Can You Change Your Circadian Rhythm—and Should You?
Self Magazine | 16.01.2026 04:13
A regular bedtime for me is 2 a.m. As I’m writing this (at midnight, no less), I can already imagine the emotions evoked on the faces reading this: shock, horror, and maybe even a little judgement. I get it all the time, being a life-long night owl. I’ve long been told my routine—sleeping from around 2 a.m. to 10 a.m.—is societally unacceptable and simply unsustainable, which piles onto the quiet guilt I sometimes feel for not working a “stable” job with regular hours. But as 2026 arrived, I decided I wanted to get to the bottom of whether I should be feeling bad about the way I manage my sleep; I’ve been like this for years, after all, and usually manage to make it work for me. So should I be trying to fix my circadian rhythm—and even if I wanted to, could I?
