Is there a noticeable difference between sleeping at different times of the day in regards to your general performance? My Google-fu is weak and all I’m getting is definitions, health benefits, and how much you need.
For example, will I not function as well if I sleep from 12 pm - 8 pm as opposed to 12 am to 8 am?
YMMV, but there IS a difference for a lot of people.
Jet lag is probably the best known example.
People who work different shifts are also known to experience issues. And even the amount of daylight affects how some people sleep.
There are studies that link night shifts, or even just working at different hours (during the day) from a consistent 9-5 job, to health issues ranging from heart disease to obesity, even cancer (one theory is that exposure to light when you are sleeping causes problems; if true, ensuring the room you sleep in is completely dark would help).
What works best for me is a six hour sleep during the night. Then a nap in the afternoon. The nap doesn’t have an alarm. When the body is rested you will know and wake up naturally. I find the afternoon nap to be a very deep sleep.
I read that teenagers’ sleep pattern naturally moves to later, so they go to bed later and wake up later. This is not related to just staying up late being naughty, it’s an actual physiological thing. There were experiments done having them start later at school and they did much better because it fit better with their natural rhythm.
Later in life you start moving on to waking up earlier and earlier, which is why old people often wake up very early and go to bed very early.
Can’t remember where I read that…
ETA: ah, it’s mentioned here