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This comment makes me so goddamned angry.

Around the time I turned fourteen I lost my ability to fall asleep at night and wake up in the morning. I hung on to decent grades by "testing well," but never able to keep my head up during morning classes. All along people told me it was a discipline problem, and I followed their goddamned advice and got nowhere.

The last fifteen years of research in sleep and brain chemistry have validated my experience. It had nothing to do with self-accountability and responsibility; some people are night owls, others are not.

Fuck you for thinking that your personal experiences are indicative of me having “poor character.” Fuck you and your fucking career.




Personal attacks are not allowed on Hacker News no matter how wrong another person is.

We all know how activating it can be when someone treads callously into a painful area. But you need to let that surge pass before replying. Failing that, re-read your comment and edit out any uncivil bits after you post. In this case, deleting the first and last paragraphs would have made for a fine comment and a more effective rebuttal.


I mean dude, he's not talking to people with medical issues. I don't think anyone would besmirch you due to a medical condition. I think he's talking about people without sleeping conditions, just Gaussian distributed recruits that want to get in. The services will ask and test you on these clear issues like people that can't drink a gallon of water in under a minute or folks blind in one eye. Also, being a night owl is not a medical condition, what your brief comment describes is obviously a medical condition that would disqualify your from the services. You life is not in anyway easy because of it, as far as I can tell from this comment. It's not a big deal. However, if what the researchers say is true about the widespread 'night owl' prevalence in the population, then it is obviously not something that can't be corrected with a very loud and buff drill sergeant, as many many cohorts of incoming boot camps across the world for centuries have shown.


I went through basic training in open-floor barracks with a few folk who insisted they were 'night owls' and would play their music to 01:00 or later, falling asleep to the noise.

Initially the rest of us endured it and would turn-off the radio when they fell asleep, to then enjoy four hours sleep. After the second week, however, we managed to 'cure' the night owls.

I am sure many people suffer a medical condition that impairs sleeping. Most, however, do not.


Did you not read the bit where I said I spent years following the advice of sanctimonious pricks?




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