Usually I start to feel a bit tired around 22:00. I often end up sitting on a chair in front of my piano, rather than lying in bed. I then play til about 24:00, but I've had days where I'd stop playing at 1:30 AM.

Clavinova + headphones ftw.

Already tired around 22:00? Sometimes, when I can't sleep, I play till 3:00 AM... Tempus fugit .

I tend to play a lot at night. Typically I practice every night from 10:00 PM until 3:30 AM. Then I sleep until 5:30, and then get up to get ready for school around 6:00.

I've learned to live without sleep at night.

Sleeping through Astronomy class isn't hard to get away with. I also like to sleep at lunch. It works sometimes.

Energy drinks also help. Although, one day I had 3 Jolts in a row , and I actually started shaking. My heart rate shot through the roof, and I felt sick.

Gross...

But I digress...

Try playing a nocturne at night (what a novel idea!)... it's fun. I wrote a nocturne around a month ago. I play it every night around midnight and it really gets the feeling across. When I play it during the day... it doesn't sound right.

But life without sleep is fun. You should all try it! (And yes... that little emoticon is also saying "it's cool to wear sunglasses at night.")

isn't there a billy joel song with lyrics about playing the piano while wearing sunglasses at night?

Sunglasses in the dark??? Why would somebody do that?

Sunglasses in the dark make everything seem cooler.

I don't know why though...

maybe because then even the moon is blocked out and you are in total darkness

Hmmm, if you want to block the moonlight, you can also close your eyes...
And sunglasses can fall when you're playing piano...

During the finals of a concerto competition held here in our august city a few weekends ago, one of the final contestants lost his glasses during a particularly exciting rendition of the paganini rhapsody by Rachmaninoff. I had my 6 year old with me, he sat up real straight and whispered to me ... "that man just played the glasses off his face!"

sometimes I lie in bed trying to stick to a normal sleep pattern, but my head is bursting with song... So I get up and tinkle away (with headphones on my keyboard, I don't plan on being lynched by my neighbours) - Late night practice always seems to bring out my creative side

Hehe, well, I've had days that I got home around 3:00 AM ( after going out with some friends ) and then instead of going to sleep, I'd start playing the piano. I then go to sleep at about 6 or 7 AM. Tempus fugit, indeed

you have defeated me

I prefer working on technique (Hanon, scales) in the morning, around 8:00 or 9:00 am. Late morning can lead to some serious work on real music (Chopin, Bach and the like) and good composition time. The afternoon starts to digress with mindless improvisation and realizing that all that "warming up" in the morning has allowed me to play very fast. By early evening I'm playing Jazz and Showtunes but by nightfall I'm completely lost in Billy Joel and other good piano bar music.