Wake Up | Pad Patter 8.18

Whenever the heck I want is the usual around here unless I have to be somewhere early - restful sleep around for me is a bit hit and miss still and has been for 7-8 months now so getting any and all sleep is my priority. It is getting better over the last month or so now I have a diagnosis of sleep apnea and treatment.

 

Always used to be able to sleep in. In my younger years, it was a regular thing to sleep to 10 or later in the mornings. When I had to be at work at 7:30, it was rough going for me to get up by 6:30. Several times over the years, I actually overslept.

So imagine my surprise now that I am retired and can sleep in except when I have something going on... I am awake by 6 every single morning! Even on weekends! Even when I'm up at midnight. Peyton had me up 3 times Friday night to go outside and I was still up by 6:30. Last night she must have been feeling better because she never got me up... and I slept til 7:30. Must have been tired!

 

I get up anywhere between 9 and 10 most mornings. It depends on how late I've stayed up the night before. I'm a night owl so sometimes it's 2 AM.

 

I'm a morning bird and wake up easily, most often in the 7:00 hour. It would probably be even earlier but I also tend to stay up late because I'm enjoying stuff and don't get around to going to bed as soon as maybe I should.

I think it does vary a little according to the season and I'm more likely to stay up later and sleep in later in the winter.

 

I work just tues/wed so those days I have an early wake up time- alarm off at 6:20. On the remaining days, I'm usually up by 8, especially when kids are back in school. On weekends we try to sleep in, but the latest I've slept in all summer has been 9am (which is wonderful!)

 

I just read an article about sleep times. There is a very strong genetic component to natural wake times, etc. It was really interesting. I naturally wake up anytime between 7-8am on most days ... however, on weekdays when I'm going to work, I set my alarm for 6:15. I'm most definitely a night owl, so that only gets me about 6 hours of sleep on a good day (7 is my sweet spot).

 

For many years, I just could not go to bed before 10 unless I was sick. Even when I had to get up at 6 or 6:30, I wouldn't go to bed until 11. And, I usually didn't fall asleep right away either. I needed 8+ hours sleep for many years so would usually make up for my lack of sleep during the week on the weekends.

Mom did a baby book about me and wrote things down and a couple years ago I found it and read it. I had to laugh at one of her entries when I was less than a year old. I was wide awake and ready to play... at 11:30 at night! So even as a baby I was a night owl. Neither of my parents were though!

But when I retired, it was like a flip switched in my brain. Now that I don't have to get up, I wake up early. Even on those mornings where I have stayed up late. But I have found that there are times that I will go to bed before 11. I will turn the tv on and inevitably, I fall right asleep even though it might be something I want to watch.

I'm sure mom and dad are up in heaven enjoying me getting up early in the mornings without an alarm. Karma at its finest! Even in high school, mom had to get me up because I always turned the alarm off. I struggled with mornings really bad. Now even though I may get up early, it does take me an hour or so to get in gear to do anything.

 

I used to be able to sleep in like a real professional, but over the last year or so... my sleeper-inner is broken The latest I can sleep anymore is about 8:00-8:30 and even then that's with me waking up earlier and putting on my eye mask to trick myself into thinking it's still dark out and I should sleep more. I don't know why I even bother, I should just get up, but I also like to stay up late and I don't want to be tired all day. lol. I have a feeling when I do get to retire, I'll go back to my late night ways and sleep in a little better, but we'll see. My hubby wakes up at the crack of dawn too and I can just feel him looking at me.

During the summer I work 8-5 with an hour lunch break. During the school year I work 6:45-3:00 with only 15 minutes at my desk for lunch. That's so I can pick up my kids from school. Well, now it's just the youngest because he goes to a private Lutheran school with no buses. The older one is in high school now and he can walk home from school. This will be my last year working these early hours.

 

That's what I thought and was hoping for. Didn't happen!

 

I have the dog alarm and her usual time is between 7 and 7:30am. However when summer rolled around she started waking me at 6am. Then we took her west to another time zone and that "reset" her. She has been having some health problems so some mornings I wake up before her. Lately, it has been around 7am.

I like a good 7 hours of sleep as read by my Fitbit (it subtracts out awake times). So that means I need to head to bed by 10pm so I am actually in bed for 8 to 9 hours.

 

I get up between 7 & 7:15 am during the work/school week. Saturday completely depends on what's happening the rest of the day. I usually sleep in on Sundays.

I am NOT a morning person so my kids are always, always, always up before me. This is why I taught them to go downstairs after they wake up so the noise is contained.