I grew up in a rural community and wasn't really interested in TV or technology really. I didn't even learn to program till was I was 22 (only after I had serious sporting accident where I had broken arms and legs and had to drop out of art school). Although I'll admit I did learn to write BASIC on school computers when I was 10 or so, just seemed to be a natural at programming.

I've had assorts of weird sleeps things over the years, for ages I had night terrors but they seem to have gone away and been replaced with a suffocation effect. I'll wake up gasping for breathe in the middle of the night now. The night terrors went away as soon as I understood what was going on, I guess the suffocation maybe related but without the panic aspects.

Yeah, those are still night terrors. I have the suffocation thing once in a great while (usually while napping on a hot day), and occasionally wake up convinced there is a rat walking on the ceiling, or -- when camping -- mosquitoes all over the interior of my tent ceiling. After a couple of seconds, I realize I'm so nearsighted that there is no way I could possibly make out a mosquito on the ceiling of my tent. :-)

Anyway, I've generally tended toward peak activity in the late evening, and tend toward a 2am - 10am sleep schedule (as evidenced by it being 1:52am now). That said, in the periods where I do get myself consistently to sleep by midnight, I feel much better all day, every day.

I've found that I need about an hour of intense exercise per day, no caffeine after around 5pm, and, of course, the actual self-discipline to get started on going to bed by 11pm. 300mcg of melatonin per night helps me stay more deeply asleep, and it doesn't cause the body to build a tolerance.

Oh, and eating dinner at a 'normal' hour (5 - 7pm) makes a huge difference in my ability to fall asleep earlier.