Yeah, I hear you. When I was in the Army, I lived 60 miles from post. PT was at 0630 in the morning. The drive took one hour, so I usually left at no later than 0515 (and I was running late if I left at that time). I usually organized my stuff the night before and was able to wake up at 0445 and still be able to leave in time. We were normally released for the day at 1630-1700. 1800 by the time I got back home.
If I went to bed at midnight, that only left me with 6 hours of free time. I just didn't feel like that was enough, so I made it a point to never turn in before 0100- often 0200. True, that only gave me an hour or two more but it was worth it. In the two hours I spent driving daily I started listening to language tapes or buying audio books (although I much prefer reading)- I figured I should try to make something of that time as well. My French still sucks, but at least I felt like I wasn't wasting the time.
I didn't need to work weekends normally and I found this rhythm to be quite ageeable. I would normally hit a low energy level at some point in the day but it would usually pass in an hour or two.
I joked about it at the time, but when I did go to bed, I didn't sleep, I would die for four hours. It isn't much of an exaggeration that I would be asleep in under 10 seconds.
One knows a job sucks when the option of sleeping overrides the need to shave. (Five minutes shaving or an extra five of sleep?)
After falling asleep behind the wheel and waking up to the site of a semi 300 hundred feet away, I finally decided the money wasn't worth it. It is one thing to risk my own life, quite another to endanger someone else's.