh. Um. When was the weekened again? Oh. Uh. OK."

- There is a strange sleep/wake window at certain times of the day. In other words, if you stay awake until it's fully daytime, like after 9:30am or so, your body then believes that it is DAYTIME, and you should NOT BE SLEEPING. Likewise, if you sleep past dusk, it becomes very difficult to get up even if you've had 10 hours of sleep. Sometime I'd like to do an experiment where I wake up at 6pm, then just allow myself to go back to sleep and see how many hours I can remain unconcious. I suspect it's around 14.

- Lately, I've been experiencing something I like to call "Daylight Cravings Time." It works like this. I go to sleep at my normal time, around 7-8am. I wake up around 9-10am, and I am WIDE AWAKE. I feel fully rested and ready to start my day. I force myself to go back to sleep only to wake up again, feeling wide awake again, around noon. After some struggle, I go to sleep again, then wake up in the late afternoon with daylight either gone entirely or rapidly waning, and I feel like I haven't slept at all. I'm tired all night until dawn approaches, at which time I am filled with energy.

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