There are two kinds of people in this world – people who love 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.
Well, 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.
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.
17. 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.
16. 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.
15. 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.
14. 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.
13. 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.
12. 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.
11. 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.
10. Unrequited love.
The stars.
I’ve got a big crush on stars.
9. 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.
8. It’s a different world.
The calmness and quietness of the surroundings, especially when places that are usually crowded are completely empty.
7. The nighttime sounds are soothing.
I just love the serene feeling during the night.
The gentle sounds of crickets are calming to the ears.
6. Lots of heaven-gazers, here.
The night sky is a huge sell for me.
Especially storm season. That and less people around
5. 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.”
4. 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.
3. 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)
2. 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
1. 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!
