Do your "special interests" mess with your sleep?

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They do for me. I get so involved in my "special interest", that I lose track of time, and end up going to bed about 0.5 to 3 hours later than I did before. Today, I went to sleep at 7 AM, and fell asleep only at 9 AM, to wake up at 9 PM. Yesterday, I went to sleep at 6 AM.

Not only do they make me lose track of time and shift my sleeping schedule, they also prevent me from sleeping properly. I often wake up after sleeping for 5-6 hours, and I can't go back to sleep because I keep thinking how good it would be if I continue working on the stuff related to my "special interest".

Yup, more than once. I once stayed up all night to research on my special interest.

Yep, and it's happening right now.

Well, TowerCrane, I can't say that they do-- even though I have often made plans to skip sleep so that I could devote a night on my special interest (as in, reading books about it), but I didn't go through with it because the urge to sleep beat me every time. By that, I don't mean that I continued till 1 or 2 or 3 o' clock into the night, but rather that the prospect of losing sleep at night was so daunting, that I chose to go to sleep at midnight (my regular bedtime) anyway.

In the past, my special interests messed with my other duties and my sleep a lot more than they do now.

I've had this experience. In bed, unable to sleep, because my latest obsession is going round & round, in my head.

I don't mind it at first, but then it continues, over & over. After a while I try to make it stop, it still goes on, regardless. All of the small details of my latest interest are really making me angry.

In the end I'm going mad, in bed. Horrible.

Sometimes- I always go to bed at the same time every night, but if I've been doing something that I really get into right before i go to bed, I'm too 'buzzy' to sleep and that annoys me. I try not to do special interest-related things right before bed.

Yes. Yes they do.

(I've learned to set a "go to bed" alarm if I need to.)

Yes.

A lot of the time. I have sometimes even been late to things, like I was supposed to leave to take the bus to an appointment or something, and I was so caught up in my special interest, I didn't want to go ><

Yep.

Yes and sometimes really bad. I would lay in bed trying to get to sleep when I can only think about a certain thing that really weighs on my mind. Sometimes I get back up, turn on the computer and start searching the Internet like crazy. Not only couldn't I get to sleep for several hours, but I find myself very depressed crying myself to sleep.

every night without fail

I do have an obsession with organizing my personal things, especially files on my computer. I kept myself up maybe an extra hour or so the other night putting files on my hard drive where they should be and cleaning up my iTunes library.

I have stayed up extra late researching a special interest, though. I've stayed up a few hours later than usual researching cameras and British immigration laws

What is this "sleep" thing you are talking about? In all seriousness, yes. My interests and obsessions (and anxiety) keep me from sleeping all the time. As far as it goes, 7am is not out of the ordinary for me and that's part of the reason I like working a night job. At least that way I don't have to wake up at a definite time.