There’s something that has me a little puzzled. So I have to ask you this (even if it’s none of my business!): are some of you doing night shifts? Because, even taking into account the different time zones around the world, I notice that some of your posts are being sent in the darkest hour. Or maybe you suffer from insomnia? Unless you are so hooked to English-test that you are still typing away when you should be tucked up in bed – or, worse still, you get up in the middle of the night to send your posts? I’m a bit of a night owl myself, but I usually call it a day around midnight (one or two a.m. is my limit).
Good point! Another question - what did people do before we burst online?
Alan
Hi Conchita,
You seem to notice details such as the time when the posts have been submited:)
I myself rarely have sleepless nights. Occasioanlly, if there happens to be a full moon. And since I can’t sleep and there’s nothing interesting to do in the middle of the night, I surf in the internet. Instead of wasting my time I do prefer doing something useful as reading posts which will definitely add up a lot to my knowledge. But I must admit I am not a night owl, my “power” is in the day:)
If you can make it up to such late hours (1 or 2 am) I would say that you yourself have night shifts. The best time for me to go to bed is a little after my daughter who is 7 years old. I don’t even dare say how early that is but it’s easy to guess:)
With me it’s insomnia. My e-mail correspondents make the same remark about the times my messages are sent. I also have the problem that my body’s natural sleeping time is from 4 a.m. to 10 a.m., and if I don’t have to be anywhere early in the morning, I have a lot of trouble not waking up.
Alan, before I started posting to English-Test, I did much more destructive things online, such as shopping.
Thank you all for satisfying my insatiable curiosity. It’s reassuring somehow to know there is a (safe and decent!) place where you can find someone at any time of night and day.
By the way, I have another question regarding the expression ‘to burn/pass the midnight hour’. Does it mean to do something at midnight? Or, perhaps, to be still working past midnight? Thank you.
Hi Conchita,
I wonder if you’re thinking of burn the midnight oil? meaning work late into the night. Then again if you try and do too much in a day you’re burning the candle at both ends.
Pardon me if I’m teaching grandmother how to suck eggs purely meant as a figure of speech as I’m sure grandmother is the last word I’d use personally for you.
The putative septuagenarian,
Alan
Thank you, Alan, for enlightening me. The light is burning brightly now!
I don’t think I would mind being a granny at all (or being called one…in due course!). Though I might have to wait quite a bit before I can be one!
You do like your new moniker, don’t you (and I just can’t miss an opportunity to show off all the fancy words I learn here)? Or is it that you need to get used to the sound of it before people start calling you that 
?
I think that the phrase “burning the midnight oil” goes back before electricity when we used oil lamps to see by - and you wouldn’t be using up such a resource unless you were working, so it became a phrase dealing with workaholics.
we just spend too much time online, I guess.
I mostly write when I’m working and I found the dead-spot of this forum (I couldn’t find a better term, sorry)
If I write something around three in the morning nobody sees it till about seven.
Jamie’s in different time-zone but the rest of You should be in bed earlier I guess
Spencer
Hi there! 
I think some of the reasons why some of us post on forums at the wee hour of the morning are as follows:
- I agree with Jamie’s insomnia - I think most of us who are always on the internet are night owls. I am one of those who can work late and be able to do my work more effectively at night/midnight because of less distractions.
- Sometimes, I find myself at a loose end.
- One instance I found myself on the net when I was at my wit’s end.
- Better still, my being keen as a mustard to the internet and what it can do to improve ourselves is one of the main reasons why I post at a very unholy hour of the day.
Regards to all 8)