10 Great Ways To Stay Up Late At Night

I don't have insomnia. I can sleep just fine.
As long as I don't do it before midnight.

Each night, I end up fighting this inner battle that's been with me ever since I can remember...

First, I'm just a late-night person. The later it gets, the more energetic and creative and focused I become.

The second thing is relatively recent. I'm getting old. Which means I can't sleep as long as I used to. Now, on those nights where I'm particularly exhausted, I go to sleep at 11pm and wake up before 5am. I try to get under the covers and sleep more, but it just doesn't happen.

So, because my energy rises with the moon and it's not best for me to go to bed early, I've come up with some great ways to stay up late and occupy yourself.

1. Video games. You knew this one would be right up there, didn't you? Fans of video games know this - there's something relaxing and restful about video games. It's even better because I am terrible at them. Playing late at night means I can struggle for an hour before Mario finishes the level and no one will judge me. (Like my 9-year old son.)
   
   
2. Cereal. Oh, sure. Cereal is fine in the morning, but I think we all know that sweet, crunch stuff is really built for the midnight hours.
   
   
3. Reading. This is a great time to catch up on Bible reading (Oh, okay...like I'm the ONLY person out there who gets behind on Bible reading?) or some other encouraging works. I like read a lot of dumb stuff, too, but late night always seems especially designed for digging deep before bed.
   
   
4. TV. You gotta' clear the DVR out somehow, right? For me, this is where you plow through that Netflix queue. Don't you?
   
   
5. Exercise. Can't do this TOO late (you know...the muggings) but I swear to you I can run farther at 10pm than any other time of the day.
   
   
6. Blogging. You know, a lot of people ask me when I come up with such insightful, humorous helpful posts on my blog. Okay. No one ever asks me that. BUT WHEN THEY DO, I'll gladly say "late at night!"
   
   
7. Planning. I'm not talking about work. (That's #9 on this list.) But late at night is a great time to look over your schedule, research taking a trip with your family or planning out goals for the next week, month or even year!
   
   
8. Songwriting. When I first started in full-time ministry, I thought I'd work on songwriting every single day. Not so much. While you can't necessarily kick off a full-on jam session in the kitchen at midnight, but late at night is a great time to spend some time on those tricky lyrics or figure out a chord progression.
   
   
9. Work. I know what you're thinking..."Work at night? At home? What are you, Todd, some kind of workaholic?" If you're accusing me of being a workaholic, you don't know me very well, but I am resolute! Working at night after everybody is in bed is awesome! In fact, your house may be the one quiet place you can concentrate each day!
   
   
10. Online Stalking. How else am I supposed to be engaged in countless interesting common threads, browse thousands of cell phone pictures posted online or find out what my friends (and enemies) are up to? And face it...online stalking just isn't the same in the middle of the day.