Living 1 To 9 In A 9 To 5 Society

If you normally wake up at around 7:30 am or 8:00 am and start work at 9 am...

Imagine if every regular job started at 5 am and an early meeting started at 4:30 am or earlier.

Imagine regularly getting a phone call from a client at 5 am who needs you to jump on something immediately.

Imagine if almost every shop closed at 1 pm apart from some supermarkets which close at 4 pm.

Imagine if every doctor closed at 1 pm apart from on 'special days' when they close at 4 pm.

Imagine if every service you have to interact with closed at 1 pm.

Imagine if every restaurant or takeaway closed at 7 pm and last bookings were 6 pm.

Imagine if every pub closed at 7 pm.

Imagine if every nightclub closed at 9 pm or 10 pm.

Imagine if all your friends regularly went to bed at 7 pm.

Imagine that's every day of every year.

Now imagine almost no-one cares or understands. Not your friends, not your partner, not your family, not your doctor.

I'm pretty sure you actually can't. I'm pretty sure you think you can but try it.

You have to wake yourself up at 4 am at the latest every morning and get to work for 5 am (hey you'll love the traffic, but I'm afraid there are likely no buses running).

Try to convince your boss that you need to start at 5 am and finish at 1:30 pm.

If you don't manage to make it to work for 5 am then get your boss to give you a quick meeting about your time keeping and how you need to improve it.

Try for a month to eat breakfast at 4 am, lunch at 8 am, and dinner at 1 pm or 2 pm. You're not allowed to eat anything after 3 pm.

Try for a month to not go to a high street shop or contact any business that you need to interact with after 1 pm (You'll just have to do it tomorrow).

Try for a month to not go food shopping after 4 pm. If it's after 4 pm you can buy from a shop that stays open till 11 pm up until 7 pm in the evening (local co-op/tesco express/corner shop).

Try for a month to not do anything social of an evening after 7 pm.

If you've got a social event that starts at 6 pm try getting there for 2 pm and leave at 7 pm.

After 7 pm, go home and sit alone and don't interact with anyone in your social circle. You're not allowed to talk to your partner, kids, friends, anyone.

Go to bed at 7:30 pm or earlier. Try and sleep.

You can't phone any friends or family after 5 pm. You can't SMS them, email them, or interact with them on social media.

Go on try it, just for a month. Now imagine doing it for over 20 years.

This is an approximation of chronic Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder in a 9 to 5 society. I cannot stress enough how this is just an approximation and not the actual reality.

This is every day of every year in my adult life. This is not considered to be a disability. This is mostly considered to be "you are lazy". Get at least one of your acquaintances, colleagues, or even friends, to tell you that you are lazy or you just need to go to bed earlier at least once a week. Try going to bed earlier as they suggest. Try removing caffeine and/or sugar. Try not using technology. Try closing the curtains and not having any lights on of an afternoon/evening.

Now imagine that on top of this you've been mentally abused, had a breakdown leading to physical disorders, are suffering from anxiety and depression disorders, and are trying to get your life back together.

No, I'm not sure what to do either but I'm still working on it.

(If you normally wake up earlier than 8:00 am then take whatever the difference is away from all the times here. If you normally wake at 7:00 am then every 4 pm becomes 3 pm, every 1 pm becomes midday and so on. If you manage to shift to waking up at 4 am then take another hour off of everything and wake up at 3 am.)