I’m not sure what it is about the middle of the night that I find so appealing, but I find it to be the best time of the “day”. Maybe it’s my ADHD or Autism brain, but I always find the time between midnight and four or five AM to be peaceful and quiet in a way that seems to dissipate the stress I feel during “normal” operating hours. There’s something about the lack of activity or expectations from other people that soothes me. Additionally, with no one else using the internet, it seems to work more smoothly.

I don’t know how else to put it, really. There’s a certain sense of freedom to being awake when no one else is. I don’t often get to feel like that at any other time. I always feel like I’m moving to the beat of someone else’s drum or that I am living a life based on someone else’s milestones. There are no expectations of what you’re supposed to be

The quiet stillness of the world in the early hours of the morning is soothing. I think it’s part of the reason why I have discovered a love of stargazing. Not only because space is fascinating, but looking up at the night sky and having the time and the peace and quiet to well and truly enjoy what you are looking at is very satisfying.

Being awake when no one else is is one of the few times I feel inner peace and truly relaxed. No one wants or expects anything of me. That time is truly my own and no one else’s; it is one of the few times when I feel like I can be my real self and not what I think certain people want me to be.

I’ve seen other neurodivergent people express similar sentiments, so maybe it is an ADHD/Autism thing, I don’t know, but there’s just a lot less pressure to perform a certain way and to mask, because there isn’t anyone to mask for.

So those are a few reasons why the small hours of the night/early morning are my favourite time of day!