Is It Just Me, or Do Editors Never Sleep?

(from flickr user Juliet Ulman)

Electric Velocipede's excellent assistant editor, Anne Zanoni, often chides me about the hours I keep. Mostly that they are late and therefore: not good for my health.

She's not wrong. I keep very late hours. And early hours. I do not sleep very much. This is mostly by choice, so I try not to complain since I'm in control of getting more sleep. A typical day has me awake before 7 a.m. and into bed by 2 a.m. Yes, you read that right, my typical day runs 19 hours. Not off-the-wall, and I suspect a lot of you out there keep similar hours. But five hours of sleep each night is not enough.

I think many editors are night owls, but most of the editors that I know enjoy sleep and try to fit in as much as they can during the day. I, on the other hand, live by the motto: sleep is for the weak. I try to cram in as much waking time as I can during the day.

For me, I try to spend time with my family during the hours that they're all awake. This leaves me to do my publishing/freelance work after they go to bed, which is currently around 9 p.m. I'm not always right on the computer at 9, so it's more like 10 before I'm working. And I try to do e-mail last, so my e-mail time stamps run into the early a.m.

Right now, though, I am tired. I have a new born and bronchitis which are at odds with each other. Add to that the fact that I've been working 7-3 the past few weeks to cover people's vacations, and still staying up past midnight...well, it's a recipe for disaster. My plan the rest of the week is to go to bed before 10.

We'll see how that works.