As a freelancer, I prefer to work at night and rest during the day (I'm not a vampire, I swear)
Man, what a long title, it sounds like the name of a random manga about a working-class vampire trying to fool humans while just trying to live his life.
Erm... well, anyway.
I don't know what the deal with my circadian rhythm is but, ever since I'm conscious of my own existence, I have trouble sleeping at night. Or, to be more clear, trouble keeping the 8 hours of sleep regimen from late night until early morning. I always slept late and woke up late, even when I was a child (and luckily for my parents, I was a quiet and calm one).
I remember only a couple of times in my life when I was able to sleep from midnight to 8AM, and that only happened because I was working the whole day and going to classes at night. And, well, I don't recommend mental and physical exhaustion as a means to regulate sleep.
The only other time I was able to keep the "normal" sleep schedule without being exhausted was when I traveled through 8 time zones. As expected (or maybe not), as the week progressed, I went to bed ever so slightly later than the previous day until I was out of sync with the rest of society again.
Over the years, I noticed my natural sleep cycle tends to be from ~3AM to ~11AM. Taking melatonin doesn't change that, it just makes my sleep quality a bit better. If I'm able to sleep 8 hours from 11PM to 7AM or something like that, I spend the whole day sleepy and with no energy. It doesn't matter how long I try to keep the schedule going, my body just rejects it. So, now that I'm freelancing again, I'm letting my body dictate my sleep cycle.
Here's how that works: unless I have to deal with something that requires interacting with society or services, I get up when I'm not feeling sleepy anymore, which is around 11AM. Waking up and having to face the horrors of the world — have you seen the state of things nowadays? It's not great — I eat a quick breakfast and sit on my computer. I check some work stuff and, if something needs to be done urgently, I do it, otherwise, I just... relax. Everything that a person would normally do after work, I do it before, be it side projects, research (for fun), chat with friends, play games, go to the supermarket, clean the house, and so on. Sometimes I take a quick nap in the afternoon (lol) and eat lunch.
When it's around 6 or 7PM, the world is getting quieter and, for some reason, my brain starts overclocking itself while my focus sharpens. I have no idea why, seriously, but it's when I sit comfortably in my chair, open the projects and start working for real. I make a few quick pauses if I feel my mind is getting tired, but I keep going until the day's load is finished. That happens usually around 2 or 3AM, which amounts to... 8 hours of work. Then I eat something, wind down my brain, and go to sleep.
I can't state enough how relaxing it is to work when the whole world has quieted down, there's a cool breeze flowing, and the sun isn't trying to burn or blind me through the windows. I keep only warm lights on at night, which helps with a feeling of... coziness, I guess, and it makes me feel less pressured about work, even when I'm overloaded.
I'm not sure if using my free time before work, instead of after, changes anything, but it feels very natural for me, like the day flows better. I'm not advocating for people to follow a schedule like mine, it's just that... I do feel better overall living like this. It's weird, but it's truly the idea of "listen to your body" or something like that. It's not revenge bedtime procrastination, but probably something related to delayed sleep phase disorder, and I know I'm very lucky to be able to move my daily schedule freely, a privilege few people have in this day and age.
So, yeah, I know there are more people like me out there, and they (probably like me) must also hate the typical hours society chose to operate. I'd love to go to a restaurant at midnight and, on the way back, stop at a supermarket to buy a few things, or not having to wake up at 7AM to deal with government bureaucracy in person and stuff like that.
There must be, like, at least dozens of us around the world.