As mentioned in earlier dev logs, once all the systems are in place and the engine is done, you will be free to explore when and where you want like before, and use items (among other things later in updates) to stay awake longer or go to bed sooner.
We are just making the story until we can finish the move over to renpy, mostly moving as planned so far, a tutorial on all the systems in the game and how most of the things work.