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honey the codewitch wrote: but the biggest challenge for me is what to do with all the empty space
Fill it.
I've noticed that when the brain is to tired to do actual work, there's still enough energy to fill it with knowledge.
Here's a good place to start: Curated Links • Damn Interesting[^] (It's free of ads. So if you like it you should consider a donation)
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There's nothing wrong with not needing much sleep. Up to about 15 years ago, I needed only 6 hours sleep a night, so I spent those extra hours reading whatever I didn't have time for during the day.
I would suggest that you find something (other than work) to fill in the time. This could be studying a subject (plenty of stuff is available online), craftmanship (the quiet kinds, such as knitting or jewelry making), or anything else that takes your fancy.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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- Staring into nothingness
- Looking at the tree outside the window
- Alcohol
- Depending on partner's mood/expected reaction, fooling around
"It is easy to decipher extraterrestrial signals after deciphering Javascript and VB6 themselves.", ISanti[ ^]
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omphaloskepsis
«The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled» Plutarch
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Cleaning the litter box 
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I kinda wished I had that problem.
I'm at a point in my life where no matter how much time I spend in bed, I'm pretty much always tired anyway. And I cannot simply stay in bed, say on weekends, for X amount of additional time, no matter how hard I try.
"They" keep saying 8 hours a day as the standard recommendation for an adult...and while I can stay in bed for 8 hours, there's no way I ever get 8 hours of actual sleep during that time period.
I think I got off on a tangent...what do I do with my time at midnight? During weekdays, I'm sleeping (or trying to). On weekends...I might still be playing some game or watching a movie...but if I'm still up at that time, it won't be for much longer anyway.
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Oh I'm tired all the time. I don't stay in bed. 
Real programmers use butterflies
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Back in my college days (middle 70's) I went to a friends birthday party. Being the innocent I was back then, I ate a number of brownies snacks they had until someone told me they had hash in them. I immediately went back to the dorm, went to bed (about 10pm) and woke up at 5pm the next day!!! Maybe a magic brownie or two may help you sleep!.
On a more serious note, have you tried meditation? I can waste a good hour or more meditating.
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sasadler wrote: On a more serious note, have you tried meditation? I can waste a good hour or more meditating.
You're not selling it describing it as such...
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When I end up in a similar situation (albeit less "burned on coding" and more "brain still in overdrive from coding"), I grab my kindle. My girlfriend doesn't mind me reading at low brightness. When that doesn't help, I get up and do something explicitly passive, i.e. watching infotainment with headphones.
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You need to break this habit. I go to bed at 21:00 and get up at 05:30. I am much more productive.
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Some ideas:
- watch stars, constellations, moon etc (you might buy a telescope or even build one)
- study weather patterns and clouds by night
- study the animal kingdom at night.
- night photography (no success for me)
- redo thought experiments,
- train memory by reliving a past holiday (whatever) in as much detail as possible
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Wireless headphones are a joy. I use mine for audiobooks, podcasts, and music. If I'm antsy enough to not want to lie in bed, tightly snuggled by hubby, I play Minecraft (very calming).
If you want to actually sleep, I recommend a great podcast called 'Boring Stories for Bedtime' by Sharon Handy.
Sweet dreams ... or not 
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Yoga, meditate, read some classic tomes?
Friends I have say that Mary Jane gummies ingested late in the evening help sleep. (This stuff is now legal in my neck of the woods). 
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I have to stop coding after about 9pm. If I continue after that, I am up much of the night and wasted the next day.
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend; inside of a dog, it's too dark to read. -- Groucho Marx
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Check with your doctor to make sure there isn't anything abnormal afoot.
Perhaps you should lean into your tendency and try biphasic sleeping ( [^] )
If you want to become a "traditionalist sleeper" stop using screens ~1 hr before bed, minimize your exposure to the blue light part of the spectrum, and meditate ~ 15 mins before going to sleep. If your head still insists on waking you up after 3-4 hrs, try doing some non-stimulating things like, gentle stretching, warm bath, meditation to see if you can get to sleep again.
People are different and this just might be your body's strong preference as to sleep. If you need to fill those strange quiet hours, consider taking up an art, like writing, drawing, painting, etc. it will encourage the non-logical side of your brain to come out an play.
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- Meditate
- Read
- Watch movies with headphones
- Scroll social media until I get to the end of the Internet
My wife knits while doing the above.
I would practice playing the piano, except they complain of my pounding on the keys even though the sound is off.
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You could start porting some games to run on your hardware projects.
E reader/backgammon.
Chess checkers etc
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Final Fantasy I 
Edit: Actually I could probably build an NES emulator on one.
Real programmers use butterflies
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I was thinking much smaller😊
I am not surprised that you would add a few orders of magnitude.
You could also try writing a screen play or something along the lines of Halt and Catch Fire
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I liked that show. It reminded me of when I was a kid. Also I completely identify with Cameron. What a great character.
Real programmers use butterflies
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Exercise that makes you sweat at least a bit helps you sleep longer and better.
Or Netflix.
Or 10-hour long YouTube "videos" of falling rain might help. (Just audio with a black screen.) Make it quieter than you think. In the dead of night, everything seems louder. Works.
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