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Bass Insomnia?

ShredderMaximus

ShredderMaximus

Jan 10, 2007
1,226
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Close enough to San Fran
#1
hey, its 2 o' clock am here and I was just sitting playing on the ol' bass guitar and started wondering, anyone else out there suffer bass insomnia? I always find that my best improvise/writing abilities peak at 12-5 am and that this schedule can really interfere with normal daytime activities, like working, eating, and the dreaded super nap which leads back into the insomnia. I don't know why, but I always have a very strong urge to play once it gets late and if I try to force myself to sleep, my brain goes into overdrive mode and goes on creating what seem to be awesome riffs and tunes that if ignored, get lost forever. I am now only writing this to give my head a chance to breathe and I know tonight will probably an all nighter like usual. Anyone else get this? And if so, figured out any ways to get around it, I can't imagine I'm the only one afflicted, thanks
 
#2
I used to think that I suffered from this, then I finally got round to recording one of these late night practices, and I found that all my 'killer riffs' were pretty lame: it was just that my brain was so addled from lack of sleep that I thought they were great at the time!

Obviously YMMV, but that was my experience of Bassomnia!
 
#3
I do a lot of that too...finished at 4am last night, 3am the previous night, off to the corporate office at 9am to work..prior to a couple of years ago I spent all my time writing software on a similar schedule. I think it's something to do with the outside world being quiet, and "having the place to yourself". Not sure how to measure the quality of my late night playing but the software I wrote at night was also solid and thought out...

Why bother getting around it? Life is short. Get as much practice in as you can before your next gig, it might be your last...

Apparently Frank Zappa used to work at night for similar reasons - that everyone else was sleeping...if it was good for him, it's good enough for the rest of us :)
 
#4
I work 12-hour shifts, and alternate days to nights once a month, so needless to say, my sleep schedule blows. I practice whenever I can, and if I'm up in the middle of the night, I use my J-Station with headphones. I find I do my best playing when I get off work, or have been awake for a while. I guess I'm not much of a "morning person", because the 'ol bass brain just won't fire on all cylinders until I've been up a while & had my breakfast & a few cups of coffee before playing.
 
#5
Back in the dark ages when I entered college - and had to start studying ----- the normal 6:00 PM to 11:00 PM just did not work for me. When I discovered that my best time to study was early morning - 4:00 AM to 8:00 AM the grades got better. From then on if I need to study or work on something creative I do not even try to do this in the evening. Morning is my time. Look it's 5:36 AM.
 
#6
Thats definitly me! But, from having 3 jobs for more than 15 yrs., and working FT nights, I lost my bio-rythym....days....nights...whatever! I find its easier to pay full attention late at night though, as in no distractions from phones, kids, spouses, neightbors, dogs etc., making your mind that much more free to concentrate and create. Im sure theres millions of us.
 
#7
Yeah, well I guess I really don't see it as too big of a problem, and I've been like this my entire life. Even when I was in elementary school my parents would come in my room at 4:00 and yell at me for reading books! I think it must be the way some of us are wired, I know people that are hard pressed to stay up til midnight let alone 5:00+. But I gotta say, don't you hate when you honestly do want to fall asleep and only notice how badly you failed when you notice the suns already up? like a total timewarp
 
#9
I tend to only be able to write anything late at night. Even while I'm sleeping. I've been known to write lyrics, riffs, or entire tunes in my sleep. Then spring awake like I had a nightmare, and write it down, or grab my guitar and work it out. Seriously, my wife can confirm.

But if I try to create something during the day... it all sounds cheesier then white christian rap in the 80's.
 

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